--- title: 'Head of Anti-Money Laundering (AML) - Saudi National at Tamara' canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/head-of-anti-money-laundering-aml-saudi-national-tamara-riyadh-92ha4xeecaaz' type: 'job' last_seen: '2026-09-07' --- # Head of Anti-Money Laundering (AML) - Saudi National at Tamara - **Company:** Tamara - **Location:** Riyadh, Saudi Arabia - **Posted:** 2026-09-03 - **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-07 - **Apply:** https://job-boards.eu.greenhouse.io/tamara/jobs/4964015101 ## Job description ## About Us Tamara is the leading fintech platform in Saudi Arabia and the wider GCC region with a mission to help people make their dreams come true by building the most customer-centric financial super-app on earth. The company serves millions of users in the region and partners with leading global and regional brands such as SHEIN, Jarir, noon, IKEA and Amazon, as well as small and medium businesses. Tamara is Saudi Arabia’s first fintech unicorn and is backed by Sanabil Investments, a wholly owned company by the Public Investment Fund (PIF), SNB Capital, Checkout.com, amongst others. The company operates from its headquarters in Riyadh, with additional regional and global support offices. ## Your Role The Head of AML will lead and manage the overall operations, activities, and responsibilities of the AML/CTF Department, reporting administratively to the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and functionally to the Audit Committee. The role is responsible for developing, implementing, and maintaining the company’s Anti-Money Laundering, Counter-Terrorist Financing, and Proliferation Financing (AML/CTF/PF) framework in Saudi Arabia. This includes ensuring compliance with the Saudi Anti-Money Laundering Law and its Implementing Regulations, SAMA requirements, SAFIU reporting obligations, and applicable Targeted Financial Sanctions requirements. The Head of AML will work closely with business and control functions to identify and assess financial-crime risks, ensure that effective controls are implemented consistently across the company, remediate identified gaps, and promote a strong culture of AML/CTF/PF compliance. ## Your Responsibilities - AML/CTF/PF Framework and Controls: Develop, implement, monitor, and continuously enhance the company’s AML/CTF/PF framework and controls to ensure their effectiveness and alignment with applicable regulatory requirements. - Oversight of AML/CTF/PF Operations: Lead and oversee the AML/CTF Unit’s activities, ensuring that all responsibilities are performed effectively and that identified control or process deficiencies are addressed promptly. - Policies and Procedures: Develop, maintain, and periodically review the company’s AML/CTF/PF policies, procedures, standards, and operating controls to reflect regulatory developments, emerging risks, and relevant industry practices. - Enterprise-Wide Risk Assessment: Oversee the identification and assessment of money laundering, terrorist financing, and proliferation financing risks arising from the company’s customers, products, services, transactions, delivery channels, and geographic exposure. - Stakeholder Management and Advisory: Build and maintain effective relationships with key internal stakeholders and provide guidance and advice on AML/CTF/PF risks, regulatory requirements, new products, business initiatives, and control enhancements. - Sanctions and PEP Screening: Oversee sanctions, Targeted Financial Sanctions, and politically exposed person screening controls, including alert investigation, escalation, decision-making, freezing measures, and regulatory reporting where applicable. - Board and Senior Management Reporting: Provide the CEO and Audit Committee with regular reports on the company’s AML/CTF/PF risk exposure, control effectiveness, key performance indicators, material cases, regulatory developments, identified deficiencies, and the status of remediation actions. - Stakeholder Management and Advisory: Build and maintain effective relationships with key internal stakeholders and provide guidance, awareness, and advice on AML/CTF/PF risks, requirements, and controls. - Transaction Monitoring & Alert Management: Oversee transaction monitoring mechanisms ensuring effective rule tuning, threshold settings, and scenario management to minimize false positives. - Suspicious Activity Reporting: Ensure that unusual activities are investigated appropriately and that suspicious transaction or activity reports are submitted accurately, confidentially, and within the applicable timelines to the Saudi Financial Intelligence Unit through official reporting channels. - Regulatory Engagement: Act as the primary point of contact for AML/CTF/PF matters and coordinate timely, accurate, and complete responses to requests, inspections, and inquiries from SAMA, SAFIU, and other competent authorities. - Team Leadership: Manage and develop the AML/CTF team, establish clear responsibilities and performance expectations, and ensure the function has appropriate resources, knowledge, systems, and capabilities. ## Your expertise - At least 6 + years of relevant experience in AML/CTF, financial-crime compliance, regulatory compliance, or a related field, including experience in a leadership or management role under SAMA supervision. - Previously approved / pre-approved by SAMA is highly desirable, but not mandatory. - Strong knowledge of the Saudi AML/CTF regulatory framework, SAMA requirements, SAFIU reporting obligations, Targeted Financial Sanctions, and relevant international standards. - Extensive experience in transaction monitoring, alert and case management, suspicious activity investigations, sanctions screening, and AML system capabilities. - Strong understanding of money laundering, terrorist financing, and proliferation financing risks, typologies, red flags, and control practices. - leadership, communication, and interpersonal skills. - Strong leadership, analytical, decision-making, communication, and stakeholder-management skills. - Ability to handle sensitive and confidential matters with sound judgment, independence, and integrity. - Relevant professional certification, such as CAMS, an ICA