Director Digital is responsible for the RAF Digital Portfolio including Digital Capability, UK Operations Support, Services & Applications and Information Stewardship. The role provides specialist resource to meet the increasing digital business and operational demands, upskill the workforce, adopt new digital capabilities and improve digital integration across Government.
As a result of the various work-strands under our Digital Operability programme, our military capabilities will be more prepared and available to support operations and activities in response to global situations as they arise.
Dr Arif Mustafa’s undergraduate studies centred on Information Technology. After completing a HND at Manchester Polytechnic in 1990 he went on to pursue postgraduate studies at the Universities of Manchester, Leiden, and Oxford. He holds an MSc in Cognitive Science where he specialised in Artificial Intelligence (AI) in relation to accident causation.
His PhD was sponsored by Shell and concentrated on the implementation of technological innovation in large organisations. His research took him on assignment to operational facilities in Australia, Borneo, and Oman. In 1997 he commenced work as a management consultant specialising on technology strategy and transformation in large companies. After completing a successful global project for BP, he joined the multinational in 2004 and was accepted into their advanced leadership development program. In 2007 he was appointed CIO BP North American Gas, Houston where he implemented IT strategy and programs enabling the business to grow in the competitive US energy market. In 2010 he went on to assist in the Deep Water Horizon incident, initially as part of the crisis team and then as the interim CIO for BP Gulf of Mexico.
In 2010 he returned to the UK and took charge of improving BP’s IT Operational Integrity before moving to Headquarters in 2012 to become IT Director in corporate functions where he led IT services for the CEO and Executive team. In 2015 he joined Seadrill as IT Director focusing on innovation and business partnering.
In 2019 he took the position of Group CIO for the Ma’aden mining company. Responsible for developing the IT Strategy he led a large-scale outsourcing program while also focusing on digital transformation. As CIO he enabled the company to operate through the Covid pandemic and pioneered the provision of advanced analytics. At the request of the CEO and with full support of the Board, he was appointed in 2020 to lead a corporate wide transformation through delivery of a Cloud based technology which re-engineered key processes across all areas of the business.
Joining the MoD as a Senior Civil Servant in February 2022, he became the first RAF Director Digital & CIO. He is responsible for the RAF Digital Portfolio, including Delivery, Services, Architecture and Governance. He has transformed his Directorate through 9 strategic programmes of work to meet the increasing digital business and operational demands, upskill the workforce, adopt new digital capabilities and improve digital integration across Government. In Nov 2023 he became the first Head of the Cyberspace Profession, responsible for setting the direction and scope of the new Profession and driving its maturity to support Digital Operations and beyond.
