About Us Network International is the largest Financial Technology company in Middle East and Africa. Payments is our core business where we provide services in more than 50 countries – UAE, Jordan, South Africa, Egypt are some of our key markets. Apart from payments, we provide services on Data and Insights, Lending, Insurance, Risk Solutions, etc. Our core customers are businesses at every scale and segment, though recently we are growing in direct-to-consumer card segment as well.
Our EVP: At Network International, we always stay ahead. In the fast-paced world of financial services, we thrive on innovation, agility, and purposeful collaboration. We invest first in our people, empowering you to make bold decisions, learn fast, and grow your expertise alongside industry leaders. Here, solving complex problems means more than using cutting-edge technology; it’s about creating meaningful value for our customers, together. We foster a culture where trust, accountability, and achievement go hand in hand—because success isn’t just a goal; it’s how we work, every day, as one team.
About the role:
To lead and scale the Consumer Payments Solutions / Direct Issuing Business, positioning the Network brand as a market leader in consumer and WPS‑based payment solutions, including multi‑currency card programs.
The role is accountable for driving revenue growth, customer acquisition and retention, expanding issuing and WPS propositions, and building strong partner ecosystems while ensuring the highest standards of customer satisfaction, regulatory compliance, and operational excellence across all markets.
The Managing Director will own the end‑to‑end P&L, define and execute strategy, and build a high‑performing organization to deliver sustainable growth across consumer payments, direct issuing, WPS, and multi‑currency card solutions.
ResponsibilitiesStrategy & Business Leadership
- Define and execute the consumer payments, WPS, direct issuing, and multi‑currency card strategy aligned with group objectives.
- Develop and deliver a multi‑year business plan to achieve revenue, profitability, and market share targets.
- Position the Network brand as a preferred partner for consumer issuing, payroll/WPS, prepaid, debit, credit, and multi‑currency card programs.
- Drive expansion into new customer segments, geographies, and use cases.
Revenue Growth & P&L Ownership
- Full P&L ownership for the Consumer Payments and Direct Issuing unit.
- Accountable for B2B and B2B2C sales targets, overall revenue, transaction volumes, float income, and value‑added services.
- Closely monitor business performance, transaction trends, margin analysis, and unit economics to enhance profitability.
- Maximize cross‑sell and up‑sell across issuing, WPS, digital wallets, cards, and VAS.
Direct Issuing & Multi‑Currency Cards
- Lead the Direct Issuing business, including issuer processing, BIN sponsorship, and scheme relationships.
- Drive growth of multi‑currency card portfolios, catering to affluent, travel, remittance, gig‑economy, and expatriate segments.
- Oversee proposition design including pricing, FX models, rewards, wallet integration, and card lifecycle management.
- Ensure competitive differentiation across products, customer experience, and economics.
WPS & Consumer Solutions
- Own the WPS (Wage Protection System) business, including client acquisition, employee data record performance, activations, retention, and usage.
- Drive adoption of consumer value propositions layered on WPS (savings, remittances, digital wallets, NFC, credit, BNPL, FX).
- Coordinate with internal stakeholders to ensure end‑to‑end delivery excellence for corporate and consumer clients.
Partnerships & Market Development
- Establish and maintain strategic alliances with banks, fintechs, employers, regulators, schemes, processors, and ecosystem partners.
- Lead complex commercial negotiations to secure sustainable revenue streams and enhanced service offerings.
- Represent the organization with senior external stakeholders and regulators where required.
People Leadership & Capability Building
- Build, lead, and develop high‑performing sales, product, and business teams.
- Set clear objectives and KPIs; ensure maximum productivity and efficient execution.
- Identify organizational and individual training needs and ensure capability uplift.
- Foster a culture of performance, accountability, collaboration, and ethical conduct.
- Encourage formal and informal feedback to continuously improve team effectiveness.
Governance, Risk & Compliance
- Ensure strict adherence to regulatory, scheme, AML, and compliance requirements across all products and markets.
- Maintain strong governance, controls, and risk management practices.
- Act as a senior escalation point for critical client, operational, or regulatory matters.
Qualifications
Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree required; Master’s preferred (Business, Finance, Technology, or related field).
- 15+ years experience in payments, cards, issuing, or fintech, with strong exposure to consumer payments and/or WPS.
- 7+ years in senior leadership roles with P&L ownership.
- Proven track record of building and scaling direct issuing, WPS, and card businesses.
- Strong experience in Middle East & Africa markets preferred.
- Deep understanding of card schemes, issuing economics, FX, compliance, and regulation.
- English required; Arabic highly desirable.
Core Competencies
- Strategic leadership & commercial acumen
- Consumer & issuer payments expertise
- Sales and distribution strategy
- Negotiation and partner management
- P&L and financial management
- Product innovation and go‑to‑market execution
- People leadership and talent development
- Strong stakeholder management
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What We Do
Over the past 30 years, we have built a business based on long-standing and trusted relationships with many of the leading merchants, financial institutions and payment networks operating in the Middle East and Africa. Such relationships are based on our comprehensive capabilities, scale, local presence in the multiple markets in which we operate, alongside our trusted reputation. This gives us significant scale and leadership in the region, where we operate in more than 50 countries, serve over 130,000 merchants and 250 financial institutions and fintech customers, whilst managing more than 16 million customer credentials. We have a diversified business model and operate across the entire consumer payments value chain. We do this with a growth-focused strategy through two business lines: • That enables our merchant customers to ‘take payments’, by providing them with various payment acceptance methods, both online and offline. • Which supports our financial institution, fintech and other payment issuing institution customers in enabling consumers ‘make payments’, by managing and processing their consumer payment credentials and transactions.
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