Strategy & Operations Associate

About Alaan

Alaan is an AI-native finance platform for businesses in the Middle East. The platform combines corporate cards, expense management, cross-border payments, accounting automation, treasury, business banking*, and more, with AI doing the work finance teams used to do by hand: coding transactions, chasing approvals and receipts, flagging policy breaches, placing treasury deposits, and closing the books.

Our mission is to simplify finance for businesses so they can save time and money.

Over 3,000 businesses use Alaan, from first-time founders to enterprises like Careem, G42, Tabby, Al Barari, and Rivoli. Since 2022, they have saved more than 2.2 million hours of manual finance work.

Alaan has raised $55Mn to date, including one of the largest Series A rounds in Middle East history, backed by Peak XV (formerly Sequoia India), Y Combinator, 468 Capital, and 885 Capital, among others. Headquartered in Dubai, Alaan has more than 250 employees across its Dubai, Riyadh, and Bangalore offices, with a team that comes from Careem, McKinsey, BCG, Goldman Sachs, Amazon, Revolut, Rippling, and the world's leading firms.

Alaan has been named to the Forbes Fintech 50 list, UAE Future 100 list, selected as an Endeavor company, and ranked the No. 1 spend management platform in EMEA by G2.

*Alaan is a fintech company, not a bank. Business bank accounts are issued by ruya.

About the role

We're looking for a thinker+builder Strategy & Operations Associate to take on some of the most important and often ambiguous projects within the Operations organization at Alaan. This is a role for a strategic generalist who is exceptional at execution. You could be improving a company-wide process, launching a new initiative, solving a cross-functional bottleneck, or building a system from scratch. You'll need to be comfortable moving between thinking strategically and executing meticulously, building relationships across the organization, and stepping into whatever problem needs solving.

What you'll do

• Lead and execute high-impact, cross-functional projects impacting the company's growth and operations.
• Take ambiguous problems and turn them into clear plans, workstreams, owners, timelines, and measurable outcomes.
• Identify operational bottlenecks and broken processes, get to the root cause, and build solutions that can scale.
• Partner with other functions, such as Product, Sales, Customer Success, Growth, to drive company-wide initiatives.
• Conduct analysis and research to bring data and clarity to complex business problems and support decision-making.
• Be a go-to generalist and problem-solver who can quickly step into unfamiliar areas, learn what's needed, and drive the problem to resolution.
• Build systems, dashboards, SOPs, and operating rhythms that make the Operations organization more effective and efficient.

What we're looking for

• 1–3 years of experience, ideally at a top-tier FinTech start-up (eg Revolut, Nubank, Ramp), or a top-tier management consulting firm (eg MBB)
• Strong structured problem-solving, with the ability to turn ambiguity into clear actions.
• High ownership and bias for action — you identify problems, propose solutions, and drive them to completion.
• A curious, first-principles thinker with excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Comfortable operating in a high-velocity, high-ambiguity environment where priorities can evolve quickly.
• Self-sufficient with large data sets using SQL; BI tools are a plus.

What's in it for you

• Contribute to building the Middle East's most beloved fintech brand from the ground up
• Benefit from a role with significant ownership and accountability
• Thrive in a flexible hybrid culture with ample work-life balance
• Participate in exciting offsite events
• Competitive salary and equity
• Enjoy additional perks like travel allowances, gym memberships, and more