The Saudi Pro League (SPL) is the Kingdom’s top professional football competition and a central pillar of Saudi Arabia’s vision to grow sport at scale, including ambitions linked to hosting the 2034 FIFA World Cup.
The SPL faced a compressed timeline to build an internal digital capability while operating under high public and stakeholder scrutiny. The market for senior IT, data and product talent with sports/entertainment experience is competitive and often fragmented across regions, making rapid identification and engagement of suitable candidates difficult. Decision-making involved multiple internal and external stakeholders, which constrained availability and slowed alignment on role specifications.
Establish a pragmatic, market-aligned digital leadership structure that could deliver the league’s digital roadmap. Specifically: (1) prioritise and hire senior IT/Data/Product leaders who understand sports ecosystems; (2) design salary bands and compensation strategies to win senior talent; and (3) implement a repeatable hiring playbook to scale technical and data functions in support of the SPL’s long-term ambitions.
Partnered directly with the CEO, OD Director and HR to translate the league’s digital roadmap into concrete role definitions.
Scoped market availability for IT, Data, BI and Product Management talent with sports and entertainment experience.
Delivered salary benchmarking and compensation frameworks tailored to the local and regional market.
Prioritised hires by impact and time-to-value; focused first on roles essential for digital product delivery.
Maintained frequent stakeholder updates to manage expectations and accelerate decision points.
Clear role scoping aligned to product outcomes is essential to attract niche digital talent to sports organisations.
Transparent, market-informed compensation reduces negotiation friction and improves acceptance rates.
When stakeholder availability is limited, disciplined communication and staged decision points keep processes moving.
Appointed Digital Product Manager to lead league platforms and product delivery.
Active searches ongoing for BI & Data Director and IT Operations Manager to complete the core team.
Delivered market-aligned salary guidance and role frameworks that reduced time-to-offer and improved candidate buy-in.
Produced a repeatable hiring playbook for future technical and data hires tied to the SPL’s strategic roadmap.
