SVP of Operations

CNTXT AI; Abu Dhabi Emirate; On-site; AED 800,000 - 1,400,000; Full time

Job summary

CNTXT AI in Abu Dhabi is seeking a seasoned SVP of Operations to own the delivery units (Data Services and Robotics), plus internal operations, IT and facilities, building a scalable, disciplined operation under the founder.

You will report to the founder and CEO, establish cadence, dashboards, and an execution rhythm, lead P&L owners, and create an operating backbone ready for rapid expansion and sustainable growth.

Qualifications

• A seasoned operations or COO-level leader who has built and scaled a real company.
• Installs cadence, accountability and pace, and runs delivery, internal ops, IT and facilities cleanly.
• Comfortable with strong P&L owners reporting in, not someone who wants to do it all himself.
• Thrives in a fast, founder-led environment and sets the tempo.

Responsibilities

• Owns delivery units and internal backbone, turning them into disciplined, scalable operations.
• Install operating cadence, weekly reviews, dashboards and live decision logs.
• Map internal operations, IT and facilities; fix bottlenecks and ensure SLAs.
• Drive expansion into new markets and scale the organization to support growth.

Skills

COO-level leadership

P&L ownership

Delivery optimization

Fast-paced environment

Job description

CNTXT is the largest Arabic AI company, built in Abu Dhabi, in the one region where AI capital and government demand run deepest. It owns the Arabic stack the global players cannot build: Munsit, its Arabic voice AI, beat OpenAI, Meta, Microsoft and ElevenLabs to rank first at NADI 2025; its data business runs on more than 30,000 hours of real Arabic speech across 25-plus dialects, serving global robotics and frontier-AI leaders; it deploys sovereign and on-premise for Gulf governments; and partners include NVIDIA, AWS, Oracle and TII.

The product and the demand are real. What the company needs now is to become a real operating machine, and that is this seat.

The Role

The SVP of Operations runs the company day to day. You own the delivery units, Data Services and Robotics, each running its own P&L, plus internal operations, IT, facilities and expansion. The job is to make the whole machine run so the founder is not the bottleneck.

You report directly to the founder and CEO, sit alongside the SVP of Strategy and the SVP of Growth as one of three SVPs beneath a two-person C-suite, and build the operations organization beneath you.

The Team you Inherit

This is not a blank slate. You take on the delivery units and the internal backbone, and the mandate to turn them into a disciplined, scalable operation.

• Data Services
• Robotics
• Internal ops
• IT & facilities

The Mandate

First 90 days

Install the operating cadence, weekly business reviews, one dashboard, a live decision log. Take control of delivery commitments and SLAs, map internal operations, IT and facilities, and fix what is visibly broken.

By 6 months

Units running to plan on their own P&Ls, internal operations professionalized across IT, facilities and procurement, robotics operations stood up, and the founder out of daily delivery decisions.

By 12 months

A company that runs on rhythm rather than heroics, delivery predictable and scalable, expansion into new markets and facilities executing cleanly, and an operating backbone ready to support the next phase of scale.

The Profile

Must Have

• A seasoned operations or COO-level leader who has built and scaled a real company.
• Installs cadence, accountability and pace, and runs delivery, internal ops, IT and facilities cleanly.
• Comfortable with strong P&L owners reporting in, not someone who wants to do it all himself.
• Thrives in a fast, founder-led environment and sets the tempo

Strong Plus

• MENA and Gulf operating experience and network.
• Data, AI or deep-tech operations background.
• Multi-entity or expansion experience.
• Has scaled a company through a major raise.

Why Now, and the Package

This is a rare seat. A scarce, defensible position in the most capital-rich AI region in the world, a real product with real demand, and a company at the exact point where a great operator turns momentum into a machine. You build the operation from the ground up, own the full operating mandate, and report to the founder.

The package is highly competitive: a strong base and performance-based variable, and the UAE advantage of no personal income tax, which lifts take-home well above equivalent US or UK roles. Compensation is discussed directly.