Summary
Deriv is hiring a Senior Business Development Executive in Dubai to manage growth partnerships across MENA. The role covers recruiting and developing Introducing Brokers, affiliates, fintech partners and payment providers, as well as managing partner activation and revenue performance. The executive will negotiate commercial terms, contribute feedback on AI-enabled workflows, represent Deriv at industry events and support newer team members. Applicants should have close to five years of relevant experience, a record of closed deals, knowledge of online trading, FX/CFD or fintech partnerships, and fluency in English and Arabic.
The posting
As published on deriv.com. Pulled from the employer's site and shown as they wrote it.
You've already recruited partners, closed deals, and learned what a bad commission structure costs. Now you'll do it with a bigger portfolio, tougher accounts, and more say in how the deals get built — and you'll be the person newer executives turn to when a partner conversation gets hard.
Why This Matters
Deriv processes more than $700B in monthly trading volume. A significant share of that comes through partners — Introducing Brokers, affiliates, fintech partners, and payment providers who bring traders to the platform across more than 150 countries. The Growth Partnerships function sits at the heart of that engine.
When a high-value IB in MENA goes live, when an affiliate activates a corridor that's been stalled for months, when a renegotiation actually holds instead of falling apart — that's the kind of outcome a senior executive is expected to own. Real money, real regulations, real consequences. The portfolio you carry moves the region's numbers, not just your own.
Why Deriv
We're already running AI in production — not running pilots.
- 65%+ of customer enquiries resolved by AI, with genuine judgment about when to escalate
- Multi-agent systems handling partner onboarding, lifecycle management, and operational workflows across the GP function
- 400+ internal users on our workflow orchestration platform
- Campaign pipelines producing content in hours, not weeks
These aren't tools you learn once and forget. You'll work in them daily, and you're expected to know them well enough to say when they're getting it wrong.
What You’ll Do
- Partner acquisition and recruitment. Recruit and grow high-value IBs, affiliates, fintech partners, payment providers, and strategic alliances across your assigned MENA markets — including the harder-to-close accounts junior executives tend to hand off.
- Portfolio activation and performance. Own the full lifecycle for a larger, more complex portfolio, from onboarding through to revenue performance. Spot underperforming accounts before the numbers make it obvious, and build the plan to fix them.
- Commercial deal structuring. Negotiate commission structures, volume targets, and support agreements with more latitude on terms than an entry-level role carries. Know the unit economics well enough to defend a deal to your own leadership, not just to the partner.
- AI-enabled operational contribution. Work inside AI-enabled onboarding and lifecycle systems, and flag workflow gaps to product and engineering with enough specificity that they can actually act on it.
- Mentorship within the team. Help onboard and troubleshoot for newer Business Development Executives, sharing what you've learned about reading partners and structuring deals that hold up.
- Industry representation. Represent Deriv at conferences and partner events — including iFX Expo, Finance Magnates, Forex Expo Dubai, and regional growth events — where you're expected to open doors, not just attend.
Who You Are
- You've spent a couple of years in business development, partnerships, or sales within online trading, FX/CFD, fintech, or a comparably performance-driven digital ecosystem, and you can point to deals you actually closed.
- You know how IB and affiliate ecosystems operate well enough to spot a bad deal structure before it costs anyone money.
- You don't just open conversations — you close them, and you can explain why a deal was structured the way it was without leaning on a script.
- You're the person a newer teammate asks when a partner conversation stalls, and you're comfortable being that resource without a formal management title.
- You use AI tools daily in your own workflow, and when something in the system doesn't fit how partners actually behave, you say so specifically instead of working around it quietly.
- Fluency in English and Arabic is required, given the role's focus on MENA. Additional languages — French, Spanish, or Portuguese — are an advantage if your remit extends further.
- You hold a relevant degree in business, economics, finance, or equivalent, and have close to five years of relevant experience.
The Honest Reality
This is demanding work. You'll be handed the accounts junior executives couldn't close, and some of them won't close for you either. You'll make commercial calls with incomplete information and live with how they play out — and you'll be expected to help train the person next to you while you're still building out your own portfolio.
What you'll get in return: real weight in the region's numbers, credibility with operators who've been doing this longer than you have, and more say in deal terms than an entry-level role would ever give you.
If you want a role where the hard accounts get handed to someone more senior, this isn't it. If you want to be the person those accounts get handed to, it might be.