Sales Director-Payments

Sales Director-Payments

About the Role

Responsibilities

• Sales strategy & planning
• Define and execute the regional sales strategy across the Middle East
• Deliver annual, quarterly and monthly sales plans, tracking performance against revenue, margin and pipeline targets
• Lead strategic and tactical planning for key markets including the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and wider GCC
• Develop structured account and territory plans to support new business growth and expansion across existing customers
• Drive accurate forecasting, pipeline management, reporting and risk tracking
• Identify market opportunities across financial institutions, processors, merchants and other strategic customer segments
• Shape pricing, commercial strategy and customer engagement models in partnership with internal stakeholders
• Work closely with marketing and regional leadership to define market opportunity and support demand generation
• Monitor competitor activity, sector trends and customer feedback to inform go-to-market strategy
• Leadership & team development
• Lead, coach and motivate a regional enterprise sales team to achieve and exceed revenue targets
• Build a high-performing sales culture focused on accountability, customer outcomes and consistent execution
• Set clear standards around prospecting, account planning, executive engagement, pipeline development and deal progression
• Provide hands-on coaching to help the team develop senior C-level and executive relationships
• Support team members in progressing complex, long-cycle opportunities through to close
• Recruit, develop and retain strong sales talent as the regional business scales
• Drive sales discipline through structured cadence, performance reviews and best-practice adoption
• Create a collaborative and engaged team environment across multiple Middle East markets
• Client relationship & service
• Build and maintain trusted relationships with senior stakeholders across banks, financial institutions and major enterprise customers
• Act as a strategic partner to customers navigating payments transformation and long-term platform decisions
• Support the team in managing complex enterprise sales cycles involving multiple stakeholders and long decision timelines
• Ensure a high standard of customer experience throughout the full sales cycle
• Protect and improve customer satisfaction, loyalty and long-term account value
• Escalate and resolve any issues that could impact customer relationships, delivery confidence or commercial outcomes
• Develop account strategies that move relationships from transactional engagement to long-term strategic partnerships
• Product, pricing & portfolio support
• Work closely with product, solutions, services and finance teams to ensure customer propositions are commercially strong and operationally deliverable
• Support pricing strategy and commercial models for key enterprise opportunities
• Translate customer needs and regional market insight into clear internal feedback
• Partner with internal teams to ensure payment software solutions are positioned competitively and strategically
• Support the development of customer proposals, value propositions and executive-level presentations
• Partnerships & market engagement
• Develop relationships with channel partners, ecosystem players and industry stakeholders to support regional growth
• Represent the business at relevant banking, fintech and payments events across the Middle East
• Use market insight and senior relationships to identify new opportunities and strengthen regional positioning
• Collaborate with internal teams to support partner-led or channel-influenced opportunities
• On-site delivery
• Attend key client meetings, executive briefings, roundtables and industry events across the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the wider Middle East
• Support strategic customer engagement and senior stakeholder meetings where required
• Travel across the region to support team performance, customer relationships and market development

Qualifications

• 10+ years’ experience in financial payments, banking technology, financial software or enterprise technology sales
• 5+ years’ experience in a sales leadership or sales management role
• Strong track record selling enterprise-level payment software or complex financial technology solutions
• Experience selling into banks, financial institutions, processors, merchants or other payment ecosystem customers
• Proven success leading sales teams across the Middle East region
• Demonstrable experience building long-standing relationships with senior client stakeholders
• Strong track record of delivering revenue growth, developing pipeline and closing complex enterprise deals
• Experience operating across UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain or wider GCC markets is highly advantageous
• Arabic language skills would be beneficial but are not essential

Required Skills

• Strong commercial mindset with excellent sales, negotiation and relationship-building skills
• Credible and confident engaging with C-level stakeholders across financial services
• Strategic, patient and consultative approach to complex, long-cycle enterprise sales
• Strong leadership capability with a track record of motivating, developing and attracting high-performing sales talent
• Highly disciplined around forecasting, account planning, pipeline management and CRM accuracy
• Customer-focused, with the ability to balance revenue growth with long-term relationship quality
• Collaborative and able to work effectively across sales, marketing, product, finance and delivery teams
• Resilient, accountable and comfortable operating with significant regional responsibility
• Able to combine strategic leadership with hands-on commercial execution in a fast-moving market