Head of Operational Risk, Controls and Quality

General Overview

We are hiring a Head of Operational Risk, Controls & Quality for our client, a fast-growing insurance organization operating across multiple lines of business. This senior leadership role is responsible for strengthening first-line governance, operational resilience, quality assurance, and regulatory compliance across Health, Life, Motor, Marine, Aviation, and broader P&C portfolios.

The role plays a critical part in supporting business scale and multi-line expansion while ensuring strong operational discipline, customer experience, and regulatory alignment. The successful candidate will embed robust risk and control frameworks, lead quality and complaints oversight, and act as a key partner to senior leadership, regulators, and external stakeholders.

• Lead enterprise-wide Non-Financial Risk Assessments (NFRAs) across all lines of business.
• Monitor the design and effectiveness of operational and regulatory controls, ensuring timely remediation of gaps.
• Oversee quarterly control testing cycles, maintaining audit readiness and regulatory documentation.
• Ensure operational risk events are identified, reported, investigated, escalated, and closed within agreed SLAs.
• Own first-line governance for operational risk in collaboration with Risk, Compliance, and Internal Audit.
• Oversee the development, testing, and maintenance of Business Continuity Plans (BCP).

• Lead the enterprise Quality Assurance (QA) framework across all operational teams.
• Ensure consistency in quality standards, sampling methodologies, and review practices.
• Drive root‑cause analysis and corrective action plans arising from QA findings.
• Lead transformation, automation, and process optimization initiatives aligned with operational KPIs.

• Oversee centralized alert management covering KYC, Sanctions, PEPs, Transaction Monitoring, FATCA, and CRS
  .
• Act as Operations SME for FATCA/CRS onboarding, classification, documentation, and reporting readiness.
• Ensure PCI-DSS compliance across all payment touchpoints and successful annual certification.
• Coordinate first-line implementation of regulatory changes in partnership with Compliance, Risk, and Legal.
• Ensure operational adherence to AML/KYC, CBUAE conduct rules, health authority regulations, and sector‑specific mandates across all LOBs.

• Oversee the complaints management framework across customer, broker, and corporate segments.
• Monitor complaints performance, turnaround times, and regulatory compliance.
• Ensure complaints insights drive service improvements, control enhancements, and better customer outcomes.
• Own governance standards that elevate customer experience across all lines of business.

• Recruit, lead, mentor, and develop the Operational Risk, Controls & Quality team.
• Act as business lead for selection and enhancement of department IT systems.
• Manage departmental budget and resource planning.
• Support product and sales cycles from tender stage through onboarding.
• Deputize senior operations leadership as required and contribute to enterprise-wide initiatives.

• Bachelor’s degree in business administration, Risk Management, Compliance
  , or a related discipline.
• 8–12 years of experience in operational risk, internal controls, quality assurance, or compliance within insurance or financial services.
• Strong experience across multiple insurance lines of business (Health, Life, P&C preferred).
• In-depth knowledge of UAE insurance regulations, control frameworks, and governance standards.
• Prior exposure to regulatory audits, risk reviews, and operational readiness assessments.
• Proven ability to build and embed effective first‑line control environments.
• Strong leadership, stakeholder management, and communication skills.
• Excellent analytical ability with high attention to detail.
• Demonstrated success leading cross‑functional initiatives in fast‑paced, scaling environments.
• High integrity, accountability, and a customer‑centric mindset.