Head of Operations

Location: Cairo, Egypt

In fast changing markets, customers worldwide rely on Thales. Thales is a business where brilliant people from all over the world come together to share ideas and inspire each other. In aerospace, transportation, defence, security and space, our architects design innovative solutions that make our tomorrow's possible.

Thales has built a presence in Egypt for over 40 years and has today over 100 employees. Thales in Egypt is part of our Middle East business that has 1,800 people across Egypt, Iraq, Kuwait, KSA, Lebanon, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar and UAE.Together We delivered fare collection and control and communication systems for the first metro line in Africa, Metro Line 1 in Cairo. Since then we have continued to bring growth and security and safety to the country by upgrading these transportation systems as well as providing solutions for customers in air traffic management, air defence and Navy.

JOB OBJECTIVE:

• Implementation of the operational roadmap to address Egypt business vision
• Bids & Projects
• Industrialization via local JVs
• Defense Service Center - DSC
• Training Academy
  
  
  

Roles & Responsibilities

Bids & Projects:

• Manage and develop the Bids and Projects activities in country, proposing local share, promoting Egypt local capabilities at bid phase and ensure successful project delivery. This is to be done in collaboration with regional operations functions and Egypt Country Director
• Provide necessary training, support and upskilling program to the Bid and Project community in Egypt aiming to increase the level of maturity
• Work with BLs to agree on scope localization in an progressive manner that generate competitiveness from one side and increase local footprint from the other side
• Work on Bids competitiveness and efficient project delivery, leading to the customer satisfaction
• Control and supervise the projects performances to minimize PCV and improve margin
• Ensure that Thales Bids & Projects governance is implemented and fulfilled by the teams
  
  
  

Egypt Service Center – DSC:

• Ensure the OI and financial KPI are achieved
• Define, set-up, manage and achieve Egypt Service Center objectives, roadmap and associated challenges in agreement with the BLs and the region
• Work on the professional development of the existing and new resources to grow the local footprint.
• Work with finance and procurement teams to ensure competitive rates and best suppliers quotes
• Work with the BLs and GBUs representatives to evolve with the local services via the DSC. This is to be done in coordination with KAMs and Country Director
• Develop the Service offering methodology towards the BLs as per the context of each scope. This will be a main step in the ramp-up of the DSC and localization.
  
  
  

Industrialization AIO & Benha JVs:

• Contribute to the local JVs creation in collaboration with the BLs, KAMs and Country Director
• Contribute to the assessment of the capabilities of existing JVs
• Participate to the maturity improvement of the existing JVs to narrow the existing gaps with Thales maturity and to harmonize the relevant process and tools
• Support the evolution in the organizational structures of the JVs to address business needs according to international standards
• Contribute to the creation of the JVs Business Plan based on the local opportunities
• Work with Thales procurement to evolve in producing new products in country
• Main focus for the current JVs:
• AIO on Optronics product with OME BL (current capabilities are much wider than optronics)
• Benha on Radio Communications with RCP BL
  
  
  

General:

• Manage the implementation, ramp up and growth in maturity of the Operations activities in Egypt to address Defense and Civil businesses.
• Leading all operation aspects in country
• In cooperation with the relevant stakeholders in DGDI (Region, Central) and in GBUs/ BLS, participate to the MYB set-up for Egypt
• Escalate to the country and the regional functions any issue encountered in country and propose corrective recommended actions
• Manage support Operation functions required for Project deliveries: Quality, HSE, legal, Procurement, finance, Real Estate, IT&S in close collaboration with the MEA head of functions.
• In cooperation with BL, functions and HR, ensure the recruitment, growth and retention of key resources and skills; hence develop resource planning, training plans, people reviews and recruitment campaign.
• Provide clear feedback to the team members in consistent and structured manner
• Share continuously with the team clear Objectives to be implemented according to the business strategy in country
• Provide reminders about organizational values and conducive to maintaining and improving performance. Counsels and/or disciplines staff as appropriate.
  
  
  

PREFERRED SKILLS:

• Familiarity with Thales organization and operating principles as well as the Egypt context
• Leadership skills to manage the coordination activities with the internal (BL, Functions, Region) and external stakeholders (Customers, end users, Partners, Suppliers)
• Able to deliver challenging objectives.
• Well organized and rigorous, autonomous and Proactive
• Ability to work under tight constraints.
• Experience of delivering continuous improvement initiatives
• Very open and teamwork oriented
• Arabic, English & French speaker
  
  
  

QUALIFICATION:

• Experience of Project Management & ideally Engineering Management
• Master’s Degree in Engineering or Business Administration from a reputed university
  
  
  

At Thales we provide CAREERS and not only jobs. With Thales employing 80,000 employees in 68 countries our mobility policy enables thousands of employees each year to develop their careers at home and abroad, in their existing areas of expertise or by branching out into new fields. Together we believe that embracing flexibility is a smarter way of working. Great journeys start here, apply now!