VP Corporate Communication – Mashreq

Mashreq is hiring a VP Corporate Communication based in the UAE. Mashreq is one of the UAE’s oldest independent banks, headquartered in Dubai, with retail, corporate, business banking and treasury operations across the region. This role sits in corporate communications and marketing, shaping how the brand is seen externally — across PR, social media and broader brand storytelling — rather than running product marketing campaigns for a single business line.

Day to day, that typically means setting direction for PR and social output, coordinating with agencies and internal stakeholders, managing brand reputation (including during sensitive moments), and reporting against brand KPIs that leadership actually pays attention to. In an organisation the size of Mashreq, this role has to balance consistent brand voice against the reality that different business units often want slightly different things from the same communications team.

Mashreq will be looking for someone with senior communications or PR experience, strong editorial judgement (knowing what to say and, just as importantly, what not to say publicly), and genuine comfort operating at a pace where social and news cycles don’t wait for a sign-off meeting.

Brand and communications work is one of those functions where the value is almost entirely invisible when it's going well, and glaringly obvious the moment it isn't. At an organisation the size and visibility of Mashreq, a single badly handled public moment can undo years of carefully built brand trust, which is exactly why this role exists as a dedicated, senior function rather than something handled ad hoc by whoever's available. The person in this seat is effectively the custodian of how the public, media and social audiences experience the brand day to day, which means judgement calls made here — what to say, what to hold back, how fast to respond — carry real reputational weight. Beyond the defensive side, strong communications work also directly supports commercial goals: a well-managed brand narrative makes every other part of the business's marketing and sales effort land better, because the audience already trusts the name before a specific campaign even starts.

Senior communications experience at a recognised regional name like Mashreq is a strong credential in a market where corporate communications leadership roles are genuinely competitive — it signals that someone has handled real stakes, not just routine press releases. The role also builds a broad network almost as a byproduct: journalists, agency partners and senior internal stakeholders across the business, which tends to be useful for the rest of a communications career regardless of where it goes next. Compensation at this level is typically tax-free and reflects the seniority of the role, usually with a full UAE expatriate benefits package including medical cover, annual leave and often additional allowances. There's also a genuine intellectual upside to the work itself: operating across PR, social and brand strategy at once keeps the skill set broad rather than narrowly specialised, which matters for anyone aiming at a CMO or group communications director track eventually. And because the stakes are real — reputational issues at this scale actually matter to the business — the judgement built in a role like this is the kind that's genuinely hard to fake on a CV; it has to be demonstrated through actual track record. For a VP Corporate Communication role specifically, what actually separates a strong hire from an average one is consistency on the fundamentals, day after day, not any single standout moment.

• Significant experience in corporate communications, PR or brand marketing, ideally at a large organisation
• Strong editorial judgement and crisis/reputation communications instincts
• Experience managing agencies and social media output against brand KPIs
• Excellent written English (Arabic is an advantage in a UAE market role)
• Comfortable operating at speed with senior stakeholder sign-off
• Data-literate enough to report brand performance credibly