---
title: 'Money Laundering Reporting Officer at Tamara'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/money-laundering-reporting-officer-tamara-dubai-m8fv5aevfqnx'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-07'
---

# Money Laundering Reporting Officer at Tamara

- **Company:** Tamara
- **Location:** Dubai, United Arab Emirates
- **Posted:** 2026-08-07
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-07
- **Apply:** https://job-boards.eu.greenhouse.io/tamara/jobs/4942167101

## 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 KSA, UAE and Kuwait, and partners with leading global and regional brands such as SHEIN, Jarir, noon, Amazon, IKEA, eXtra and Farfetch as well as small and medium businesses.

Tamara is Saudi’s first fintech unicorn and is backed by Sanabil Investments, SNB Capital, Checkout.com, amongst others, operating out of its headquarters in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia with other regional and global support offices.

## About the role

The Money Laundering Reporting Officer (MLRO) oversees the financial crime compliance framework at Tamara, a finance company licensed and regulated by the Central Bank of the UAE (CBUAE). Reporting directly to the Head of Compliance, UAE, the MLRO operates as a senior and independent second line control function, supporting the identification, assessment, management, monitoring, and reporting of money laundering, terrorist financing, proliferation financing, targeted financial sanctions, and related financial crime risks across the company.

The role assesses internal suspicious activity referrals, submits Suspicious Transaction Reports (STRs) to the UAE Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) through the approved UAE reporting channels, acts as a key point of contact with the CBUAE and other relevant UAE authorities on financial crime matters, and reports to the Head of Compliance, UAE, Senior Management, and relevant governance forums.

This is a senior position, candidates should have 8 or more years of relevant experience in anti-money laundering (AML), countering the financing of terrorism (CFT), sanctions, or financial crime compliance gained within a regulated financial institution, fintech, finance company, bank, payment service provider, or similar environment, with demonstrated experience engaging with the CBUAE in a comparable financial crime compliance role.

## Your responsibilities

Financial crime framework & risk assessments:

- Maintain and oversee the company’s AML, CFT, countering proliferation financing (CPF), targeted financial sanctions, and financial crime compliance framework, ensuring policies, procedures, methodologies, and controls remain aligned with UAE laws, CBUAE requirements, and internal standards.
- Assess the applicability and impact of new or amended UAE AML, CFT, CPF, and sanctions requirements and support the implementation of required changes across the company.
- Lead the company’s institutional money laundering, terrorist financing, and proliferation financing risk assessment, covering risks relating to customers, products, merchants, delivery channels, geographies, technology, outsourcing, and new business activities.
- Ensure risk assessment outcomes are translated into proportionate controls, monitoring activities, and risk-based priorities.

Customer due diligence & sanctions oversight:

- Establish second line requirements for customer identification, verification, due diligence, enhanced due diligence, beneficial ownership, source of funds, and customer risk classification.
- Provide oversight and challenge of first line onboarding and due diligence controls, review material or high-risk cases escalated to the second line, and advise Senior Management before decisions are taken to onboard or retain high-risk customers.
- Maintain oversight of sanctions, politically exposed persons (PEPs), watchlist, and adverse media screening requirements, and review material sanctions escalations and advise on appropriate action.
- Oversee compliance with applicable UAE targeted financial sanctions requirements, including the implementation of funds freezing measures, the handling of search and freeze instructions received from the relevant UAE authorities, and related reporting obligations

Transaction monitoring & suspicious transaction reporting:

- Oversee the effectiveness of the company’s transaction monitoring arrangements, including scenarios, thresholds, alert handling, investigations, and case management, and review material or complex cases escalated by the first line.
- Escalate control weaknesses, backlogs, data issues, or system limitations affecting financial crime controls and monitor remediation through to closure.
- Assess internal suspicious transaction and activity referrals, determine whether external reporting is required, and submit STRs, Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs), and other applicable reports to the UAE FIU through the approved UAE reporting channels.
- Implement appropriate follow-up actions after reporting, maintain strict confidentiality, prevent tipping off, and maintain records supporting decisions to report or not to report.

Regulatory engagement & governance reporting:

- Act as a key point of contact for the CBUAE, the UAE FIU, and other relevant UAE authorities on AML, CFT, CPF, sanctions, and financial crime matters, including requests from law enforcement agencies.
- Coordinate financial crime regulatory reporting, notifications, inspections, information requests, and supervisory reviews, ensuring submissions are accurate, complete, supported, and completed within applicable timelines.
- Prepare and submit the semi-annual MLRO compliance report to Senior Management and the CBUAE in line with applicable UAE requirements.
- Provide regular reporting to the Head of Compliance, UAE, Senior Management, and relevant governance forums on financial crime risks, control effectiveness, suspicious activity, sanctions matters, breaches, regulatory developments, and remediation progress.
- Escalate significant financial crime concerns, control failures, or regulatory matters to the Head of Compliance, UAE, and Senior Management without undue delay.

Compliance monitoring, remediation & new business:

- Develop and oversee risk-based financial crime monitoring activities, including thematic reviews, file testing, and control assessments.
- Ensure identified gaps and remediation actions are documented, assigned, and tracked to closure, and coordinate with Internal Audit while maintaining the distinction between second line oversight and third line assurance.
- Assess financial crime risks arising from new products, services, technologies, partnerships, outsourcing arrangements, and material business changes, and define the required AML, CFT, sanctions, screening, and monitoring controls before implementation.
- Oversee relevant financial crime controls performed by service providers or group entities supporting the company’s UAE operations.

Training, records & team leadership:

- Oversee the company’s AML, CFT, CPF, sanctions, and financial crime training programme, ensuring training is appropriate to employee roles and risk exposure, including Senior Management and the Board.
- Ensure appropriate records, supporting evidence, management information, and regulatory documentation are maintained in line with UAE record-keeping requirements.
- Lead and develop the UAE Financial Crime Compliance team, maintaining clear responsibilities and appropriate segregation of duties within the function
- Ensure the function has sufficient skills, capacity, systems, and resources, and escalate material resource or capacity constraints to the Head of Compliance, UAE.

## Your expertise

- 8 or more years of relevant experience in AML, CFT, sanctions, financial crime compliance, or a related control function within a regulated financial institution, fintech, finance company, bank, payment service provider, or similar environment.
- Strong understanding of UAE AML, CFT, CPF, and targeted financial sanctions requirements and CBUAE supervisory expectations.
- Demonstrated experience with suspicious transaction reporting, financial crime investigations, institutional risk assessments, regulatory reporting, and financial crime controls.
- Strong report-writing and documentation skills, including the preparation of MLRO reports, regulatory submissions, and governance reporting.
- Strong stakeholder-management skills, with the ability to work effectively with first line teams, Senior Management, regulators, and group functions.
- Ability to oversee and challenge screening, transaction monitoring, due diligence, and case management controls.
- Ability to lead a team and manage sensitive and confidential information with discretion.

## 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

- [Head of Anti-Money Laundering (AML) - Saudi National](https://feeny.ai/job/head-of-anti-money-laundering-aml-saudi-national-tamara-riyadh-92ha4xeecaaz) — Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
- [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
- [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