Talabat is part of the Delivery Hero Group, the world’s pioneering local delivery platform, our mission is to deliver an amazing experience—fast, easy, and to your door. We operate in around 65 countries worldwide. Headquartered in Berlin, Germany. Delivery Hero has been listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange since 2017 and is part of the MDAX stock market index.
Role Summary
This role owns the commercial and performance engine behind talabat UAE's operations. You'll be the person who understands how the business actually ticks, where margin is made or lost, which levers move the numbers, and what trade-offs leadership is really weighing. You'll own the operational commercials and KPI performance, drive the optimization work that improves efficiency and experience, and turn analysis into decisions. It's a role for someone equally comfortable in a model and in a room full of directors, someone who can read the data and stand their ground on what it means.
What's on your plate?
1. Commercial & P&L Ownership for Operations
Own the commercials behind UAE operations, cost-per-order, rider cost, and the efficiency metrics that drive the operational P&L. Track budget vs. actuals, protect riders and 3pls earnings, and give leadership clear, data-backed trade-offs between cost, growth, and customer experience. You're the person who can explain why the numbers moved, not just that they did.
2. Performance Management
Own the UAE operational KPI stack, from forecast to actuals. Anticipate performance gaps before they hit the P&L and drive the interventions that close them. Run the reporting and executive reviews that keep leadership decision-ready.
3. Operational Optimization
Drive the optimization agenda across the network: rider economics and staffing efficiency, vendor and coverage performance, area-level improvements. Find where the operation leaks cost or time, size the opportunity, and lead the fix, balancing efficiency against rider earnings and customer experience.
4. Data, Modeling & Insight
Be genuinely good with data, able to interrogate complex models, understand what's driving them, and pressure-test assumptions rather than take outputs at face value. Build the analyses and dashboards that make decisions faster, and translate complexity into a clear "so what." SQL (BigQuery) and Looker/Tableau are a strong plus; the non-negotiable is analytical judgment.
5. Strategic Projects & Senior Stakeholder Leadership
Lead cross-functional, high-impact projects that shape UAE operations. Build the business case, run the pilot, scale what works. Throughout, work directly with senior leadership, and hold your own with directors and VPs, defending a recommendation with evidence and staying credible under challenge.
What you own vs. influence: You own the operational commercials, the performance KPI stack, and the delivery of your optimization projects. You influence the ops, commercial, and product teams whose execution moves those numbers, through insight, credibility, and stakeholder trust rather than direct authority.
What did we order?
At least 4 years in operations, commercial, strategy, or consulting, ideally in a marketplace, logistics, or Q-commerce environment.
Commercial instinct: you understand how a business makes money and which levers actually move it.
Strong data literacy, comfortable working with complex data and models, interrogating assumptions, and drawing the right conclusion. You don't need to be handed the answer.
Executive presence: able to engage, challenge, and stand your ground with senior stakeholders including directors and VPs.
Financial modeling and P&L fluency, you can read a model, break it, and explain it.
SQL (BigQuery) and Looker/Tableau a strong plus, not a requirement.
Bias for ownership and follow-through, you close the loop rather than hand off the problem.
Readiness to grow into people leadership (1–2 reports over time).