linkedin
General Manager, Middle East
Wati
Abu Dhabi, UAE
Full Time
Manager
1 months ago
Go to market strategyRevenue growthPartner ecosystem developmentCustomer relationship managementSales leadershipSaaS
Free
Job Fit Check
Base Career helps you apply smarter for this job.
?%
Ready to ScanKey skills for this role
Go to market strategyRevenue growthPartner ecosystem development
About the Role
Wati is seeking an entrepreneurial General Manager to lead its Middle East expansion. You will own the regional GTM strategy, drive revenue growth, build local partner ecosystems, and coordinate cross-functional execution.
Key Skills for This Role
Go to market strategyRevenue growthPartner ecosystem developmentCustomer relationship managementSales leadershipSaaS
Responsibilities
- Own the Middle East growth strategy across target markets, segments and priority verticals
- Identify the strongest ICPs, customer use cases and market entry opportunities
- Build local traction through direct sales, partnerships, customer relationships and ecosystem development
- Translate market feedback into clear GTM, Product, Partnership and CSM inputs
- Own regional revenue outcomes across new business, expansion and strategic customer opportunities
- Work closely with the AE, CSM and Partner Manager to drive pipeline, conversion, adoption and retention
- Prioritise high potential opportunities and ensure the team is focused on the right customer segments
- Support customer conversations, demos, commercial negotiations and executive engagement where needed
- Develop relationships with agencies, technology partners, WhatsApp / Meta ecosystem players, digital transformation partners and local business communities
- Identify partnership opportunities that can generate higher value customer opportunities
- Work with internal teams to strengthen partner enablement, co selling and co marketing motions
- Help determine where partnerships can drive meaningful revenue versus where direct GTM is more effective
Requirements
- 8+ years of experience in commercial leadership, GTM, sales, partnerships, country management, regional management or business development
- Strong experience in the Middle East market, ideally across UAE, KSA and broader GCC
- Experience selling or scaling SaaS, MarTech, CPaaS, customer engagement, conversational commerce, AI, automation, CRM, support tech or adjacent B2B technology products
- Proven ability to build revenue in a new or developing market
- Strong customer facing capability, including executive conversations, demos, negotiations and relationship building
- Experience working with partners, agencies, channel ecosystems or local market networks
- Strong operating discipline across pipeline, forecasting, prioritisation, follow up and cross functional execution
- Comfortable working in a fast moving, ambiguous environment with high ownership
- Arabic language capability or experience managing Arabic speaking markets
- Experience with WhatsApp Business API, Meta ecosystem, messaging platforms, CPaaS, customer engagement platforms or AI agents
- Experience building a market from 0 to 1 or leading early regional expansion
- Experience with SMB / mid market SaaS motions
Full Job Posting
About the Role
- We are looking for an entrepreneurial General Manager, Middle East to lead Wati's next phase of growth across the region.
- The Middle East is an important growth market for Wati, with strong long term potential across WhatsApp led customer engagement, conversational commerce, AI agents, customer support automation and digital sales workflows.
- This is a market building role combining commercial leadership, local market understanding, customer facing execution, partner ecosystem building and strong operating discipline.
- You will be responsible for building Wati's Middle East presence, driving revenue growth, strengthening local customer and partner relationships, and helping shape the right GTM motion for the region.
What You'll Do
- Build and lead the Middle East GTM motion: own growth strategy, identify ICPs, build local traction, translate market feedback.
- Drive revenue and customer growth: own regional revenue outcomes, work with AE/CSM/Partner Manager, prioritise opportunities, support customer conversations and negotiations.
- Build the local partner and ecosystem motion: develop relationships with agencies, technology partners, Meta ecosystem players, and local business communities.
- Localise Wati's market approach: bring understanding of Middle East customer expectations, shape positioning, identify where Arabic language capability is needed.
- Lead cross functional execution: coordinate with Sales, CSM, Partnerships, SE, AM, Implementation, Product, PMM and RevOps; build operating cadence.
Requirements
- 8+ years of experience in commercial leadership, GTM, sales, partnerships, country management, regional management or business development.
- Strong experience in the Middle East market, ideally across UAE, KSA and broader GCC.
- Experience selling or scaling SaaS, MarTech, CPaaS, customer engagement, conversational commerce, AI, automation, CRM, support tech or adjacent B2B technology products.
- Proven ability to build revenue in a new or developing market.
- Strong customer facing capability, including executive conversations, demos, negotiations and relationship building.
- Experience working with partners, agencies, channel ecosystems or local market networks.
- Strong operating discipline across pipeline, forecasting, prioritisation, follow up and cross functional execution.
- Comfortable working in a fast moving, ambiguous environment with high ownership.
- Arabic language capability or experience managing Arabic speaking markets (strong plus).
- Experience with WhatsApp Business API, Meta ecosystem, messaging platforms, CPaaS, customer engagement platforms or AI agents (strong plus).
- Experience building a market from 0 to 1 or leading early regional expansion (strong plus).
- Experience with SMB / mid market SaaS motions (strong plus).
Why Join Wati?
- Build a Strategic Growth Market: Lead Wati's Middle East expansion at a pivotal stage.
- High Ownership and Visibility: Work closely with leadership and cross functional teams to shape the regional GTM model from the ground up.
- AI Native Product at Scale: Help businesses adopt AI powered customer engagement, AI agents and automation.
- Global Company, Startup Agility: Operate with the speed and ownership of a startup while joining a company with global traction.
- Competitive Compensation And Equity: We offer competitive compensation and meaningful equity upside.
Apply for this job in 1 click
Skip the repetitive application forms
Install the Base Career Chrome Extension and autofill job applications across major job boards with your profile.
Trusted by over 500,000 job seekers on Base Career