Establishment Services Manager – Majid Al Futtaim

This Establishment Services Manager role sits within Majid Al Futtaim, with at least four years of people management experience expected given the scope of the position. Establishment services covers the regulatory and administrative backbone a large business needs to operate legally and smoothly across the UAE – trade licensing, permits, government relations and the kind of regulatory requirements that, if mishandled, can quietly become serious operational risks.

Day to day, expect managing a team responsible for licensing and regulatory documentation across the business, liaising with government entities and authorities to keep approvals and renewals moving on time, resolving issues that threaten regulatory compliance before they escalate, and ensuring the wider organisation stays within applicable UAE regulatory requirements at all times. People management is a core part of the role, not an add-on, given the team this role leads.

It suits an experienced establishment services, government relations or regulatory affairs professional with genuine people leadership experience, comfortable navigating UAE regulatory processes and government relationships, and able to keep a sprawling, detail-heavy function running smoothly for a large, diversified business.

Establishment services work rarely makes headlines when it's done well, but it's exactly the kind of function whose failure can stop a business in its tracks - a lapsed licence, a missed regulatory deadline or a mishandled government relationship can halt operations or trigger penalties almost overnight. This Establishment Services Manager role exists to make sure that never happens across Majid Al Futtaim's operations, which, given the scale and diversity of the group's businesses, means managing genuine complexity and volume rather than a handful of straightforward renewals. Because the role carries people management responsibility, its impact also compounds through the team it leads - a well-managed establishment services team catches problems early and keeps regulatory relationships smooth across every part of the business they support. For a large group operating across multiple sectors in the UAE, dependable regulatory readiness at this level is a quiet but essential precondition for everything else the business does.

Leading an establishment services function inside a large, diversified group like Majid Al Futtaim builds a genuinely specialised and high-value skill set: deep fluency in UAE regulatory processes, strong government relations experience, and the people leadership capability to run a detail- intensive team reliably at scale. This combination is harder to find than generalist compliance experience and is consistently in demand across large corporates, free zones and government-adjacent businesses operating in the UAE. The scale of Majid Al Futtaim's operations means exposure to a wide range of regulatory scenarios across different business types, broadening a manager's expertise far beyond what a single-sector business would offer. The people management responsibility built into this role also develops genuine leadership credentials that extend beyond regulatory affairs specifically, since managing a team through detail-heavy, deadline-driven work under regulatory pressure is a transferable leadership skill in its own right. For someone building a long-term career in regulatory affairs, government relations or corporate services, this kind of role is a strong platform toward senior regulatory affairs, head of establishment services or broader corporate services leadership positions within large UAE-based organisations. Because so few professionals build this specific blend of regulatory depth and people leadership, demand for it tends to stay strong even as the wider job market fluctuates.

• At least 4 years of people management experience, ideally within establishment services, government relations or regulatory affairs
• Strong knowledge of UAE trade licensing, permits and regulatory processes
• Experience liaising directly with UAE government entities and authorities
• Proven ability to lead and develop a team handling detail-heavy regulatory work
• Strong organisational skills to track approvals, renewals and compliance deadlines across a large business
• Problem-solving mindset for resolving regulatory issues before they become operational risks