Head of Operations

Role overview

The Head of Operations will lead the operating model for a regulated retail investment platform in the UAE. The position is responsible for building an operational setup that can scale client growth safely, keep outsourcing arrangements tightly controlled, ensure dependable day-to-day platform execution, and strengthen resilience and oversight across the business. This senior leadership role works closely with teams across Compliance, Risk, Legal, Technology, and client service.

The role reports to the CEO, Board, or an appropriate committee. It is a full-time senior leadership position, and the holder must act as an approved person or an equivalent regulated role.

Location

UAE, with the role based in ADGM or DIFC as applicable. The listing also references a hybrid working setup.

Key responsibilities

• Take ownership of client onboarding operations, including account-opening workflows, verification coordination, and overall process throughput.
• Direct platform operations, trade support activity, cash movements, reconciliations, and exception management.
• Manage outsourced relationships with brokers, custodians, technology suppliers, payment providers, and support partners.
• Track service levels, incidents, backlog volumes, and wider operational performance indicators.
• Lead business continuity planning, disaster recovery arrangements, and resilience testing exercises.
• Coordinate the operational rollout of regulatory changes and internal transformation projects.
• Prepare operational MI and dashboard reporting for senior leadership and board-level review.
• Own root-cause analysis for incidents, control breaks, and process failures, and drive corrective actions.
• Ensure each critical workflow has documented handoffs and controls, particularly where third parties deliver part of the service.

Regulatory accountability

• Maintain an operating model that supports safe servicing of retail clients across onboarding, trading, payments, reconciliations, and support.
• Ensure outsourced and interdependent providers are managed through clear service levels, oversight routines, escalation routes, and documented controls.
• Keep the business operationally prepared for new client phases, product launches, and platform expansion.
• Make sure the firm can demonstrate resilience, incident response capability, and recovery readiness to internal governance forums and regulators.
• Provide board-ready reports covering capacity, service quality, incidents, remediation progress, and operational risk trends.

Reserved matters and escalation rights

• No new client growth phase may proceed until operational readiness has been formally signed off.
• No new vendor, platform integration, or outsourced critical service may launch without testing, control validation, and approval.
• Any major operational incident, recurring SLA failure, failed reconciliation, or control weakness must be escalated immediately to senior management and the relevant committees.
• The Head of Operations may advise pausing onboarding, trading, or service activity where operational risk is not adequately controlled.
• Significant resilience or continuity gaps must be reported with clear remediation timelines and accountable owners.
• Operational evidence used in regulator-facing submissions must go through the firm’s governance review and approval process.

Working relationship with Compliance

Operations is accountable for execution, process control, resilience, and service delivery. Compliance is responsible for regulatory interpretation, monitoring, policy guidance, and challenge. The Head of Operations will work with Compliance on onboarding controls, complaints routing, breach escalation, and the implementation of regulatory change.

Candidate profile

Must-have experience

• At least 10 years of operations leadership experience in regulated financial services, fintech, wealth management, asset management, or retail investment platforms.
• Minimum 5 years at Head of Operations or COO level in a client-facing regulated environment, with a clear record of scaling operations during growth phases.
• Strong background in outsourcing governance, broker and custodian relationships, and operational resilience.
• Excellent governance, reporting, stakeholder management, and issue-resolution capability.

Preferred experience

• Experience working in ADGM or DIFC regulated environments.
• Exposure to Islamic finance operational requirements.
• Experience with operational infrastructure for virtual assets.
• Arabic language ability.

Additional information

The source text also includes recruitment form fields, company and office details, and website/footer content. No vacancy count, salary figure, notice period, or start date were provided. The role is described as a full-time senior leadership position in the United Arab Emirates.