General Manager, Technology Strategy & Engineering

✈️ Career Opportunity: General Manager, Technology Strategy & Engineering

Location: Islamabad

Reporting To: Chief Information Officer (CIO)

Grade: General Manager

Employment type: Full-time

About the Role

PIA is building a nimble, business-aligned technology division. As General Manager, Technology Strategy & Engineering, you will set the technology direction for the entire enterprise and run technology as a business.

You will turn the airline's strategy into one technology plan, one architecture and one governed portfolio. You will also give the CIO and executive management a single, trusted view of where technology money and effort go. This is the engine room of the operating model: every other technology unit works to the standards, gates and plans you set.

Key Responsibilities • Define the technology strategy and annual technology plan for the whole enterprise, and present both through the CIO for executive approval and funding • Establish the enterprise architecture practice, technology standards and engineering practices, and assure every material design and technology selection against them • Run a governed portfolio: keep a single view of all technology initiatives, run the stage gates, manage dependencies across programmes, track benefits and report progress through IT governance • Run technology as a business: own vendor and contract management through one register of all IT contracts, plus software licensing, technology asset management and the IT budget through its full cycle of planning, allocation and control • Benchmark IT spend against comparable airlines and enterprises, and use the findings to shape the annual plan and budget • Prepare strategic vendor evaluations and negotiations with Procurement and Legal, and bring them through IT governance for decision • Partner with the CFO and Finance on the technology budget, investment business cases, and tracking the benefits each investment was approved against • Work with business unit heads to shape portfolio priorities, sequence transformation work, and prepare their organisations for the change each initiative brings • Build engineering capability by raising skills and standards across the technology teams and embedding them in line management • Hold the line between assurance and delivery: this role sets the standard and assures against it, and does not deliver projects or own delivery budgets

Your first six months

Establish the enterprise architecture practice, a governed portfolio with stage gates, engineering standards, one contract register and an IT spend benchmark.

What we are looking for • Fifteen or more years in senior technology leadership, spanning strategy, enterprise architecture and portfolio management in a large enterprise • Experience leading a technology function reporting to a C-level executive • A proven record of running IT as a business: budgets, vendor and contract management, and licensing at enterprise scale • Experience establishing architecture or design authority governance and engineering standards, and holding delivery to them • A degree in engineering, computer science or a related field; a master's degree or MBA is preferred • Airline experience, or experience in a comparable asset-intensive and operationally critical industry, is preferred

What we offer

Senior leadership of a core function at a national flag carrier

Market competitive remuneration along with company car, car maintenance and fuel

Air tickets in line with company policy

PIA is committed to a fair, transparent and merit-based recruitment process. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted. Submission of an application does not guarantee shortlisting or appointment.

Closing date: 1st November 2026.

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted directly.