qualification, or an equivalent financial-crime compliance certification. - Due to SAMA regulations we are looking to hire a saudi national in this role. ## About Tamara ## Company Overview - **One-liner**: Tamara is the leading fintech platform in Saudi Arabia and the GCC region, offering Sharia-compliant buy now, pay later (BNPL) and payment solutions through a customer-centric financial super-app. - **Entity Type**: Private (Series? – Unicorn stage, backed by top investors) - **Headquarters**: Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (King Abdullah Branch Road, King Salman District) - **Founded**: 2020 - **Founders**: Not publicly available (company was founded in 2020 by a team; individual founder names not disclosed in provided sources) ## Core Business - **Primary industry/industries**: Fintech (BNPL, payments, consumer finance) - **Target customers**: B2C (consumers) and B2B (merchants, from SMBs to global brands) - **Mission or purpose statement**: “To help people make their dreams come true by building the most customer-centric financial super-app on earth” (from Greenhouse careers page) / “Empower people in their daily lives and revolutionize how they shop, pay, and bank” (from docs.tamara.co) ## Products & Services For each major offering: - **Tamara Bundle**: Includes Pay in Full and Split in 2/3/4 payment products – flexible, transparent, no hidden fees or interest. - **Split in Installments**: Allows customers to split purchase amounts into multiple installments (varies by retail category and ticket size). - **Pay in Full**: Customers pay the total order value upfront via Tamara, with no added fees or interest. - **Online & In-store Solutions**: Tamara’s payment methods work both for e-commerce and physical retail. - **Merchant Services**: Boost conversion and AOV, reduce fraud/credit risk, receive upfront payment while customers pay over time, and manage transactions/returns via a dashboard. ## Market Standing - **Valuation/Market Cap**: $2.107 billion (as of latest funding round – CB Insights lists valuation at $2.107B, making Tamara Saudi Arabia’s first fintech unicorn) - **Key Metric**: Total funding raised = $2.107 billion (includes equity and lines of credit; latest round was a Line of Credit - II of $1.4B about 9 months ago) - **Notable Investors/Partners**: Sanabil Investments (wholly owned by PIF), SNB Capital, Checkout.com, Goldman Sachs, Citi Alternative Investments, Apollo Global Management, W2 Investments, Shorooq Partners (22+ investors total). Key merchant partners: SHEIN, Jarir, noon, IKEA, Amazon. - **Growth Signals**: Serves millions of users across Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Bahrain; expanding globally with offices in Riyadh, Dubai, Cairo, Vietnam, India, Germany, and remote; strong headcount growth visible in open roles across engineering, data, risk, product, and care. ## Competitive Advantages - **First-mover & unicorn status** in Saudi Arabia’s fintech space. - **100% Sharia-compliant** certification by Shariyah Review Bureau – a key differentiator in the region. - **Strong backing** from PIF-linked investors and global financial institutions. - **Deep merchant integrations** with top regional and global brands (SHEIN, IKEA, Amazon, etc.). - **Customer-centric super-app vision** combining payments, shopping, and banking in one platform. ## Strategic Focus - Build the most comprehensive financial super-app in the GCC, expanding product offerings beyond BNPL (e.g., banking, credit). - Scale across the region (already in Saudi, UAE, Bahrain) and enter new markets. - Invest in data, AI, and engineering talent to enhance risk management, personalization, and customer experience. - Maintain Sharia compliance while innovating payment flexibility. ## Why Work Here - **Culture highlights**: “Customer Obsessed”, “Ownership”, “Resilience”, “Curiosity”, “One Team, One Mission” – strong emphasis on trust, simplicity, and being “everywhere people need us.” - **Work policy**: Hybrid/remote options available – offices in Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Vietnam, India, Germany, plus fully remote roles (per Greenhouse careers page). - **Notable perks/engineering culture**: “We hire for human qualities, not just skills”; focus on continuous learning, data-informed decision-making, and building scalable systems; global team with diverse backgrounds; roles in engineering (backend, Flutter, QA), data science, risk, product design, and more. - **Growth opportunity**: As a fast-growing unicorn, employees can have high impact and career acceleration. ## Sources 1. [Greenhouse – Jobs at Tamara](https://job-boards.eu.greenhouse.io/tamara) 2. [Tamara – Life at Tamara](https://tamara.co/en-kw/life-at-tamara) 3. [CB Insights – Tamara Profile](https://www.cbinsights.com/company/tamara) 4. [Tamara Docs – Introduction to Tamara](https://docs.tamara.co/docs/introduction-to-tamara) 5. [Tamara Careers Page](https://tamara.co/en-sa/careers) ## Other roles at Tamara - [People Business Partner](https://feeny.ai/job/people-business-partner-tamara-riyadh-q3jnh0p1j031) — Riyadh, Saudi Arabia - [Public Engagement Lead](https://feeny.ai/job/public-engagement-lead-tamara-riyadh-1aq44577v06t) — Riyadh, Saudi Arabia - [Data Governance Lead](https://feeny.ai/job/data-governance-lead-tamara-riyadh-tp7bt1398rqf) — Riyadh, Saudi Arabia - [Customer Care Manager - UAE](https://feeny.ai/job/customer-care-manager-uae-tamara-cairo-ng0n39p5aqaq) — Cairo, Egypt - [Quality Lead](https://feeny.ai/job/quality-lead-tamara-riyadh-gp6vmxakd3vr) — Riyadh, Saudi Arabia - [People Operations Senior Associate](https://feeny.ai/job/people-operations-senior-associate-tamara-cairo-885465rvzj8c) — Cairo, Egypt - [Real-Time Analyst (RTA)](https://feeny.ai/job/real-time-analyst-rta-tamara-riyadh-gkgzm74s0q9d) — Riyadh, Saudi Arabia - [Money Laundering Reporting Officer](https://feeny.ai/job/money-laundering-reporting-officer-tamara-dubai-m8fv5aevfqnx) — Dubai, United Arab Emirates - [Collections Operations Lead](https://feeny.ai/job/collections-operations-lead-tamara-dubai-4n3hyw14j6rj) — Dubai, United Arab Emirates - [CRM Specialist](https://feeny.ai/job/crm-specialist-tamara-dubai-g8ymxvzgrraw) — Dubai, United Arab Emirates