David Sánchez de Groeve
TRANSFERABLE IQAMA ✅ | IMMEDIATE START RIYADH
Career & Leadership Trajectory / المسار المهني والقيادي

Director of IT Operations & Infrastructure مدير عمليات تكنولوجيا المعلومات والبنية التحتية | قائد التكنولوجيا والتحول الرقمي

SAMA | CST | PDPL | Nitaqat | Qiwa | Absher | Vision 2030 (رؤية 2030)
الهيئة السعودية للمقاصات | هيئة الاتصالات | نظام حماية البيانات الشخصية | نظام نطاقات | منصة قوى

A twenty-year leadership path from banking operations to national payment rails (mada / مدى) to directing enterprise InsurTech platforms and digital verification at Gulf scale — SAMA-compliant (متوافق مع الهيئة السعودية للمقاصات), PDPL-certified (معتمد من نظام حماية البيانات الشخصية), and aligned with Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030 (رؤية 2030) and Nitaqat (نظام نطاقات).

Mar 2026 – Present

Founder & Chief Architect (المؤسس وكبير المهندسين المعماريين)

KSAVerified (Digital Presence & Verification Platform for Saudi SMEs / منصة التحقق الرقمي للمنشآت), Riyadh
PDPL Certified / معتمد من نظام حماية البيانات | CST Aligned / معايير هيئة الاتصالات | Qiwa & Vision 2030
  • Built an enterprise verification platform to automate and elevate the digital presence of SMEs across Saudi Arabia, fully aligned with Vision 2030 (رؤية 2030) and CST digital economy frameworks (هيئة الاتصالات وتقنية المعلومات)
  • Engineered core multi-agent architecture with strict PDPL data protection compliance (تطبيق نظام حماية البيانات الشخصية) and in-Kingdom data sovereignty
  • Integrated automated SME onboarding workflows verifying commercial registrations with Qiwa Platform (منصة قوى) and government business registers
  • Structured operational resilience and support workflows to maintain 99.99% service availability for active Saudi business clients
Mar 2023 – Jun 2026

Director of IT Operations & Infrastructure (مدير عمليات تكنولوجيا المعلومات والبنية التحتية)

Rommaana (InsurTech Platform / منصة رمانة للتكنولوجيا التأمينية), Riyadh
SAMA Compliance Expert / خبير امتثال الهيئة السعودية للمقاصات | PDPL Certified / معتمد من نظام حماية البيانات | CST Licensed
  • Led IT operations, infrastructure, and engineering as the company's senior-most technology executive and co-founder, overseeing architecture, delivery, and operational decisions end-to-end
  • Built and operated a secure, high-availability Insurtech infrastructure from scratch within 6–12 months with a lean, remote engineering team spanning the UK and Mexico
  • Embedded full SAMA / CST / PDPL compliance into infrastructure, data pipelines, and operational workflows
  • Secured Spanish government grant funding for Rommaana's Spain-based financing entity, through business plan preparation and application management, supporting capitalization of the Saudi operating company
  • Implemented AI-augmented development workflows, reducing development time by 20%
  • Delivered production-grade API integration with a national insurance carrier’s system
  • Won the Saudi Insurance Authority Hackathon Award for a voice AI innovation
Mar 2020 – Mar 2023

Service Operations Manager (مدير عمليات الخدمات — مدى)

Saudi Payments (mada National Payment System / المدفوعات السعودية — شبكة مدى الوطنية), Riyadh
SAMA Certified / معتمد من الهيئة السعودية للمقاصات | NCA ECC Compliant | National Critical Infrastructure
  • Directed 24/7 service operations resilience for Saudi Arabia's national payment rails, supporting 8.9B+ annual transactions (SAR 613.9B+ in value) with zero unplanned downtime
  • Led the zero-downtime infrastructure migration of mada payment switches into the KAFD Data Center, a Tier IV Gold facility
  • Reported directly to C-level leadership and SAMA (الهيئة السعودية للمقاصات / البنك المركزي السعودي) regulators on national infrastructure resilience, audit compliance, and risk containment
  • Enforced strict alignment with NCA Essential Cybersecurity Controls (NCA ECC / الهيئة الوطنية للأمن السيبراني) and SAMA Business Continuity standards
  • Contributed directly to the national milestone of 70% retail e-payments adoption under Saudi Vision 2030 (رؤية 2030)
  • Managed multi-vendor and multi-contractor ecosystem for mission-critical national payment infrastructure with budgets exceeding SAR 50M
  • Established rigorous ITIL change, incident, and release governance, slashing major production incidents by 35%
Sep 2015 – Mar 2020

