Enterprise AI Leadership · Dubai, UAE

Deepak
Radhakrishnan

I take enterprise AI from strategy to governed, production-grade reality.

Head of AI candidate. I lead du's AI initiatives from architecture and governance — setting the use-case portfolio, authoring the AI governance and identity frameworks, and shipping production AI agents.

du · EITC TM Forum · Reviewer & Contributor Stanford · AI-Driven Leadership ~19 yrs · MEA & SE Asia
The operating model AI Strategy AI Governance Agentic AI AI-Ready Data Enterprise AI

Hover a node. Most AI leaders own one of these. I connect all four.

0+
Years across
MEA & SE Asia
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Industries of
deep expertise
0%
Efficiency gain
led at Emirates
0
Enterprise AI
frameworks authored
How I operate

Four jobs, owned as one system

A Head of AI has to hold the whole stack — from the board-level call on what to build, down to the data plumbing that makes it run. Here's where I work.

01

AI strategy & prioritisation

On du's AI architecture board I help decide which AI use cases the enterprise prioritises and how they're delivered — turning ambition into a sequenced, fundable portfolio.

02

AI governance & identity

I authored du's AI governance framework and AI identity framework: the controls that make AI responsible, secure and auditable — and that regulated markets now demand.

03

Agentic & GenAI delivery

I design and ship production AI agents, and prototype across LLM, RAG and multi-agent systems — staying hands-on so direction is grounded in what actually works.

04

AI-ready foundation

I built du's Next Gen Integration Layer and real-time streaming backbone — the governed data foundation that makes AI/ML, lineage and compliance possible at national-operator scale.

Industry expertise

AI judgement, sharpened across five industries

The hardest part of enterprise AI isn't the model — it's knowing where it pays off and how each sector's rules constrain it. Nineteen years across regulated, mission-critical environments taught me that. Pick an industry.

Telecom

  • du (EITC)
  • Accenture · Telstra
  • TCS

My deepest and current domain. At du I lead enterprise AI from architecture and governance, and built the Next Gen Integration Layer and real-time streaming backbone that powers AI/ML, lineage and compliance at national-operator scale. Earlier I ran production middleware environments, capacity planning and enterprise release migrations for Telstra, and trained engineers as part of a middleware centre of excellence.

Depth
Primary
The AI angle

Authored du's AI governance and AI identity frameworks; sit on the AI architecture board; contribute to TM Forum AI-native architecture and Open API standards shaping how the whole industry builds AI.

Banking

  • Citibank · Singapore
  • TIBCO
  • TCS

Designed and delivered a centralised enterprise service bus integrating nine APAC systems for Citibank in Singapore, accelerating cross-region digital transformation inside a heavily regulated financial environment. The work demanded the kind of resilience, auditability and stakeholder discipline that AI in banking now requires.

Depth
Deep
The AI angle

I've mapped a practical AI agenda for banking: agentic backend operations for loan processing, KYC and document validation; GenAI that turns complex credit-card statements into clear, personalised insight; and privacy-safe data monetisation as a new value stream.

Insurance

  • Allstate
  • TIBCO

Delivered integration architecture for Allstate within high-availability, regulated financial-services environments — aligning delivery with strict compliance, resilience and continuity requirements across complex legacy estates.

Depth
Solid
The AI angle

The same governed, auditable approach insurers require for AI: model and data integrity, lineage, and identity controls — backed by a blockchain-anchored anomaly-detection design that guards AI pipelines against data poisoning.

Aviation

  • Emirates Group · dnata

Led a 20-member hybrid platform team across SnapLogic, TIBCO, Solace, Splunk, Elastic and OpenShift, delivering 80% efficiency gains through DevOps and automation. Architected fault-tolerant disaster-recovery and backup frameworks with strict RPO/RTO targets, and ran capacity and roadmap planning across 24+ hybrid-cloud platforms.

