VP Sales, MENA & Africa

About the role

A loan management platform for banks, MFIs and fintechs is looking for a VP Sales covering MENA and Africa. The client is recruiting on behalf of a confidential client. The role runs the entire go-to-market for the region, closing the first wave of flagship deals personally, then building a team of account executives and partner managers. It is based in Beirut or remotely within MENA or Africa, with travel expected.

Key responsibilities

• Own the regional pipeline, forecast and closed ACV
• Close the first wave of flagship deals personally, working with CFOs and other executives
• Build the team once the playbook is proven, hiring AEs and partner managers across GCC, Levant, North Africa, East Africa, West Africa and Southern Africa
• Design the motion: direct sales, channel partners, SI relationships (Big 4, regional integrators) and co-sell with cloud partners
• Work with product to feed customer signal back to engineering and shape the regional roadmap (Sharia-compliant lending, IFRS 9, local regulatory reporting, Arabic/French localization)

Required profile

• 10+ years selling enterprise software to banks, MFIs or financial institutions, ideally core banking, lending, risk or payments
• Personal track record of closing $1M+ ACV deals with 6 to 18 month cycles and running RFPs
• Live relationships with Heads of Retail, SME, Digital, Credit, Risk or CIOs at banks across MENA and Africa
• Experience at vendors such as Finastra, Temenos, Oracle FS, TCS BaNCS, Nucleus, Intellect, Mambu, Backbase, nCino or a regional SI, or as a strong regional AE at a fintech scale-up
• Fluent English; Arabic and/or French is a major plus
• Comfortable as the first senior sales hire in a region, willing to travel 40 to 60%

Applicants apply through the recruiter by sharing three deals they personally closed in banks or FIs in MENA or Africa, the hardest deal they ever lost, and why this opportunity matters now.