Director of Banking Operations

Confidential; Abu Dhabi; On-site; AED 900,000 - 1,500,000; Full time

Job summary

Confidential in the United Arab Emirates is building a digital-first, AI-enabled financial services organisation from the ground up. This is a rare opportunity to join at an early stage and shape people, operations, and service foundations with strong institutional backing.

The role leads customer service, contact-centre, and branch operations, establishing a scalable, Day-1 ready operating model and driving operational excellence, risk management, and AI-driven improvements with human oversight.

Qualifications

• 12+ years in banking operations with senior leadership.
• Expertise in customer service, contact-centre, branch operations.
• Experience building target operating models and launch-readiness in regulated environments.
• Solid knowledge of CBUAE expectations and consumer protection.
• Exposure to AI-enabled service operations and analytics.

Responsibilities

• Stand up and lead customer service, contact-center, and branch-service capabilities with standards and capacity plans.
• Establish maker-checker controls for branch transactions with clear delegations.
• Direct physical-enterprise readiness including premises and facilities.
• Define and monitor operational KPIs, SLAs, CX measures, and risk indicators.
• Own operational risk management including RCSA, incidents, root-cause analysis, and audit findings closure.
• Partner with Technology, Product, Risk, and Compliance to embed requirements in journeys.
• Lead Day-1 readiness testing, rehearsals, cutover, and contingency planning.
• Build operations team and champion responsible AI with human oversight.

Skills

Banking ops leadership

Customer service

Operational risk

Target operating model

Regulatory compliance

AI in ops

Education

Bachelor's degree in business administration/finance

Job description

We're excited to be partnering with a leading institution in the UAE that is building a digital-first, AI-enabled financial services organisation from the ground up. This is a unique opportunity to join at an early stage and help shape the people, operational, and service foundations of a business with significant institutional backing and long-term ambition. If you're passionate about HR operations, payroll excellence, and creating exceptional employee experiences, we'd love to hear from you.

Role Purpose:

Leads the design, launch, and day-to-day running of the bank's customer-facing and physical banking operations, spanning customer service, contact center, branch service delivery, and the physical enterprise. Builds a controlled, digital-first operating model that is ready for Day 1 and scalable thereafter.

Key responsibilities:

• Stand up and lead customer service, contact-center, and branch-service capabilities, including service standards, quality assurance, escalation paths, and capacity plans.
• Establish and oversee maker-checker procedures for branch transactions, with clear delegations and demonstrable control effectiveness.
• Direct physical-enterprise readiness and operations, including premises, facilities, workplace services, and physical archival.
• Define, monitor, and report operational KPIs, SLAs, customer-experience measures, and risk indicators; drive remediation where performance falls short.
• Own operational risk management, including RCSAs, incident and error management, root-cause analysis, and closure of audit and regulatory findings.
• Partner with Technology, Product, Risk, and Compliance to embed operational requirements, assisted-channel fallbacks, and consumer-protection controls in customer journeys.
• Lead Day-1 readiness testing, rehearsals, cutover, and contingency planning for critical customer-facing processes.
• Build and develop the banking-operations team and champion responsible AI, automation, and analytics with appropriate human oversight.

Required Skills & Experience:

• 12+ years in banking operations within banking or financial services, including senior leadership of a banking operations team.
• Deep expertise in customer service, contact-centre and branch operations, maker-checker controls, physical enterprise, and operational risk management.
• Proven record building banking-operations target operating models, service standards, control frameworks, and launch-readiness capabilities in a regulated environment.
• Strong knowledge of relevant CBUAE expectations, consumer-protection requirements, and applicable operational-risk standards.
• Exposure to AI-enabled service operations, workforce tooling, intelligent document processing, and advanced customer and operational analytics.

Qualifications & Certifications (Preferred)

• Bachelor's degree in business administration, finance, or a related field; relevant postgraduate qualification preferred.
• Professional certification in operations, service management, or process excellence (for example, Lean Six Sigma) preferred.
• CBUAE Fit & Proper requirements and any applicable controlled-function eligibility criteria, where required.