Head of Home Finance Operations

Role: Head of Home Finance Operations
Location: Dubai

Role Purpose:

Head of Home Finance Operations is accountable for the endtoend leadership governance and execution of Home Finance operations two offices across Dubai and Abu Dhabi. The role ensures operational excellence regulatory and Sharia compliance and effective control of a highvalue portfolio with monthly volumes of approximately AED 1.5 billion. Operating at a senior management level the role enables marketleading sales performance through robust risk management scalable operating models and digital transformation. The role leads a multilocation team of 42 staff ensuring audit readiness customer experience excellence and operational resilience. Close partnership with Business Risk Sharia Compliance and Technology is critical to delivering sustainable growth within the Banks risk appetite.

Key Accountabilities of the role

Operations & Governance

• Provide strategic and operational leadership for Home Finance Operations across dual locations ensuring consistency control and risk alignment.
• Own the end-to-end operational lifecycle including booking disbursement post-disbursement servicing collections support and account maintenance.
• Ensure full compliance with CBUAE regulations internal policies and Sharia Board directives always maintaining audit-ready operations.
• Design and maintain robust SOPs control frameworks KRIs and escalation mechanisms to minimize losses errors and customer complaints.
• Act as the primary operations owner during audits regulatory reviews and Sharia inspections ensuring timely closure of observations.

Digital Transformation & Process Excellence

• Lead automation and digital transformation initiatives across the Home Finance lifecycle in line with global banking best practices.
• Identify process inefficiencies and control gaps; implement sustainable scalable solutions reducing TAT manual intervention and operational risk.
• Partner with IT Digital and Data teams on system enhancements UATs integrations and workflow optimization.
• Drive straight-through processing (STP) digital documentation and data integrity initiatives.

Customer Experience & Service Quality

• Champion a customer-centric operating model ensuring transparent timely and compliant customer journeys.
• Reduce friction points and complaints through process simplification proactive communication and service quality monitoring.
• Embed service SLAs quality assurance and root-cause analysis frameworks.

Portfolio & Business Enablement

• Support one of the largest Home Finance portfolios in the UAE enabling high sales volumes through strong operational capacity planning.
• Ensure operational readiness for new products regulatory changes and strategic business initiatives.
• Provide data-driven operational insights to senior management and governance forums.

Stakeholder & Governance Management

• Serve as a key operational partner to Business Credit Risk Compliance Sharia Legal IT Finance and External Vendors.
• Lead cross-functional forums ensuring alignment between business growth risk appetite and operational capability.
• Prepare and present operational MI risk dashboards and performance metrics.

People Leadership & Capability Development

• Lead develop and inspire high-performing multi-location teams with clear accountability and ownership.
• Drive performance management succession planning and capability development aligned with future skill requirements.
• Foster a culture of integrity continuous improvement compliance and accountability.
  

Specialist Skills / Technical Knowledge Required for this role:

• Executive-level leadership across multi-location operations
• Deep expertise in Islamic Home Finance operations and Sharia compliance
• Strong operational risk control framework and governance experience
• Digital transformation and automation leadership
• Advanced stakeholder and senior management communication skills
• Customer-centric mindset with focus on service excellence
• Ability to manage complex high-volume and high-value portfolios

Qualifications & Experience

• 1015 years of progressive experience in banking operations with strong exposure to Home Finance Operations.
• Proven background in Islamic Banking and Sharia-compliant products and operations.
• Demonstrated experience managing large operational teams and complex portfolios in the UAE market.
• Track record of leading digital transformation and large-scale operational change programmers.