Enterprise Risk Manager - UAE

About the role
As Enterprise Risk Manager - UAE, you will help establish and evolve the enterprise risk management capability in the UAE, contributing to the broader global and regional risk agenda. You will ensure that risk management supports responsible growth as the company operationalizes its UAE entity and expands its regulated payments offering in the region. The company has secured in-principle approval from the Central Bank of the UAE for Stored Value Facilities and Category II Retail Payment Services licenses, which supports the planned provision of services including multi-currency accounts, global transfers, payment acceptance, and corporate cards in the UAE.

About the team
The Global Risk team plays a critical role in enabling the company’s growth by building a strong, scalable, and globally consistent approach to risk management. The team collaborates closely with Product, Engineering, Operations, Commercial, Financial Crime Compliance, Regulatory Compliance, and Legal teams to address high-impact challenges and help build the foundations for long-term scale.

What you’ll do

• Adapt and operationalise the global enterprise risk architecture for the UAE, including risk appetite, risk taxonomy, governance standards, risk limits, escalation protocols, reporting, and decision rights.
• Partner with Regulatory Compliance, Legal, and UAE leadership to ensure risk governance aligns with applicable Central Bank expectations and requirements relevant to Stored Value Facilities and Retail Payment Services.
• Translate risk data, incidents, issues, trends, and key risk indicators into clear, decision-useful reporting for UAE management, regional leadership, risk committees, and, where appropriate, the Board or regulators.
• Act as a trusted, independent second-line advisor, providing constructive challenge where initiatives may exceed approved risk appetite, regulatory expectations, or the maturity of the control environment.
• Support risk assessment and approval for new products, payment services, customer propositions, markets, partnerships, systems changes, and material operating-model changes in the UAE.
• Continue to develop the UAE crisis management and resilience framework, including escalation triggers, governance, executive response mechanisms, business continuity planning, and severe-but-plausible scenario exercises.
• Contribute to enterprise-wide risk initiatives, including improvements to risk reporting, dashboards, risk tools, automation, and data quality, while sharing UAE insights with the global risk team.
• Support consistent risk management standards across the regulated entities and help ensure that local practices are aligned with the Group’s enterprise risk framework.
• Build strong relationships with local and global stakeholders, fostering a pragmatic and effective risk culture across the UAE business.

Who you are
We’re looking for people who meet the minimum requirements for this role. The preferred qualifications are great to have, but are not mandatory.

Minimum qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Economics, Business, Law, STEM, or another relevant quantitative field.
• 5 to 7+ years of experience in risk management, operational risk, enterprise risk, compliance, controls, or audit within financial services, fintech, payments, banking, or another highly regulated environment.
• Experience with defense frameworks, including risk appetite statements, risk taxonomies, governance processes, and escalation mechanisms.
• Familiarity with the UAE financial services regulatory environment, including practical exposure to the Central Bank of the UAE and requirements relevant to electronic money, Stored Value Facilities, or Retail Payment Services.
• Demonstrated experience preparing risk papers and communicating effectively with executives, Board or committee audiences, regulators, or auditors, with excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• A high-ownership, pragmatic approach, with the ability to operate effectively in a fast-paced environment with evolving priorities and significant cross-functional collaboration.

Preferred qualifications:

• Fintech and payments experience, including exposure to cross-border payments, merchant acquiring, card scheme environments, local payment methods, or multi-entity regulated groups.
• Experience managing risk approvals and governance in a high-velocity product and engineering environment, where new features, products, markets, or operating models are launched frequently.
• Strong data literacy and comfort using dashboards, metrics, and technology-enabled tools to support risk oversight and reporting.
• A clear bias toward automation, AI, and scalable tooling to improve issue management, reporting, and second-line efficiency, paired with the judgment to balance innovation, business agility, and control effectiveness.

Applicant Safety Policy: Fraud and Third-Party Recruiters
To protect you from recruitment scams, please be aware that the company will not ask for bank details, sensitive ID numbers (i.e., passport), or any form of payment during the application or interview process. All official communication will come from an company email address.

Equal opportunity
The company is proud to be an equal opportunity employer and values diversity. All employment decisions are based on merit, qualifications, competence, and talent.