Head of Operations (رئيس العمليات)

BNP Paribas (26-Country Operations / بي إن بي باريبا — عمليات 26 دولة), Madrid
Global Banking Operations | €5M+ Budget | ITIL® Governance
  • Scaled technology operations from 15 to 130+ engineers across 26 countries
  • Managed a €5M+ annual budget, including enterprise SLA negotiations
  • Achieved 99.9% availability alongside a 35% reduction in major incidents
  • Standardized ITIL frameworks and implemented PPM tools and dashboards for portfolio governance
  • Eliminated duplicate vendor spend while maintaining service levels, and designed structured engineering career ladders to mentor technical teams
Feb 2009 – Sep 2015

IT Team Lead (قائد فريق تكنولوجيا المعلومات)

International Air Transport Association (IATA / الاتحاد الدولي للنقل الجوي), Madrid
Aviation Industry Infrastructure | High-Availability Global Hub
  • Sole IT lead for the Madrid hub, reporting to teams in Montreal and Geneva
  • Supported the conversion of the Madrid office into one of IATA's five global hubs, growing from 50 to 200+ users
  • Coordinated with senior management across Madrid, Montreal, and Geneva to secure additional floor space at Torre Europa
  • Led the complete technical buildout — networking, servers, data center, inter-floor interconnections, desktop computers, and IP telephony — working directly with the construction contractor
Mar 2007 – Dec 2008

Service Desk Technician (فني دعم خدمات)

Natixis (Investment Banking / ناتيكسيس للخدمات المصرفية الاستثمارية), Madrid
  • Delivered rapid-resolution technical support to maintain operational continuity for core financial platforms
  • Acted as technology advisor, identifying and implementing system performance improvements
  • Contributed to the stability and reliability of Natixis's broader Madrid IT environment
Nov 2006 – Mar 2007

Assistant Manager IT (مساعد مدير تكنولوجيا المعلومات)

Banco Santander (بنك سانتاندير), Madrid
Oct 1998 – Oct 2006

Service Desk Manager (مدير مكتب الخدمات)

Grupo Zeta (مجموعة زيتا الإعلامية), Madrid

Strategic Milestones & Recognitions / الإنجازات الاستراتيجية والاعتمادات

Key public sector engagements, national innovation awards, and Saudi regulatory licenses (SAMA, CST, Insurance Authority).

Innovation Award / جائزة الابتكار

Saudi Insurance Authority Hackathon هاكاثون هيئة التأمين السعودية

Winner (1st Place) · Riyadh, Saudi Arabia / الفائز بالمركز الأول · الرياض

Architected and built an autonomous conversational voice AI agent that dynamically contacted policyholders to verify and remediate inaccurate or outdated database records in real time with full PDPL compliance.

Public Funding / التمويل الحكومي

Government Innovation Grants المنح الحكومية للابتكار والبحث والتطوير

Grant Recipient · Madrid, Spain / المستفيد من المنح · مدريد

Secured competitive public innovation funding by authoring comprehensive technical business plans and leading direct follow-up and presentation defense with the granting authority, funding Saudi entity operations.

Regulatory Licensing / الترخيص التنظيمي

CST IT Company License ترخيص هيئة الاتصالات وتقنية المعلومات

Communications, Space & Technology Commission · KSA / هيئة الاتصالات والفضاء والتقنية

Successfully licensed Rommaana to operate as a certified Information Technology company within the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, ensuring strict compliance with local regulatory standards and CST Cloud Class C requirements.

TRANSFERABLE IQAMA ✅ | IMMEDIATE START RIYADH | إقامة قابلة للتحويل

The full picture, one document / السيرة الذاتية التنفيذية الكاملة

Two decades of technology leadership — from mission-critical national payment infrastructure (mada / SAMA) to InsurTech platforms (IA / CST / PDPL) — distilled into an executive CV.