Financial Markets Advisory Director, Middle East

About FMA 

BlackRock's Financial Markets Advisory (FMA) team provides strategic advice and execution support to clients across capital markets, portfolio management and transaction advisory. Our clients include sovereign wealth funds, central banks, government entities, asset owners, banks, insurers and other financial institutions. 

We support clients on their most critical and complex financial issues, including strengthening connectivity with capital markets, designing investment and financing strategies, optimizing portfolios, structuring investment vehicles and transactions, and developing solutions that support strategic, economic and developmental objectives. FMA combines strategic and transaction expertise with BlackRock's capital markets, investment, data and analytics, and technology capabilities. 

About the Role 

We are seeking a Director to join FMA in the Middle East and play a central role in growing and delivering the team’s business in the Middle East. The Director will advise senior clients, deepen key relationships and help identify and develop new advisory and investment collaboration opportunities aligned with BlackRock’s broader commercial priorities. 

This is a hands-on leadership role for an experienced professional who can independently lead complex advisory engagements from initial design through execution and final delivery. The successful candidate will combine broad financial markets expertise with substantive transaction experience across multiple sectors, asset classes or financing structures. Responsibilities will include owning project delivery, advising clients on complex capital-markets and transaction-related matters, leading multidisciplinary teams, developing new business opportunities and mobilising subject-matter expertise from across FMA and BlackRock. The role requires a versatile practitioner who can take responsibility for the full client outcome. 

Externally, the role involves engagement with senior stakeholders across the region’s financial services and public sector ecosystems. Internally, the Director will leverage BlackRock’s capabilities across Capital Markets, Aladdin, Research and other businesses, acting as a connector across the platform. 

Key responsibilities: 

• Helping shape FMA’s strategic direction in the Middle East, including identifying growth priorities, emerging themes, and opportunities for new offerings or partnerships. 

• Independently lead complex advisory projects from scoping and engagement design through analysis, recommendations, implementation support and final delivery. 

• Own overall project outcomes, including quality, timeliness, commercial discipline, client satisfaction, team coordination and effective risk management. 

• Translate broad or ambiguous client questions into structured issues, workstreams, analytical requirements, deliverables, governance and decision points. 

• Act as the principal day-to-day adviser to clients, lead executive discussions and communicate complex financial and strategic issues clearly and concisely. 

• Lead transaction-related work across sectors and financing structures, including transaction strategy, process design, structuring, financial modelling, valuation, scenario analysis, due diligence and execution planning. 

• Assess transactions from strategic, financial, risk, capital-structure and implementation perspectives; prepare investment cases, approval materials and senior-management recommendations. 

• Engage credibly with management teams, sponsors, investors, lenders, corporates, developers, legal advisers and other transaction participants, including supporting negotiation of commercial terms. 

• Direct qualitative and quantitative analysis, challenge conclusions and ensure that reports, models and presentations are accurate, rigorous and actionable. 

• Coordinate multidisciplinary contributors and integrate specialist inputs into a coherent client solution while maintaining command of the full engagement. 

• Contribute actively to business development by identifying client needs, developing differentiated propositions, leading proposals and expanding senior relationships. 

• Lead, mentor and coach project teams, creating clear accountability and fostering a collaborative, inclusive and high-performance culture. 

• Uphold BlackRock's fiduciary culture, professional standards and commitment to excellent client outcomes. 

Key skills and qualifications: 

• 10+ years of relevant experience in investment banking, corporate banking, transaction advisory, investing, financial-services consulting or a closely related field. 

• Demonstrated ability to independently lead a complex project or transaction from initial definition through execution and delivery. 

• Substantive transaction experience spanning several of the following: strategy and process design, modelling and valuation, financing and capital structure, due diligence, structuring, investment approvals, commercial negotiation and execution management. 

• Broad financial and commercial judgement, with experience across more than one sector, transaction type, asset class or financing structure preferred. 

• Strong understanding of capital markets and the operating models, strategic priorities or balance sheets of major financial-market participants. 

• Credibility with senior executives and other decision-makers, combined with exceptional written and verbal communication. 

• Strong quantitative, analytical and problem-solving skills, including the ability to learn unfamiliar content quickly and turn ambiguity into practical recommendations. 

• Proven ability to manage multidisciplinary teams, develop talent and deliver under pressure across competing priorities. 

• Commercial orientation, with evidence of business development, origination, relationship expansion or development of new advisory solutions. 

• Middle East, emerging markets, sovereign or public-sector experience is advantageous. Arabic language capability is also advantageous.