Senior Vice President Operations

Jex Recruitment | Connecting top talent with leading companies; Dubai; On-site; AED 900,000 - 1,200,000; Full time

Job summary

Jex Recruitment is partnering with a progressive financial institution in the UAE to appoint a Managing Director of Operations. This is a senior leadership role overseeing end-to-end operational strategy and execution across customer onboarding, KYC, servicing, cards, payments, and risk controls.

The successful candidate will drive automation, AI-enabled transformation, and a scalable operating model to support substantial growth, while maintaining service levels and regulatory compliance.

Qualifications

• 18+ years' experience within banking or financial services
• Strong track record leading large-scale banking operations
• Experience implementing AI, automation, straight-through processing or digital self-service
• Experience managing outsourced operations and strategic vendors
• Knowledge of operational risk, resilience and regulatory requirements

Responsibilities

• Lead end-to-end operational strategy and execution to support growth
• Oversee onboarding, KYC, account servicing, cards, payments and processing
• Drive automation and transformation using AI and self-service capabilities
• Build scalable operating environment with limited headcount growth
• Lead customer service, service delivery, SLAs and complex cases
• Manage outsourcing, vendor relationships and selective insourcing
• Improve cost-to-serve, productivity and capacity
• Ensure regulatory controls and business continuity

Skills

Executive leadership

Banking operations

AI/automation

Outsourcing management

Cost-to-serve

Job description

Job Title - Managing Director Operations

Location - UAE

We are partnering with a progressive financial institution undergoing a significant period of growth and transformation to appoint a MD Operations.

The role:

• Leading the organisation's end-to-end operational strategy and execution, ensuring the operating model can support significant future growth.
• Overseeing key banking operations including customer onboarding, KYC, account servicing, cards, payments and transaction processing.
• Driving a major automation and operational transformation agenda, using AI, intelligent automation and self-service capabilities to improve efficiency and customer experience.
• Building an operating environment capable of supporting customer growth without a corresponding increase in operational headcount.
• Leading customer service and service delivery, with accountability for service standards, SLAs, complaints and complex customer cases.
• Managing strategic outsourcing, managed-service and vendor relationships, including commercial performance, service quality and selective insourcing.
• Driving improvements across cost-to-serve, productivity, operational capacity and cost-per-transaction.
• Ensuring strong operational risk, resilience, business continuity and regulatory controls.
• Developing and leading senior Operations teams across multiple operational disciplines.
• Playing a central role in enterprise-wide transformation, including changes to organisational structure, technology-enabled processes and third-party operating arrangements.
• Managing the Operations budget and establishing clear performance metrics across service, cost, productivity and operational efficiency.

We are looking for an established senior banking executive with:

• 18+ years' experience within banking or financial services, including significant executive-level leadership experience.
• A strong track record leading large-scale banking operations.
• Deep understanding of customer operations, onboarding/KYC, cards, payments and servicing.
• Proven experience implementing AI, automation, straight-through processing or digital self-service within Operations.
• Strong experience managing outsourced operations, strategic vendors and complex service arrangements.
• Demonstrable success improving operational efficiency, productivity and cost-to-serve.
• Strong knowledge of operational risk, resilience and regulatory requirements within a highly regulated banking environment.
• Experience building and developing sizeable, senior operational teams.
• The ability to operate effectively with Boards, CEOs and C-suite stakeholders.

This is not a traditional "run-the-bank" Operations appointment, the successful candidate will have the opportunity to reshape how the organisation operates, creating a highly automated and scalable banking operation capable of supporting substantial growth while maintaining strong customer service, regulatory standards and cost discipline.

This would suit an executive who combines deep banking operations expertise with genuine transformation experience and has previously built, modernised or materially scaled an operating platform.