Sobha Realty has appointed Riyaa Margaret Zacharia as Senior Vice President – Human Resources. She will lead the company’s human resources strategy and strengthen people excellence, organisational transformation, leadership development and workforce capability as the real estate developer continues its growth.
The appointment adds a seasoned HR leader to Sobha Realty’s leadership team. Zacharia brings more than 20 years of experience across human resources, business strategy, organisational development and transformation. Her career spans the engineering, construction, consulting, marine, government and infrastructure sectors.
Extensive HR and transformation experience
Before joining Sobha Realty, Zacharia served as Human Capital & GS Leader at SAFEEN Subsea. In that role, she aligned people strategy with business goals while leading HR transformation, administration and operational support. She also focused on AI in HR, workflow improvements and building agile workforce systems.
Earlier, she spent more than 14 years at SECURE ENGINEERING LLC. During her tenure, she held several senior leadership positions, including Director of Strategy & Human Capital, Director Strategy & Performance Improvement, Senior HR & Administration Manager, Organisational Development & Policies Specialist, and Policy and Procedure Specialist. Across these roles, she led strategic planning, organisational development, governance, HR transformation and performance improvement initiatives.
Before that, Zacharia worked as a Senior Consultant (Technical Writer – Policy & Procedures) at Dicetek LLC. She also served as a Compliance Officer at HSBC, where she managed compliance policies, operational risk and regulatory governance.
Strong leadership background
According to her professional profile, Zacharia describes her leadership approach as combining commercial thinking with empathy while building digitally enabled and future-ready HR functions. She has also highlighted expertise in business and human capital strategy, executive advisory, workforce planning, culture transformation and AI in HR.
Her appointment reflects Sobha Realty’s continued focus on strengthening leadership capability and developing a high-performing workforce to support long-term business growth.
