Manager - Special Projects and Performance
Posted date [2026-08-24]
(ID: 50123)
 |
Talabat is the MENA region’s leading on-demand delivery platform, headquartered in Dubai and operating across eight markets. We leverage a tech-driven flywheel model to connect millions of users with food, groceries, and essential services. By bridging the gap between people and local businesses, we continue to scale our ecosystem and simplify everyday life through innovation. |
Job Description and Requirements
Manager - Special Projects and PerformanceJob Snapshot
Role: Manager - Special Projects and Performance
Location: Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Industry: Internet
Function: Strategic Planning-Intelligence
Experience: Minimum 3 years in strategy, consulting, operations, or performance management
Job Type: Full-time
Position Overview
Manager - Special Projects and Performance in Dubai, United Arab Emirates is an Internet industry opportunity with talabat focused on strategic planning, COO performance management, OKR governance, budgeting, cross-functional execution, and AI-enabled productivity. The role sits within the regional Chief Operating Office structure and helps translate business priorities into measurable outcomes by combining analytics, financial planning, strategic projects, performance reporting, and operating cadence across functions and markets.
Job Details
Country: United Arab Emirates
City: Dubai
Industry: Internet
Function: Strategic Planning-Intelligence
Salary: 22000-32000
Estimated salary range based on similar jobs in the job city; please confirm the final offer with the employer.
Gender: Any
Candidate Nationality: Any
Job Type:
Full-time
Role Context
The Manager - Special Projects and Performance acts as a central execution and performance partner within the Chief Operating Office. The position brings together strategic planning, KPI management, budgeting, OKRs, business reviews, and high-priority cross-functional programs to ensure leadership priorities move from planning into accountable execution.
A major part of the role is establishing early visibility of risks and opportunities. Rather than simply consolidating data, the manager is expected to identify performance deviations, diagnose causes, recommend corrective action, and help business owners recover performance quickly.
The role also supports organizational productivity by driving practical AI adoption across reporting, analysis, planning, and recurring performance-management workflows.
Key Responsibilities
* Own consolidated visibility of Chief Operating Office KPIs across functions and regional markets.
* Monitor performance trends and identify material risks, opportunities, and emerging deviations before they escalate.
* Work with business owners to develop turnaround actions when performance moves away from target.
* Build performance reporting frameworks that prioritize insight, diagnosis, and recommended action rather than simple data aggregation.
* Prepare concise leadership reporting that explains performance drivers, risks, opportunities, and required decisions.
* Present findings to senior leadership using clear narratives supported by relevant data.
* Lead OKR planning and tracking cycles across functions and markets.
* Ensure objectives and key results remain aligned with organizational priorities.
* Monitor OKR delivery and highlight areas where execution is falling behind.
* Lead budgeting and financial planning coordination within the Chief Operating Office structure.
* Track budget performance and analyse material variances against approved plans.
* Identify financial risks early enough for business owners to course-correct.
* Improve governance, timelines, documentation, and ownership across planning and budgeting cycles.
* Ensure strategic priorities are reflected appropriately in financial allocations.
* Translate leadership vision into practical annual and multi-year strategic plans.
* Support competitive analysis and strategic assessment relevant to COO priorities.
* Own integrated business planning across strategy, budgets, OKRs, and Product and Technology roadmaps.
* Establish clear ownership, timelines, milestones, dependencies, and accountability for strategic priorities.
* Coordinate operating cadences including planning sessions, offsites, progress reviews, and performance meetings.
* Define and maintain company and functional KPIs relevant to COO performance.
* Track progress of major strategic initiatives and ensure business units remain aligned.
* Support the COO with executive and board-level reporting materials.
* Lead high-priority strategic projects involving multiple functions, markets, and regional stakeholders.
* Manage complex dependencies across Regional, Local, Product, and Technology teams.
* Drive alignment between senior leadership decisions and ground-level execution.
* Maintain momentum across projects where ownership is distributed across several teams.
* Identify blockers that threaten strategic delivery and escalate them with clear recommended actions.
* Structure ambiguous business problems into clear workstreams, milestones, and decision points.
* Apply analytical problem-solving to identify root causes and potential business improvements.
* Support financial modelling and PnL analysis for strategic decisions where required.
* Use SQL and analytical platforms to strengthen performance diagnosis and management reporting.
* Work with BigQuery, Looker, Tableau, or comparable tools to improve access to performance information.
* Develop dashboards that give leadership practical visibility into business performance.
* Lead AI adoption initiatives within functional performance teams.
