Director of Public Policy - Middle East

About the team

Careem Rides is a leading technology platform for the greater Middle East and a pioneer of the region’s ride-hailing economy. Careem’s mission is to simplify and improve the lives of people and build a lasting institution that inspires. 

About the role

Our ambition is to be globally recognized as the most valued and trusted digital platform for our region – partnering with governments to build the digital backbone for our markets and citizens. 

Careem Rides is looking to recruit a Director of Public Policy Middle East to drive the Company’s corporate affairs and public policy agenda and build sustainable long-term regulatory frameworks for our businesses, customers, Captains and government partners across the Middle East. This is a senior role at the region’s largest technology company and platform. 

The role is Riyadh/Dubai based but will require frequent travel and reports into the Director, Public Policy Middle East and Africa at Uber. The Director of Public Policy will also work closely with the Managing Directors and General Managers that drive business growth, as well as colleagues across our markets. 

What you'll do

• Planning and executing all aspects of government, policy and regulatory engagement strategies and corporate affairs campaigns across Careem’s Rides businesses 
• Engaging at senior levels with a diverse set of government and non-government based stakeholders in each market to advocate for and implement win-win regulatory outcomes for the Company and its government partners. 
• Being one of the primary interfaces for all senior level government interactions and the Company’s lead negotiator and/or interlocutor with sector regulators, technology and investment focused government entities, key ministries such as Transportation, Labour, and Finance. 
• Identifying, mapping, and executing on strategies to engage with non-government stakeholders (including media) for Careem’s core businesses across all markets. 
• Prioritisation of public policy objectives, risk, and opportunities across Careem’s markets and businesses and maintaining and ensuring allocation of appropriate public policy resources in line with such prioritisation. 
• Identifying and executing on strategic partnerships (government and non-government) that deliver strategic value to Careem. 
• Driving internal communications and the creation of case studies and other content to demonstrate the scope of work of the function within the company. 
• Team management and capacity building. It is anticipated that the candidate will have 1-2 direct reports in the region. 

What you'll need

The ideal candidate will be extremely rigorous, exceptionally organized, committed to a very high quality of work product, and sense a strong commitment to Careem’s mission. 

He/she will have leadership experience in the Middle East (predominantly Saudi Arabia/ UAE); with a regulatory, government, public affairs, legal, or management consulting background with outstanding attention to detail in terms of reading, writing and content creation; strong diplomatic and advocacy skills with a firm alignment with our core values: being bold, focused, agile and collaborative. 

The ideal candidate must have outstanding ability with respect to building and communicating positions (with economic and quantitative justifications) in an extremely concise and compelling way. 

Additional qualifications include: 

• 8-10 years of Middle East experience in a progressive government environment, having worked in a private company in a corporate affairs, policy, or regulatory capacity across multiple jurisdictions, having worked in a top law firm or management consultancy, a communications or public affairs environment, a multilateral development agency, or a combination of the above. 
• Have managed a public policy, regulatory, and communications team across multiple geographies. 
• Highly analytical ability with respect to reviewing, developing and delivering outstanding policy content, white papers; and (ii) developing quantitative and economic analysis to justify Careem’s policy positions. 
• Arabic speaker.