Prague, Czechia

Başar Şen, PMP

Senior Technology Programme Leader — Supply Chain, Fulfilment, Customer Digital & Service Operations

Twenty years directing large-scale technology change at one of Europe's largest retailers — building the governance, teams and platforms that keep business-critical operations running.

Başar Şen, Senior Technology Programme Leader
20+
Years in retail technology leadership
£10m
Technology portfolios directed
15–50
Direct team to wider delivery organisation
PMP®
Certified, PMI.org
01

Profile

Senior technology and programme leader with more than twenty years of experience delivering large-scale business and technology change across retail, supply chain, fulfilment, customer digital and service operations. Extensive leadership experience at Tesco spanning programme delivery, portfolio governance, operational technology, DevOps and IT service management.

Responsible for technology investment portfolios of up to £10m, leading direct teams of 15–25 colleagues with wider delivery organisations exceeding fifty people. Recognised for modernising warehouse and distribution technology platforms while maintaining operational stability in complex, business-critical environments — and for building stronger collaboration between business, product, engineering and service teams.

02

Focus areas

Programme & portfolio

Hybrid delivery, roadmap management, governance and RAID, budget planning, vendor management, stakeholder alignment and executive reporting.

Supply chain & fulfilment

Distribution centres, WMS/WES, transport technology, route planning, order fulfilment, mobile and wearable solutions, automation and robotics trials.

Service operations

ITIL and SMO practice, incident, problem, change and release management for 24/7 business-critical services, with a continuous focus on root-cause analysis and service improvement.

Product & change

Agile and DevOps delivery, Product Thinking, Product Owner coaching, UX research, customer-centric design and business transformation.

03

Career

2020 — Present
Head of Technology Division / Senior Technical Programme Manager
Supply Chain & Fulfilment · Tesco Stores · Prague, Czechia

Accountable for investment portfolios of up to £10m and direct teams of 15–25 colleagues, with wider programme portfolios typically involving fifty-plus internal and partner resources. Runs the programme office and service management practice covering portfolio planning, ITIL governance, M&A/divestment support and product delivery. Leads modernisation of distribution centre and transport technology through WMS, WES, mobile and wearable solutions, robotics trials and data science initiatives.

2017 — 2020
Senior Technical Programme Manager, Central Europe Technology
Tesco Stores · Prague, Czechia

Led DevOps-style technology teams across Czechia, Slovakia, Poland and Hungary. Managed customer-facing streams including online, Clubcard loyalty, Tesco Mobile and CRM/CMS, and promoted Product Thinking and Product Owner coaching. Supported M&A and post-divestment transition, including the Tesco Turkey exit.

2010 — 2017
IT Development Manager, Central Europe
Tesco Stores · Prague, Czechia / Izmir, Türkiye

Led regional development and offshore delivery teams across Czechia, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary and Türkiye. Owned budget planning and control for IT capital investment, and delivered programmes spanning international promotion, general merchandising, eCommerce and Oracle Retail deployments.

2008 — 2010
Deployment Manager
Tesco Kipa · Izmir, Türkiye

Led country-level deployment of international group systems, controlling and reporting circa GBP 3m of annual IT capex. Delivered sourcing, ordering, payroll and warehouse integration capabilities alongside Dunnhumby analytics and infrastructure programmes.

2005 — 2008
Project Manager / Business Analyst
Tesco Kipa · Izmir, Türkiye

Delivered projects across business continuity, disaster recovery, loyalty and network infrastructure, and provided second-level support for Oracle Retail and Group MIS applications.

2001 — 2005
Project Specialist / Marketing Business Analyst / University Trainee
Kipa / Tesco Kipa · Izmir, Türkiye

Early career across marketing analytics, finance and retail system implementation, including Business Objects reporting and Oracle Retail integration work.

04

Selected impact

  • Led technology delivery and service governance for supply chain, fulfilment and transport platforms supporting distribution centre and transport operations.
  • Brought together portfolio planning, programme governance, ITIL discipline and operational accountability through PMO and SMO practice.
  • Supported major business transformation activity, including Turkey and Poland divestment work, business convergence and operating model change.
  • Contributed to distribution platform modernisation, including WMS/WES, mobile, wearable, data and ML experiments, transport algorithms and automation and robotics trials.
  • Led customer and digital technology portfolios spanning warehouse management, AGV robotics, Clubcard, Tesco Mobile, CRM/CMS and customer engagement platforms.
  • Developed and coached teams across on-site, remote, offshore and supplier models, promoting practical Agile, DevOps, product and service ownership practices.
05

Domain & technology coverage

Retail & customer

ClubcardLoyaltyCRM / CMS eCommerceMobile applicationsOnline grocery

Supply chain & fulfilment

Demand forecastingDistribution centresWMS / WES Wearable technologyTransport route planningVoice picking & robotics

Governance & operations

PMOSMOITILAgile DevOpsVendor governanceOutsourcing M&A divestmentChange management Incident managementProblem management Release managementBudget planning

Methods & practice

Hybrid programme managementKanban / ScrumBan Product ThinkingUX researchRCA & CSI Stakeholder managementBusiness transformation Legacy modernisationData science & ML experiments
06

Education & certifications

Project Management Professional (PMP)®
PMI.org
Certified
M.Sc., Management Information Systems
Ahmet Yesevi University
2009 – 2011
Bachelor's Degree, Business Administration
Anadolu University
2002 – 2008
Associate Degree, Computer Science / Software Development
Dokuz Eylül University
2000 – 2002

Additional training

ITIL FoundationCOBIT 2019 Foundation Agile / ScrumSAFe Tesco Leadership ProgrammeGenerative AI for Project Managers
07

Languages & affiliations

Languages

TurkishNative / bilingual
EnglishFull professional
CzechWorking proficiency — B1 certified

Affiliations

PMI Czechia ChapterSince 2025
Informatics Association of TurkeySince 2003