* Identify reporting and analytical processes that can be automated or accelerated using AI tools.
* Reduce manual performance-management work through automation and improved workflows.
* Introduce smarter approaches to recurring analysis, reporting, and management information.
* Encourage adoption of AI where it improves speed, accuracy, or output quality.
* Maintain strong stakeholder alignment across functions with different priorities and operating realities.
* Compress complex analysis into clear, structured, and actionable recommendations.
Ideal Profile
Candidates should have at least 3 years of experience in strategy, consulting, operations, business performance, or a related analytical role.
Experience within technology, e-commerce, digital platforms, consumer businesses, or another fast-paced environment is particularly valuable.
The successful candidate should demonstrate strong strategic thinking combined with practical execution capability.
A highly analytical mindset is essential, with the ability to move from data and business symptoms to root causes, implications, and recommended actions.
Experience in financial modelling and PnL analysis is strongly preferred.
Candidates should be comfortable working with senior stakeholders and coordinating complex initiatives across multiple functions and markets.
Strong structured communication is required, particularly the ability to simplify complex topics and present concise recommendations to leadership.
Experience using SQL, BigQuery, Looker, Tableau, or similar analytical and business-intelligence tools is strongly preferred.
The role requires strong project-management discipline, prioritisation, ownership, and comfort working in ambiguous situations where business priorities can shift quickly.
Candidates should also demonstrate curiosity around AI and automation, with the ability to identify practical productivity opportunities rather than treating new technology as a purely theoretical exercise.
Skills Set
Strategic planning
Business performance management
Chief Operating Office support
OKR management
Budget management
Financial planning
Financial modelling
PnL analysis
KPI management
Performance reporting
Executive reporting
Board reporting
Business reviews
Strategic projects
Cross-functional project management
Integrated business planning
Operational planning
Competitive analysis
Risk identification
Opportunity analysis
Performance turnaround
Root-cause analysis
Business analytics
Stakeholder management
Cross-functional collaboration
Operating cadence
Project governance
SQL
BigQuery
Looker
Tableau
Dashboard development
Data visualization
AI adoption
Workflow automation
Reporting automation
Productivity improvement
Strategic analysis
Problem solving
Decision support
Leadership communication
Performance optimization
Why Join Us
This position offers broad exposure to some of the most important strategic and operating priorities within talabat\'s regional business. Rather than being limited to a single function, the role connects strategy, finance, operations, technology, analytics, and executive decision-making across multiple markets.
The combination of business performance ownership, OKR and budget governance, strategic projects, and AI-enabled productivity also creates a strong development path toward senior strategy, business operations, Chief of Staff, transformation, or regional performance leadership roles.
About the Company
talabat is a technology-driven local delivery platform and part of Delivery Hero Group. The company operates across multiple markets and connects customers with restaurants, grocery providers, and local commerce services. Its regional teams use technology, analytics, operational execution, and cross-functional collaboration to improve marketplace performance, customer experience, and sustainable business growth.
Role Context
The Manager - Special Projects and Performance acts as a central execution and performance partner within the Chief Operating Office. The position brings together strategic planning, KPI management, budgeting, OKRs, business reviews, and high-priority cross-functional programs to ensure leadership priorities move from planning into accountable execution.
A major part of the role is establishing early visibility of risks and opportunities. Rather than simply consolidating data, the manager is expected to identify performance deviations, diagnose causes, recommend corrective action, and help business owners recover performance quickly.
The role also supports organizational productivity by driving practical AI adoption across reporting, analysis, planning, and recurring performance-management workflows.
Key Responsibilities
* Own consolidated visibility of Chief Operating Office KPIs across functions and regional markets.
* Monitor performance trends and identify material risks, opportunities, and emerging deviations before they escalate.
* Work with business owners to develop turnaround actions when performance moves away from target.
* Build performance reporting frameworks that prioritize insight, diagnosis, and recommended action rather than simple data aggregation.
* Prepare concise leadership reporting that explains performance drivers, risks, opportunities, and required decisions.
* Present findings to senior leadership using clear narratives supported by relevant data.
* Lead OKR planning and tracking cycles across functions and markets.
* Ensure objectives and key results remain aligned with organizational priorities.
* Monitor OKR delivery and highlight areas where execution is falling behind.
* Lead budgeting and financial planning coordination within the Chief Operating Office structure.
* Track budget performance and analyse material variances against approved plans.
* Identify financial risks early enough for business owners to course-correct.
* Improve governance, timelines, documentation, and ownership across planning and budgeting cycles.
