[Hiring] General Manager @WATI.io

Role Description

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
• Digital sales workflows

This is a market-building role. We are looking for someone who can combine:

• Commercial leadership
• Local market understanding
• Customer-facing execution
• Partner ecosystem building
• Strong operating discipline

You will be responsible for:

• Building Wati’s Middle East presence
• Driving revenue growth
• Strengthening local customer and partner relationships
• Helping shape the right GTM motion for the region

This role is ideal for someone who is hands-on, commercially sharp, comfortable operating in ambiguity, and able to move between strategy and execution.

Qualifications

• 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

Requirements

• 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, including sales-assisted, partner-led and self-serve motions
• Experience working in a lean regional pod model with shared central resources
• Existing network across Middle East SaaS, agencies, digital transformation, Meta / WhatsApp ecosystem, e-commerce or customer engagement communities

Benefits

• Lead Wati’s Middle East expansion at a pivotal stage
• Work closely with leadership and cross-functional teams
• Help businesses adopt AI-powered customer engagement, AI agents and automation
• Operate with the speed and ownership of a startup
• Competitive compensation and meaningful equity upside

What Success Looks Like

In the first 3–6 months, success would look like:

• Clear Middle East GTM plan across priority countries, ICPs, verticals and channels
• Strong pipeline generation and improved prioritisation of high-value opportunities
• Local partner / ecosystem map with clear near-term opportunities
• Stronger customer feedback loop into Product, PMM, CSM and RevOps
• Better regional operating cadence across AE, CSM, Partner Manager and shared support resources
• Clear recommendations on what Wati needs to scale in the Middle East