---
title: 'Emerging Markets Lead – CIS (Russian speaking) at Column'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/emerging-markets-lead-cis-russian-speaking-column-dubai-ad15vmjwq9mt'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-13'
---

# Emerging Markets Lead – CIS (Russian speaking) at Column

- **Company:** Column
- **Location:** Dubai, United Arab Emirates
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** remote
- **Posted:** 2026-07-24
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-13
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/column/ba34e9e2-f86a-4d02-864e-7370bdc6339e/application

**Skills:** Business Operations, Partnership Management, Deal Execution, Market Intelligence, Project Management, Strategic Planning, Technology Industry Experience, Management Consulting Experience

> The Emerging Markets Lead drives 0-to-1 growth for a new banking product in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. This role involves building relationships with prospective partners and customers, managing complex deal processes, and executing global expansion strategy with significant autonomy.

## Job description

## About Column

For companies building financial technology and transforming the financial services space, the biggest bottleneck to their growth and innovation is often the underlying banks and infrastructure stack they rely on. We have spent our careers founding and scaling companies like Plaid, Square, Meta, Blend, and Affirm, and have seen this problem firsthand — builders and developers needing to partner with traditional banks, and creating API and abstraction layers over the patchwork that is the bank, its core, and many other vendors. All of this results in a complex (and often expensive) banking supply chain involving a user, fintech, BaaS middleware provider, bank, core and the Federal Reserve.

At Column, we set out to simplify and fix this. We are a bank and a software company built from the ground up, offering builders and developers technology-forward banking solutions that cut out the hundreds of vendors, middleware providers, and abstraction layers. This means a safer, more transparent, and less costly banking supply chain. Come build with us!

The opportunity As Column’s Emerging Markets Lead, you will spearhead one of our most strategic international expansion initiatives. In this role, you will be responsible for driving 0-to-1 growth for a new banking product by building and nurturing relationships with prospective partners and customers in select markets, with a specific focus on CIS and Eastern Europe. This role combines global expansion strategy, business development with hands-on relationship management, requiring a general business athlete who thrives on networking and executing complex partnerships. This is a unique opportunity to be on the founding team for a new business line, with significant autonomy and direct impact on Column’s global expansion strategy. This position will be based in Dubai, with regular travel throughout the region and occasional travel to Column’s headquarters in San Francisco.

## What you’ll do

- Lead regional market development: Own the end-to-end process of identifying, evaluating, and executing on high-value partnerships with banks across a number of international markets.
- Build and maintain key relationships: Serve as the primary relationship owner for prospective and existing customers, conducting regular in-person meetings, attending local industry events, and managing ongoing partnership development.
- Own partnership execution: Lead complex deal processes from initial outreach through contract signature, working collaboratively with Column’s Legal, Compliance, and Product teams.
- Develop market intelligence: Gather and synthesize insights on local market conditions, regulatory developments, competitive landscape, and customer needs to inform Column’s regional strategy.
- Market expertise and network: Become an expert on the correspondent banking space in our key emerging markets and build an extensive network within their banking and fintech ecosystems.
- Drive operational excellence: Build scalable processes for onboarding, relationship management, and ongoing support that can be replicated as we expand.

## What you’ll need to be successful

- 6+ years of experience in partnerships, business development, growth, operations or strategy in a high-caliber environment
- 4+ years of business experience specifically in CIS and Eastern European markets
- Native fluency in Russian and experience managing business relationships with Russian-speaking clients and stakeholders
- Track record of successfully managing complex partnerships and high-value deals with executive stakeholders
- Natural networker who thrives on building trust and long-term relationships with senior executives, market experts and decision-makers
- Strong strategic thinking - ability to assess market opportunities, evaluate potential partners, and provide strategic recommendations to senior leadership
- Hyper-organized approach to project management, including coordinating efforts across multiple teams; comfort juggling multiple projects and priorities is critical
- Scrappy, roll-up-your-sleeves attitude - we thrive because we work harder, are more creative, and have zero ego when it comes to getting our hands dirty to build a business

We look forward to hearing from you Column is committed to working with the best and brightest people from the broadest talent pool possible. We value bringing together a team with different perspectives, educational backgrounds, and life experiences, and believe a diversity of ideas is what allows us to develop the best solutions. All qualified individuals are encouraged to apply.

If you need assistance or a reasonable accommodation during the application and recruiting process, please reach out to accommodations@column.com.

We participate in the E-Verify program in certain locations as required by law. Learn more about the E-Verify program [here](https://e-verify.gov).

## About Column

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Column is a nationally chartered bank built from the ground up to provide API-first banking infrastructure for developers and financial institutions, enabling them to build, move, and lend money at scale.
- **Entity Type**: Private (founder-owned, profitable, bootstrapped)
- **Headquarters**: San Francisco, California, United States
- **Founded**: 2021 (launched in 2022)
- **Founders**: William Hockey (CEO, co-founder of Plaid)

## Core Business
- Primary industry: Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) / Financial infrastructure
- Target customers: Technology companies, US banks, international banks, real estate firms – primarily B2B and developer-facing
- Mission statement: To be the new backbone of financial services – a bank that is also a software company, purpose-built to power financial products for the next hundred years.