* Ensure strategic priorities are reflected appropriately in financial allocations.
* Translate leadership vision into practical annual and multi-year strategic plans.
* Support competitive analysis and strategic assessment relevant to COO priorities.
* Own integrated business planning across strategy, budgets, OKRs, and Product and Technology roadmaps.
* Establish clear ownership, timelines, milestones, dependencies, and accountability for strategic priorities.
* Coordinate operating cadences including planning sessions, offsites, progress reviews, and performance meetings.
* Define and maintain company and functional KPIs relevant to COO performance.
* Track progress of major strategic initiatives and ensure business units remain aligned.
* Support the COO with executive and board-level reporting materials.
* Lead high-priority strategic projects involving multiple functions, markets, and regional stakeholders.
* Manage complex dependencies across Regional, Local, Product, and Technology teams.
* Drive alignment between senior leadership decisions and ground-level execution.
* Maintain momentum across projects where ownership is distributed across several teams.
* Identify blockers that threaten strategic delivery and escalate them with clear recommended actions.
* Structure ambiguous business problems into clear workstreams, milestones, and decision points.
* Apply analytical problem-solving to identify root causes and potential business improvements.
* Support financial modelling and PnL analysis for strategic decisions where required.
* Use SQL and analytical platforms to strengthen performance diagnosis and management reporting.
* Work with BigQuery, Looker, Tableau, or comparable tools to improve access to performance information.
* Develop dashboards that give leadership practical visibility into business performance.
* Lead AI adoption initiatives within functional performance teams.
* Identify reporting and analytical processes that can be automated or accelerated using AI tools.
* Reduce manual performance-management work through automation and improved workflows.
* Introduce smarter approaches to recurring analysis, reporting, and management information.
* Encourage adoption of AI where it improves speed, accuracy, or output quality.
* Maintain strong stakeholder alignment across functions with different priorities and operating realities.
* Compress complex analysis into clear, structured, and actionable recommendations.
Ideal Profile
Candidates should have at least 3 years of experience in strategy, consulting, operations, business performance, or a related analytical role.
Experience within technology, e-commerce, digital platforms, consumer businesses, or another fast-paced environment is particularly valuable.
The successful candidate should demonstrate strong strategic thinking combined with practical execution capability.
A highly analytical mindset is essential, with the ability to move from data and business symptoms to root causes, implications, and recommended actions.
Experience in financial modelling and PnL analysis is strongly preferred.
Candidates should be comfortable working with senior stakeholders and coordinating complex initiatives across multiple functions and markets.
Strong structured communication is required, particularly the ability to simplify complex topics and present concise recommendations to leadership.
Experience using SQL, BigQuery, Looker, Tableau, or similar analytical and business-intelligence tools is strongly preferred.
The role requires strong project-management discipline, prioritisation, ownership, and comfort working in ambiguous situations where business priorities can shift quickly.
Candidates should also demonstrate curiosity around AI and automation, with the ability to identify practical productivity opportunities rather than treating new technology as a purely theoretical exercise.
Skills Set
Strategic planning
Business performance management
Chief Operating Office support
OKR management
Budget management
Financial planning
Financial modelling
PnL analysis
KPI management
Performance reporting
Executive reporting
Board reporting
Business reviews
Strategic projects
Cross-functional project management
Integrated business planning
Operational planning
Competitive analysis
Risk identification
Opportunity analysis
Performance turnaround
Root-cause analysis
Business analytics
Stakeholder management
Cross-functional collaboration
Operating cadence
Project governance
SQL
BigQuery
Looker
Tableau
Dashboard development
Data visualization
AI adoption
Workflow automation
Reporting automation
Productivity improvement
Strategic analysis
Problem solving
Decision support
Leadership communication
Performance optimization
Why Join Us
This position offers broad exposure to some of the most important strategic and operating priorities within talabat\'s regional business. Rather than being limited to a single function, the role connects strategy, finance, operations, technology, analytics, and executive decision-making across multiple markets.
The combination of business performance ownership, OKR and budget governance, strategic projects, and AI-enabled productivity also creates a strong development path toward senior strategy, business operations, Chief of Staff, transformation, or regional performance leadership roles.
About the Company
talabat is a technology-driven local delivery platform and part of Delivery Hero Group. The company operates across multiple markets and connects customers with restaurants, grocery providers, and local commerce services. Its regional teams use technology, analytics, operational execution, and cross-functional collaboration to improve marketplace performance, customer experience, and sustainable business growth.