Depth
Deep
The AI angle

Mission-critical reliability discipline — the operational backbone AI needs to run safely in a business that never stops. Knowing how 24/7 platforms fail is what keeps AI deployments dependable.

Retail

  • BI & data · TCS
  • Retail / FMCG data products

Worked across retail data and business-intelligence reporting, and designed privacy-first data products for retail and FMCG use — combining customer insight with strict boundaries on personal data.

Depth
Working
The AI angle

Anonymised, aggregated insight platforms that let retailers and FMCGs understand trends, segments and purchasing behaviour — without ever exposing individual customers. AI value with privacy designed in.

Signature AI work

Things I've actually shipped

Strategy is cheap without delivery. Each item below is labelled honestly — what's running in production, what's being built, and what's a proven prototype.

In production

Architecture-diagram agent

An AI agent that generates solution architecture diagrams automatically — turning documents and intent into clear, consistent design artifacts.

In production

Open API compliance agent

Validates designs against TM Forum Open API standards automatically, closing a manual, error-prone governance gap at scale.

In build

SDLC & demand agent

An agentic system to manage software delivery lifecycles and demand management across the enterprise — autonomous, orchestrated backend operations.

Prototype

Voice-of-customer intelligence

An NLP + vector engine that extracts sentiment, themes and CX trends from Google Reviews and other sources.

Prototype

GenAI architecture assistant

An LLM + RAG tool that produces API specs, UML and sequence diagrams from documents — boosting architecture productivity and governance speed.

Prototype

AI cybersecurity

A blockchain-anchored anomaly-detection model that protects AI models and data pipelines from poisoning and manipulation.

The journey

Nineteen years, one through-line

From production engineer to enterprise AI leader — every role added a layer: reliability, regulated delivery, large-team leadership, and now AI strategy and governance.

Mar 2021 — Present

Integration Technical Architect Lead (Senior Director) — Enterprise AI Leadership

du (EITC) · Dubai, UAE

Lead du's enterprise AI from architecture and governance; AI architecture board member; authored AI governance and identity frameworks; shipped production AI agents; built the NGIL and streaming data foundation; AI RFP and vendor-selection reviewer.

Aug 2015 — Mar 2021

Principal Engineer

Emirates Group · dnata · Dubai, UAE

Led a 20-member hybrid platform team; 80% efficiency gains via DevOps and automation; fault-tolerant DR/backup with strict RPO/RTO across 24+ hybrid-cloud platforms.

Apr 2011 — Jun 2015

Consultant — Citibank & Allstate

TIBCO Software · Singapore & Pune, India

Designed and delivered a centralised ESB integrating nine APAC systems for Citibank in Singapore, accelerating transformation across regulated financial environments.

Dec 2009 — Apr 2011

Senior Software Engineer

Accenture · Chennai, India

Led production architecture, capacity planning and enterprise release migrations for Telstra; TIBCO trainer for Accenture's middleware centre of excellence.

May 2007 — Nov 2009

Assistant System Engineer

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) · India

Supported production for Toyota Financial Services and contributed to Nielsen's CTO Office emerging-technology research. Awarded Best Performer.

Standards & thought leadership

Shaping how the industry builds AI

TM FORUMReviewer — Model-as-a-Service
TM FORUMContributor — AI Agentic Identity Management
TM FORUMContributor — AI-Native Architecture & Open API evolution
TEACHINGAI focal point — I teach AI to engineering teams to build organisational capability.
Education & credentials

Grounded leadership

2025Stanford University Online — AI-Driven Leadership: Strategies for the Future
2023du–Harvard — Leadership Accelerators Program
2006B.E. — Electronics & Telecommunication
CERTSData Streaming Engineer · Terraform Associate
Let's talk

Exploring Head of AI roles

I'm open to enterprise AI leadership mandates across the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Singapore and Switzerland. If you're building an AI function that has to be real, governed and shipped — let's talk.

deepak.radhakrishnan@outlook.com  ·  +971 52 849 6312  ·  Dubai, UAE