Mohammad Al Khalidi
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Sep 2018 - Present

Head of Technology

Riot Games

Driving the technology vision and execution for Riot Games in the EMEA region, overseeing digital transformation and infrastructure modernization across publishing, esports, and player-facing services. Leading a multidisciplinary team of 50+ engineers, developers, and product managers, supporting millions of players across multiple markets.

Key Achievements

Defined and executed the regional technology strategy, aligning all initiatives with global business objectives and player experience outcomes.

Reduced time-to-market by 40% through the implementation of streamlined, scalable SOPs and agile delivery practices.

Designed and deployed a multi-environment architecture (private, public, hybrid cloud) tailored to latency-sensitive gaming services across EMEA.

Achieved 50% cost savings in cloud infrastructure through rightsizing, automation, and vendor optimization.

Established a secure-by-design approach that decreased security incidents by 60%, ensuring compliance with GDPR and other regional standards.

Led the adoption of DevOps and SRE practices, driving system reliability, automated testing, and continuous deployment pipelines.

Developed a three-year technology roadmap in coordination with global leadership, balancing innovation with operational excellence.

Built and coached a high-impact leadership layer of 4 senior managers, fostering a culture of ownership and continuous learning.

Negotiated strategic partnerships with AWS, CDN, and observability vendors, securing improved SLAs and reduced operational costs.

Core Responsibilities

Technology Strategy & Architecture

Team Leadership & Talent Development

Cloud & Infrastructure Optimization

Budgeting & Cost Management

Security, Privacy & Compliance (GDPR, DSA, ISO)

Executive Reporting & KPIs

Cross-functional Collaboration with Publishing, Esports, and Central Tech

Vendor Management & Contract Negotiation

Technologies Used

KubernetesMicroservicesHybrid Cloud (AWS, On-prem)JavaNode.jsReactPostgreSQLRedisKafkaTerraformCI/CDGrafana / Prometheus
Position Details

Company

Riot Games

Period

Sep 2018 - Present

Role

Head of Technology

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