Director, Operational Risk & AI Oversight

Korn Ferry; Abu Dhabi; On-site; AED 300,000 - 540,000; Full time

Job summary

Korn Ferry has partnered with a leading UAE financial services institution to recruit a Director of Operational Risk. This full-time role based in the UAE will build the risk function from the ground up, reporting to the Chief Risk Officer and shaping the risk framework, culture, and AI-enabled tooling from day one.

The role covers identification, assessment, and mitigation of operational risk, including process failures, business continuity, third-party risk, and AI risk oversight within an

Qualifications

• 12+ years in operational risk within banking, including senior leadership of a risk team.
• Deep expertise across operational risk frameworks, RCSA, KRIs, operational resilience, and AI risk oversight.
• Track record building operational risk frameworks and resilience programmes in a regulated environment.
• Knowledge of CBUAE operational risk and business continuity expectations, CBUAE AI framework (Notice 5052/2022, 2021 Enabling Technologies Guidelines, Feb 2026 AI/ML Guidance Note), and Basel operational risk standards.
• Exposure to AI-enabled control monitoring, risk analytics, and advanced tooling.
• Able to think beyond traditional, manual operational risk processes; brings experience of automated or AI-enabled risk services, and advanced control monitoring and risk analytics.

Responsibilities

• Build and maintain the operational risk framework, taxonomy, and policies across all business and support functions.
• Establish and run the risk and control self-assessment (RCSA) process and maintain the key risk indicator (KRI) set.
• Oversee operational risk event capture, root-cause analysis, and remediation tracking.
• Own the business continuity and operational resilience framework, including scenario testing of critical services.
• Own AI risk oversight as a standalone Operational Risk sub-category — human oversight taxonomy (in-loop / on-loop / out-of-loop), bias testing, explainability, and immediate suspension protocols, aligned with CBUAE Notice 5052/2022, the 2021 Enabling Technologies Guidelines, and the Feb 2026 Guidance Note on Consumer Protection and Responsible AI / ML.
• Provide second-line challenge on new products, processes, and outsourcing arrangements.
• Coordinate with the Compliance function (CCO / MLRO) on the boundary between operational risk and fraud risk; fraud risk framework and operations sit with Financial Crimes and are out of scope of this role.
• Produce operational risk reporting for the Risk Committee and Board Risk & Compliance Committee, escalating material events and control gaps.
• Deploy AI-enabled control monitoring and analytics to detect operational risk events, control weaknesses, and emerging KRI trends in near real time, enabling earlier intervention across business and support functions.
• Leverage AI and automation to strengthen RCSA, loss-event capture, and root-cause analysis — while ensuring the operational risk framework governs the bank’s own use of AI (bias, drift, and human-oversight controls).

Skills

Operational risk expertise

Leadership in risk teams

AI risk oversight

Risk analytics

Education

Bachelor’s degree in a relevant discipline

Postgraduate qualification (advantage)

FRM/PRM/operational risk certification

Job description

Korn Ferry has partnered with a leading UAE financial services institution to recruit a Director of Operational Risk. This full-time role based in the UAE will build the risk function from the ground up, reporting to the Chief Risk Officer and shaping the risk framework, culture, and AI-enabled tooling from day one.

The role covers identification, assessment, and mitigation of operational risk, including process failures, business continuity, third-party risk, and AI risk oversight within an