Head of Institutional Sales

About This Role

We're looking for an institutional sales leader who can open doors at the highest levels of MENA's financial sector — and then build the engine that keeps them open.

At Fortis, we're scaling our payments platform across MENA by partnering with banks, PSPs, fintechs, and licensed entities. This is a founding role — you'll be the first institutional sales hire, reporting directly to the Managing Director.

You'll own everything from mapping the market to closing anchor deals, with a clear path to building a regional team as we expand.

What you'll do

• Map and prioritise the institutional landscape across MENA — banks, PSPs, fintechs, and licensed entities — with documented account plans and pursuit strategies
• Run end-to-end enterprise sales cycles: from executive discovery and requirements shaping through to signed contract
• Sell the Fortis platform as a license or SaaS solution, crafting tailored ROI cases and commercial structures for each client
• Build C-suite relationships and drive deals at CEO, CTO, COO, CISO, and Head of Payments level
• Lead solution discovery sessions — translating client constraints and objectives into a clear platform narrative and feasible integration approach new
• Align internal stakeholders (product, engineering, risk, compliance) throughout the deal cycle to eliminate late-stage surprises new
• Feed structured voice-of-customer insights into the product roadmap and platform packaging new
• Ensure regulatory and payment network requirements are cleared proactively — before deals reach final negotiation new
• Shape the multi-market expansion playbook and, when the time is right, hire and grow a small team

What we're looking for

• Proven enterprise / institutional sales experience in payments, fintech, or financial services in MENA
• Comfortable as a senior IC — owning the full cycle without a team beneath you (yet)
• Strong executive presence and a track record closing complex, multi-stakeholder deals
• Deep familiarity with payment processing and acquiring models, card network schemes, and MENA's regulatory landscape new
• Experience with SaaS or platform licensing commercial structures — including multi-year contracts, tiered pricing, and integration fees new
• Ability to engage technically — enough to lead solution discovery, assess integration complexity, and challenge or validate engineering assumptions new
• Familiarity with how financial institutions evaluate vendor platforms: RFP processes, security/compliance reviews, and IT governance new
• Understanding of switching costs, incumbent vendor dynamics, and how to position against internal build vs buy decisions new
• A builder mindset — you don't just close deals, you systematise how they get closed

As part of our recruitment process, we process candidate personal data for recruitment and selection purposes. This may include recording or transcription of interviews, AI-assisted summarisation of interview notes, and storage of candidate information in our applicant tracking system. These tools support our recruitment team and do not make final hiring decisions without human review. We retain candidate information only for as long as necessary for the relevant recruitment process, unless you separately agree that we may keep your details for future opportunities.

By submitting your application, you acknowledge that your personal data will be processed in accordance with this notice.