Establishment Services Manager | Emirati Talent – Majid Al Futtaim

The Establishment Services Manager, another Emirati Talent-designated role at Majid Al Futtaim in Dubai, leads all regulatory, licensing, and compliance activities across UAE jurisdictions, overseeing trade license processes, civil defence requirements, and municipality approvals for the group’s portfolio of businesses. Where the Sr. Specialist role executes this work day to day, the Manager owns the function strategically, setting process, managing a team, and owning relationships with government authorities at a more senior level.

The work includes building and maintaining the processes that keep licensing and compliance activities running smoothly across multiple jurisdictions and business units, managing escalations when something more complex arises (a disputed permit, an unusual regulatory requirement, a new business line that doesn’t fit existing processes cleanly), and representing the function at a level senior enough to engage directly with civil defence and municipal authorities on structural issues rather than routine renewals.

As an Emirati Talent role, this position is built to give UAE nationals a genuine leadership seat in corporate governance and regulatory affairs within one of the region’s largest conglomerates.

It suits someone with established experience in UAE regulatory and licensing processes who’s ready to manage a team and own the function’s relationships with government bodies, not just execute individual cases.

Regulatory and licensing compliance across the many jurisdictions and business units a conglomerate like Majid Al Futtaim operates in is a genuine operational risk area: a structural compliance gap, unlike a single missed renewal, can expose the group to broader regulatory or legal exposure across multiple entities at once. The Establishment Services Manager's role in setting sound process and managing escalations well is what prevents that kind of systemic risk from materializing. This role also shapes how efficiently new business initiatives can launch, since any new venture needs its licensing and regulatory groundwork laid correctly from the start. A well-run establishment services function under strong management reduces friction and delay for the group's broader growth plans, which has real commercial value beyond pure risk mitigation. The Manager's judgment on escalations also has a reputational dimension: how the group handles an unusual or sensitive regulatory matter with civil defence or municipal authorities can shape its standing with those same authorities on future matters.

Managing establishment services at this level builds genuine corporate governance leadership experience, owning a regulatory function, managing a team, and engaging directly with government authorities on structural issues, which is exactly the kind of experience that opens doors to Head of Corporate Affairs, Legal Operations, or Chief Compliance Officer-track roles later in a career. Because the role spans civil defence, municipality, and trade licensing matters across multiple business units, it also builds breadth that a narrower compliance role wouldn't offer, which is valuable for anyone aiming at a general corporate governance leadership path rather than a single regulatory specialty. As an Emirati Talent program role specifically, this position is designed to put UAE nationals on a credible, visible trajectory toward senior corporate governance and regulatory leadership roles within one of the region's most prominent conglomerates, which carries real weight for long-term career progression. Managing escalations that genuinely don't fit a standard process also builds a kind of judgment that's hard to teach directly, the ability to make a sound call when the playbook runs out, which is exactly what senior governance and compliance leadership roles require, and it's a judgment that only sharpens with repeated, real exposure to messy, non-standard cases.

• UAE National (Emirati Talent program role)
• Significant experience in UAE trade licensing, civil defence compliance, municipality approvals, or broader corporate regulatory affairs
• Prior experience managing a team or function, ideally within compliance, legal affairs, or corporate services
• Strong relationship management skills for engaging directly with government and municipal authorities
• Ability to design and improve processes across multiple jurisdictions and business units
• Strong judgment for managing escalations and non-routine regulatory situations