Summary
Tabby is building a local team in Kuwait to establish and scale its regulated payments and financial services business. The General Manager will lead the local entity, manage its relationship with the Central Bank of Kuwait, and oversee commercial growth, partnerships, the local P&L, and team development. Applicants should have 10 or more years of experience, including at least 3 years in general management or a senior commercial role with full P&L accountability. The role requires experience launching or scaling regulated financial services in a GCC market, regulatory engagement, and professional Arabic and English.
The posting
As published on tabby.ai. Pulled from the employer's site and shown as they wrote it.
About Tabby:
Tabby is the GCC's leading shopping and payments platform, giving millions of people across Saudi Arabia and the UAE more control in the way they spend, save and earn. Headquartered in Riyadh, we've grown into one of the largest fintech companies to come out of the Arab world, working with +65,000 sellers, from global names like Apple, IKEA, Adidas and Shein to the region's leading retail groups.
We're now building a local team on the ground in Kuwait, with a renewed presence in the market coming soon. This is a rare chance to join us at the start of a local launch, shaping how we show up for Kuwaiti shoppers and sellers from day one, backed by the scale, technology and track record we've built across the region.
If you want to help us build something significant in Kuwait, backed by proven regional success, we want to hear from you.
About the role
Tabby is the leading shopping and financial services app in the Middle East — 25M+ users, 65,000+ merchants across Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Kuwait. We're now building our Kuwait team.
This is a founding role. As General Manager, you will take Tabby Kuwait from a licensed entity in progress to a fully operating, onshore, regulated business — and then scale it. You'll be the face of Tabby to the Central Bank of Kuwait and to the local banking and merchant ecosystem, with full accountability for standing up the entity, the team and the growth plan from day one.
Very few people get to build a regulated consumer finance business in a market from a standing start, with a proven regional platform behind them. This is that opportunity.
- Own the Central Bank of Kuwait relationship end to end — registration and licensing, correspondence, inspections and ongoing supervisory dialogue — as the named accountable executive
- Stand up Tabby Payments K.S.C.C. as a fully operating local entity, with its own team, compliance, operations and governance
- Carry full commercial ownership of the Kuwait market: merchant acquisition and retention, bank and payments partnerships, local marketing and customer growth
- Own the local P&L and market-level economics, operating within group frameworks for product, credit, risk, treasury and legal — and influencing those functions to get what the market needs
- Build and lead the local team, starting lean and scaling with the business — defining the hiring plan and owning the local cost base
- Define and sequence the market's product roadmap with group product, bringing Tabby's wider product set into Kuwait as licensing and infrastructure allow — including longer-term financing, card, wallet and payments, and cross-border transfers
- Represent Tabby externally as the senior leader in-market, with banks, merchants, partners and the regulator
- 10+ years of experience, including at least 3 years in a general management or senior commercial role with full P&L accountability
- A track record of launching or scaling a regulated financial services, payments or fintech business in a GCC market
- Direct experience as the named accountable executive in a relationship with a financial regulator — licensing, submissions, examinations or remediation
- Domain expertise in fintech, consumer lending/BNPL, payments and e-money, or retail banking and cards, including financial regulation and licensing in the GCC (Central Bank of Kuwait experience specifically valued)
- A proven merchant or B2B commercial track record — building a partner base from a low base, not just managing an existing one
- Comfort operating in ambiguity with a small team: a builder, not an administrator of an established machine
- Strong grounding in P&L management and unit economics, regulatory submissions and compliance/AML frameworks, and commercial contracting and partnership negotiation
- Professional Arabic and English, including the ability to handle Arabic regulatory correspondence
Nice to have:
- Existing relationships with the Central Bank of Kuwait
- Prior experience inside a high-growth start-up or fintech
- Exposure to local funding or bank facility relationships