Founding UAE Chief Risk Officer & Resilience Architect

Confirmo; Dubai; On-site; AED 900,000 - 1,500,000; Full time

Job summary

Confirmo is seeking a Chief Risk Officer for its newly established UAE entity in Dubai. You will design and own the enterprise risk function, covering operational, financial, credit, liquidity, technology/cyber, and regulatory risk.

This founding role reports to the CEO in Dubai and shapes risk appetite and culture, chairs risk governance forums, and partners with compliance to align with VARA, CBUAE and international standards.

Qualifications

• Significant experience in a senior Risk Management role within virtual assets, crypto, payments or financial services, ideally in the UAE.
• Proven track record of building enterprise risk management frameworks from the ground up in a new or rapidly scaling entity.
• Deep working knowledge of risk landscape for virtual asset and payment businesses, including operational, technology/cyber, financial and regulatory risk.
• Familiarity with UAE regulatory expectations around risk management (VARA and/or CBUAE) and international standards and frameworks.
• Comfortable operating as a hands-on, founding team member in a fast-moving, high-growth environment with significant autonomy and ownership.

Responsibilities

• Design, build and implement the UAE entity s enterprise risk management (ERM) framework from the ground up, including risk appetite statements, policies, taxonomies and reporting structures.
• Identify, assess and monitor risk across operational, financial, credit, liquidity, technology/cyber, and regulatory dimensions specific to a virtual asset and payments business.
• Establish and chair risk governance forums (e.g. Risk Committee), providing regular risk reporting and escalation to the CEO, Board and group governance committees.
• Partner closely with the Chief Compliance & MLRO Officer and Group Compliance to ensure risk and regulatory obligations are fully aligned and integrated.
• Develop and maintain a robust risk register, conducting periodic risk assessments and scenario/stress testing across the business.
• Own business continuity, operational resilience and incident management frameworks for the UAE entity.
• Advise the CEO and senior leadership on emerging risks, risk mitigation strategies, and the risk implications of new products, partnerships and markets.
• Partner with Group Risk and other international risk functions to ensure the UAE risk framework is consistent with group-wide standards and best practice.
• Build and lead a local risk team as the UAE business scales, embedding a strong risk-aware culture from day one.

Skills

ERM framework

Regulatory knowledge

Stakeholder mgmt

Crypto risk

Leadership

Job description

Confirmo is seeking a Chief Risk Officer for its newly established UAE entity in Dubai. You will design and own the enterprise risk function, covering operational, financial, credit, liquidity, technology/cyber, and regulatory risk.

This founding role reports to the CEO in Dubai and shapes risk appetite and culture, chairs risk governance forums, and partners with compliance to align with VARA, CBUAE and international standards.