Executive profiles

Founding Chief Technology Officer (CTO)

FinTech · MENA · United Arab Emirates · Dubai, UAE

Total compensation band $250K+. The figure is the member's band, not an offer.

This executive is a founding CTO with over 15 years of experience building regulated fintech and banking technology functions across the Middle East, US, EU, and CIS. Core expertise spans launching licensed financial entities from scratch, including full enterprise architecture, regulatory engagement, and IT governance under frameworks like SAMA and TADAWUL. This leader has managed multi-country IT operations for global institutions including Citibank, Deutsche Bank, and Credit Suisse-adjacent engagements, and is now applying AI/ML and intelligent automation strategy to regulated financial products. Strong track record of building teams and infrastructure from zero under tight regulatory and time constraints.

Achievements

• Built two greenfield fintech entities in Saudi Arabia from zero as founding CTO with a $2M+ IT budget
• Launched Credit Broker MVP in 5 months with PDPL-compliant, cost-optimized cloud architecture
• Led four successive IT transformation mandates at Citibank across MENA and CIS over 5 years
• Split a shared Russia/Ukraine IT cluster of 40 applications into separate entities under crisis conditions
• Rebuilt Citibank's Saudi Arabia MSST department from scratch and passed the TADAWUL regulatory audit

Skills

• CTO Leadership
• Enterprise Architecture
• Technical Leadership
• Vendor Management
• Data Governance
• AI Leadership
• Compliance Management
• Disaster Recovery
• FinTech
• Cloud Security
• Agile Product Development
• Team Building
• SAMA/TADAWUL Regulatory Licensing
• Greenfield Financial Entity Launch

Looking for

• Chief Technology Officer
• Chief Information Officer
• Head of Technology

Experience

• Founding Chief Technology Officer (CTO) — Digital Finance International Sep 2024 - Present

  Founding CTO for two greenfield regulated entities in Saudi Arabia (MFI and Credit Broker), owning enterprise architecture, regulatory licensing, IT team formation, and a $2M+ IT budget.

• Regional IT Head, MENA & CIS — Citibank NA (UAE) Dec 2019 - Aug 2024

  Led four successive IT transformation mandates across MENA and CIS for Markets Security Services Technology and Treasury and Trade Solutions, managing crisis response, regulatory audits, and cross-border IT infrastructure.

• Delivery Lead (PM, PO) — Luxoft (DXC Technology) Dec 2015 - Dec 2019

  Served as Product Owner and Solution Architect for Deutsche Bank's Entitlement Management system and as Agile Scrum Product Owner for Capital Group's trade applications platform.

• Data Manager — Tercon Consulting Sep 2013 - Nov 2015

  Analyzed organizational and project data for Dow Chemical and Saudi Aramco capital projects, building reporting frameworks that reduced manual data collection by ~40%.

Languages

• English (C2)
• Russian (C2)
• Polish (B1)

Anonymous until this leader says yes. No name, no photo, no contact details. An introduction is sent only after they accept.

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