## Products & Services
- **Bank Accounts**: Programmable checking, savings, trust, subledger, clearing, and sweep accounts. Supports one or millions of account numbers per account, disposable accounts, all FDIC-insured.
- **Payments**: Direct connections to the Federal Reserve, The Clearing House (RTP), Swift, and card networks. Supports ACH, wire, real-time payments, book transfers, and checks.
- **Card Programs**: Full-stack card issuing (debit, credit, unsecured, charge, secured). Customers can bring their own balance sheet or use Column’s.
- **Lending**: Credit origination, warehouse lines, forward flow facilities, and loan purchase programs – all API-accessible.
- **Debt Financing**: Infrastructure to fund new financial products at scale.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation**: Not disclosed (100% founder and employee owned, profitable)
- **Key Metric**: Processes over **$4.5 trillion** in annual transaction volume (source: column.com)
- **Key Metric**: 136 employees as of mid-2025, with **+35.9% year-over-year headcount growth** (linkedin.com)
- **Notable Customers/Partners**: Mercury uses Column; direct connections to Federal Reserve, The Clearing House, Swift; No. 1 issuer of real-time payments in the US.
- **Growth Signals**: Profitable from early stage; global expansion into MENA region (hiring Emerging Markets Lead in Dubai); launching new banking products; strong uptime (99.999%).

## Competitive Advantages
- **Built from scratch**: No middleware or legacy software – Column built its own core, ledger, and data model.
- **Direct infrastructure**: Owns dedicated hardware connecting to Federal Reserve, TCH, and Swift, giving customers granular control and eliminating vendor bloat.
- **API-first design**: Every banking product (accounts, payments, cards, lending) is programmable via APIs.
- **Scale and reliability**: 99.999% uptime (highest of any bank), handles hundreds of billions monthly.
- **Founder-led and independent**: Profitable, employee-owned, and not beholden to external investors – allows long-term product focus.

## Strategic Focus
- **Global expansion**: Entering new geographic markets (MENA, Europe) with dedicated leads and local partnerships.
- **Product depth**: Scaling lending, card programs, and real-time payments; building risk analytics infrastructure to support growth safely.
- **Developer experience**: Continuing to invest in API tooling, documentation, and developer relations to attract more fintech and enterprise builders.

## Why Work Here
- **Culture**: Described as "a bit weird" – not a standard tech or finance company. Emphasis on deep work, async interviews, minimal meetings, and high autonomy.
- **Team size**: Small and intentional (136 people, plans to stay lean). High impact per person – employees own core systems from day one.
- **Work model**: Mostly local in San Francisco Bay Area; open to remote for exceptional candidates. Some roles require travel (e.g., Strategic Partnerships).
- **Perks**: Employee-owned and profitable; focus on employee experience (fewer distractions, more building time); "We have fun" (column.com/company).
- **Hiring process**: Includes async take-home assessments to respect candidate time; emphasizes speed and expertise over lengthy interviews.

## Sources
1. [column.com](https://column.com/)
2. [column.com/company](https://column.com/company)
3. [column.com/careers](https://column.com/careers/)
4. [linkedin.com/company/column-bank](https://www.linkedin.com/company/column-bank)
5. [cbinsights.com/company/column](https://www.cbinsights.com/company/column)

## Other roles at Column

- [Solutions Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/solutions-engineer-column-san-francisco-7fkxtwtbjpwr) — San Francisco, CA
- [Audit, Technology](https://feeny.ai/job/audit-technology-column-san-francisco-1451eqchwpwt) — San Francisco, CA
- [Legal Operations](https://feeny.ai/job/legal-operations-column-san-francisco-ygtpzj2q6h25) — San Francisco, CA
- [Senior Commercial Counsel](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-commercial-counsel-column-san-francisco-d52152az7s24) — San Francisco, CA
- [Emerging Markets Lead – Uzbekistan (Russian and Uzbek speaking)](https://feeny.ai/job/emerging-markets-lead-uzbekistan-russian-and-uzbek-speaking-column-tashkent-yk5mpxeb49z4) — Tashkent, Uzbekistan
- [Correspondent Banking Compliance](https://feeny.ai/job/correspondent-banking-compliance-column-united-states-nz7m88dafcpk) — United States
- [AML Analyst](https://feeny.ai/job/aml-analyst-column-united-states-mvdr60hv2j4h) — United States
- [Payment Operations (New Grad / Early Career)](https://feeny.ai/job/payment-operations-new-grad-early-career-column-san-francisco-b16h93hhtc0k) — San Francisco, CA
- [Digital Assets Compliance](https://feeny.ai/job/digital-assets-compliance-column-san-francisco-08v6hd1q8yes) — San Francisco, CA
- [Senior Counsel, Strategic Partnerships](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-counsel-strategic-partnerships-column-san-francisco-71wy4dk591qp) — San Francisco, CA