Governance Manager

About Us

Tamara is the leading fintech platform to shop, pay and bank in Saudi Arabia and the wider GCC region, and Saudi’s first fintech unicorn. Tamara’s mission is to empower people in their daily lives and revolutionize how they shop, pay, and bank. Tamara serves millions of users in KSA, UAE, and Kuwait, and partners with leading global and regional brands such as SHEIN, Jarir, noon, IKEA, eXtra, and Farfetch as well as thousands of SMEs. Tamara is backed by Sanabil Investments, SNB Capital, Checkout.com, amongst others.

About the Role

We are looking for a motivated and detail-oriented Governance Manager to join our Governance team. In this role, you will be the focal point for governance matters and play a key part in ensuring the organization’s activities, decisions, and documentation align with applicable regulatory requirements and internal governance standards. Working closely with stakeholders across Legal, Compliance, Risk, and relevant business teams, you will coordinate governance forums and approvals, maintain accurate governance records (e.g., charters, policies, minutes, decisions, and action logs), and support effective oversight to ensure consistent, transparent, and well-controlled ways of working.

Your Responsibilities

1) Governance framework & oversight

• Develop, Maintain and continuously improve the company’s governance framework (committees, charters, RACI, escalation paths, decision logs) to ensure clear accountability and effective oversight.
• Ensure governance practices support regulatory compliance, prudent risk management, and control effectiveness across the organization.
• Coordinate governance inputs for senior management and Board/committees, ensuring materials are complete, consistent, and decision-ready.

2) Policy governance (end-to-end policy lifecycle)

• Develop, Own and operate the Policy Governance / Policy Approval Framework (policy lifecycle, ownership, periodic reviews, approvals, version control, publication, and retirement).⁠
• Maintain a central policy inventory and ensure each policy has: owner, standard operating procedures, scope, applicability (KSA/Group), approval authority, effective date, review frequency, and evidence of review/approval (audit trail).⁠
• Ensure policies are up to date and mapped to regulatory obligations (including SAMA where applicable), and that outdated policies are withdrawn from circulation.

3) Regulatory obligations mapping & evidence readiness

• Maintain a structured regulatory obligations register / compliance mapping, linking SAMA requirements to internal policies, controls, SOPs, and evidence artifacts (including ownership and testing cadence).⁠
• Ensure “evidence packs” are prepared and retrievable for regulatory visits/requests (e.g., approvals, logs, attestations, training completion, control results, remediation evidence).⁠

4) SAMA regulatory engagement coordination (operational readiness)

• Coordinate inputs and internal reviews for SAMA requests, ensuring responses are accurate, consistent, approved through the right governance channels, and supported by evidence.
• Track SAMA-related commitments and deadlines (submissions, assessments, required templates, periodic updates) and drive internal follow-ups to avoid delays and gaps.⁠
• Enforce internal rules on external sharing of policies and sensitive governance documents, ensuring only approved/current versions are shared and appropriate review is completed.⁠

5) Management of SAMA observations & remediation governance

• Own the governance process for SAMA observations: logging, assigning owners, setting milestones, tracking progress, and escalating overdue items.
• Ensure remediation actions include clear root-cause, corrective/preventive actions, testing/validation, and closure evidence.⁠

6) Committee governance & secretariat support

• Act as governance secretariat (or coordinate it) for relevant committees: schedule cadence, agendas, minutes, actions, decision documentation, and follow-up tracking.
• Ensure committee outputs (decisions, approvals, exceptions) are documented and translated into actionable changes (policy updates, control changes, training, communications).

7) Governance on key enterprise processes (controls around change)

• Implement governance gates for high-impact changes that typically matter for regulators (policy changes, control changes, risk acceptances/exceptions, customer-impacting processes).
• Ensure changes have: justification, approvals, effective date, communications, and post-implementation review where needed.

8) Assurance coordination (Internal Audit / compliance monitoring support)

• Coordinate governance responses to audit/compliance reviews: provide documentation, evidence trails, and management action plans; track closure.
• Maintain governance documentation that supports “auditability” (clear lineage from requirement → policy/control → evidence).

9) Awareness & accountability culture

• Drive policy awareness mechanisms: publication standards, communications, owner training, periodic attestations where needed.
• Support consistent governance practices across departments (templates, minimum documentation standards, “what good looks like”).

10) Reporting & MI to management

• Produce governance reporting for senior stakeholders (e.g., policy compliance status, overdue reviews, open regulatory items, remediation progress, upcoming SAMA deadlines).⁠

Your expertise

• Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, Law, or a related field.
• 5 - 8 years of experience in a Corporate Governance 
• Experience within the Banking or Financial institutions in the Saudi market and familiar with SAMA & CMA regulations, policies & requirements.
• Corporate governance fundamentals (Board/committees/executive roles, decision rights, delegation of authority)
• Board & committee operations (agenda planning, annual calendar, minutes/resolutions, action tracking, evidence filing)
• Regulatory & compliance awareness for financial services (governance expectations and regulatory interactions)
• Policy governance & document control (draft–review–approval–publish–review cycle, versioning, owners, exceptions)
• Risk, audit, and control mindset (traceability, audit-ready records, governance artefacts and approvals)
• Strong executive communication & writing (clear minutes, memos, policies, presentations/Board packs)
• Stakeholder management & facilitation (align Legal/Compliance/Risk/Finance; manage senior stakeholders)
• Planning & delivery discipline (manage deadlines, follow-ups, multiple governance workstreams)
• High attention to detail, confidentiality, and sound judgment with sensitive information
• Tools proficiency (Notion/SharePoint/document repositories; trackers/registers; MS Office)