Director Business Development - MENA Region

Management Controls Inc. (MCi) is excited to expand its presence in the MENA region by bringing aboard a Director of Business Development – MENA Region to our dynamic team. 

This role provides strategic leadership for new business growth, market expansion, and enterprise-level prospect development across the Middle East and North Africa. The Director owns the MENA business development strategy and regional pipeline-generation function, builds relationships with executive and government-linked stakeholders, identifies priority countries, industries, partners, and routes to market, and aligns Sales, Marketing, Product, and Services resources to create sustainable regional revenue opportunities. This role serves as the company’s strategic advisor on MENA market dynamics, customer needs, commercial practices, and regional growth priorities while establishing the processes, metrics, and capabilities required to scale MCi’s presence across the region.

This position is based in the United Arab Emirates and is subject to applicable UAE employment laws and regulations and the employee's MOHRE-approved employment contract. Where applicable, employment terms and conditions will be governed by the executed employment contract and applicable UAE law.

• Develop, own, and execute the MENA enterprise business development strategy and annual operating plan in alignment with company growth objectives.
• Build and maintain a multi-year MENA growth roadmap covering priority countries, target industries, strategic accounts, channel opportunities, and partnerships.
• Lead country-level market analysis and opportunity assessment across the Middle East and North Africa to prioritize high-value segments, emerging markets, competitive whitespace, and effective routes to market.
• Own MENA top-of-funnel performance and pipeline creation, with accountability for opportunity quality, stage progression, forecast visibility, and contribution to regional revenue goals.
• Lead, coach, and develop business development professionals supporting the MENA region; establish clear goals, operating rhythms, performance standards, and succession plans.
• Build executive-level relationships with prospective customers, government-linked entities, industrial operators, industry partners, associations, and strategic stakeholders throughout MENA.
• Identify, evaluate, and develop regional channel, referral, implementation, and strategic alliance partners that can accelerate market access and customer success.
• Provide regional customer and market intelligence to inform product strategy, localization, go-to-market positioning, pricing, packaging, contracting, and service offerings.
• Represent the company in executive meetings, industry forums, conferences, and strategic customer engagements across the MENA region.
• Oversee strategic MENA industry affiliations, memberships, conferences, and events; measure their contribution to pipeline, partnerships, and brand credibility.
• Direct qualification and advancement of complex MENA enterprise opportunities, including discovery, solution positioning, demonstrations, executive presentations, proposals, tenders, and RFP responses.
• Partner with Sales, Marketing, Product, Consulting, Managed Services, and other functional leaders to coordinate regionally relevant pursuit strategies and resources.
• Establish and continuously improve MENA business development methodologies, playbooks, qualification criteria, account planning standards, localization practices, and handoff processes.
• Ensure disciplined CRM governance, accurate regional pipeline data, consistent activity tracking, and timely executive reporting on targets, conversion trends, risks, and growth opportunities.
• Develop MENA market-entry business cases, country prioritization recommendations, partnership models, and investment proposals for executive review.
• Monitor regional competitor activity, industry trends, public- and private-sector investment priorities, regulatory developments, data requirements, and customer priorities that may affect the company’s MENA growth strategy.
• Collaborate with Sales Operations, Finance, and Legal on territory planning, capacity assumptions, pipeline analytics, regional budgeting, commercial terms, contracting considerations, and return-on-investment analysis.
• Champion responsible use of approved AI tools to improve regional prospect research, market analysis, outreach personalization, pipeline insights, and business development productivity, while validating outputs and following company governance standards. 

•  Bachelor’s degree in Business, Marketing, Finance, Engineering, or a related field; MBA or other advanced degree preferred.
• 10+ years of progressive experience in business development, enterprise sales, corporate development, strategic partnerships, or a related growth function, including substantial responsibility for the MENA region.
• 5+ years of leadership experience building, managing, and developing business development or sales teams.
• Demonstrated success developing markets and generating qualified enterprise pipeline across the Middle East and North Africa, including advancing complex B2B opportunities with long sales cycles and multiple stakeholders.
• Strong knowledge of MENA business practices, customer expectations, procurement and tender processes, partner ecosystems, and country-specific market dynamics.
• Established network of senior customer, partner, industry, and government-linked relationships within priority MENA markets preferred.
• Experience creating and executing regional business development strategies, country plans, budgets, performance metrics, and executive-level reporting.
• Proven ability to build relationships and influence senior executives, prospective customers, partners, and cross-functional leaders across diverse cultures and business environments.
• Strong commercial judgment with experience evaluating country and market attractiveness, customer needs, competitive positioning, localization requirements, and return on investment.
• Advanced proficiency with CRM platforms, pipeline analytics, forecasting, dashboards, and data-driven decision-making.
• Experience leading complex proposals, tenders, RFP responses, demonstrations, negotiations, and executive presentations in MENA markets.
• Ability to translate technical products and services into clear business value for executive and operational audiences.
• Excellent spoken and written English communication skills, including polished executive presentation and facilitation capabilities; Arabic proficiency is strongly preferred, and French proficiency is beneficial for North African markets.
• High cultural fluency and demonstrated ability to navigate relationship-driven business environments, local decision-making structures, and cross-border stakeholder expectations.
• Strong strategic thinking, analytical, problem-solving, prioritization, and decision-making skills in ambiguous, deadline-driven environments.
• Demonstrated ability to collaborate across Sales, Marketing, Product, Technology, Finance, Legal, and Services organizations.
• Advanced proficiency in Microsoft Office, especially PowerPoint and Excel.
• Experience in enterprise SaaS, contractor management, industrial operations, energy, petrochemicals, maintenance, procurement, or adjacent MENA markets preferred.
• Knowledge of practical applications for AI in business development, including research, account prioritization, content development, workflow automation, and pipeline analysis.
• Ability and willingness to travel frequently throughout the MENA region and internationally as business needs require.