Director of Operations

About the role

Career-Hunters is recruiting a Director of Operations in Kuwait, a senior leadership position reporting to the Deputy CEO. The role owns the strategic direction, operational integrity and continuous evolution of the organisation's operations function across all markets, covering trading operations, back office, client operations, compliance, risk and team leadership.

Key responsibilities

• Define and execute the operations strategy across markets, set up the operating model for new markets, products and client segments, and act as operational authority within the executive team.
• Own the end-to-end trade lifecycle, including order execution, settlement, reconciliation, corporate actions and fund movements, and define operational SLAs.
• Oversee back-office, client onboarding, KYC, deposits and withdrawals, transaction processing, settlement, reconciliations and dispute resolution.
• Design operational workflows, SOPs, controls and reconciliation frameworks, and drive automation and standardisation.
• Maintain the operational compliance framework, audit-ready documentation and the response to regulatory reviews and audits.
• Own the operational risk framework, incident management, business continuity and disaster recovery planning.
• Build and lead the operations organisation, define roles and KPIs, and coach staff and build succession plans.
• Interface with Technology, Compliance, Finance, Product, Risk and Client Relations, and manage relationships with brokers, custodians, banks, exchanges and clearing organisations.
• Evaluate and implement technology solutions, lead automation initiatives and run UAT.
• Set up operational KPI dashboards, risk registers and SLA reports, and report to the Deputy CEO and Board.

Required profile

• Bachelor's degree in Business, Finance, Operations or a related discipline.
• Open to all nationalities.
• 10+ years of progressive experience in financial operations, capital markets, brokerage or fintech.
• At least 5 years of senior leadership experience in a regulated brokerage, capital markets, financial services or fintech environment.
• Proven experience building and scaling operations functions, including team structures, process architecture, controls and regulatory compliance.
• Experience managing operations across multiple markets and/or asset classes.