Business Development Manager (Arabic speaker required)

About us

Food waste is a $1 trillion problem – costing the world over 1% of global GDP. We’re dead set on solving the problem and looking for people to help us achieve our mission. We, at Winnow, believe that food is far too valuable to waste, and that technology can transform the way we produce food. Our team is made of people who all share a passion for food and technology.

Winnow was founded in London in 2013 to help the hospitality industry prevent food waste through internet of things tools in the kitchen. We have worked with hundreds of sites and are operating in over 70 countries around the world supported by our offices in London, Dubai, Shanghai, Singapore, Romania and North America. We are a rapidly growing company with a strong base of clients who are rolling out our system globally. We have blue-chip customers including Accor Hotels, IKEA, IHG, Marriott, Compass Group and many others.

Winnow’s clients on average reduce waste by over 50% by value and sustain savings. Winnow has now worked with hundreds of sites to reduce food waste, including hotels, universities and schools, staff restaurants, event/hospitality kitchens, buffets, pubs, and high street restaurants. Where the system is permanently adopted, pre-consumer waste value is reduced by 50% - 70% with no detrimental impact to the perceived quality or value of the offer to their customers. This represents a typical improvement of food cost savings of 3% to 8%, commonly a 40%+ increase in profitability for operations.

As the global leader in addressing food waste, we are committed to continue pushing the envelope on what technology can do to solve this problem. Winnow Vision, our new artificial intelligence-based technology, is trained to automatically track all food waste thrown away. It has won awards at the World Economic Forum and has received tremendous enthusiasm from our clients and the industry. You can read more about it on our website and this article in Forbes.

Other recent accolades saw Winnow awarded a winner of Impact 50's most impactful companies to work for. You can read more about it here.

We are passionate about living our values and place them at the centre of everything we do. We are excited about like minded talent who share these values, joining us in our mission:

Equal parts head and heart. We’re both passionate and measured. We carefully balance the need for quick solutions and pragmatism with the ability to step back, take in the bigger picture and build for the long term.

Bravely honest. With each other, that means we’re a transparent organisation where healthy, respectful debate is encouraged. With our customers, we challenge them if we don’t think they’re achieving their goals, whether they be environmental or financial.

People of action. Done is better than perfect, and we learn by boldly doing then rapidly improving. We’re breaking new ground, so we know things might go wrong. But we judge ourselves and each other on our reaction and our resilience.

Bound by food. We’re a diverse bunch, but our belief in the value of food is the common thread in everything we do. With each other, we celebrate through our love and respect for food. With our customers, it means we work hard to develop creative tools to make it easy for chefs to value food.

Hungry and humble. Our product is revolutionary, our people are impressive, and we’re hungry for change. But, we’re just the catalyst for a bigger movement. We stay humble regardless of our success, and make chefs the heroes in this journey.

People and planet positive. We’re caretakers of the planet, helping to preserve and support it for now and the future. Our work already minimises the impact that the hospitality industry has on the planet, and we’re also committed to actively reducing our own footprint while doing so. We’re leaving the planet and its people better off than we found them.

This is an opportunity to join an exciting organisation and help us propel our growth at what are truly the most exciting and dynamic points in time in our business. You will work alongside a driven team who are motivated by building an exciting business and leaving the world a better place than we found it.

About the role

We are excited to be searching for a dynamic and talented Business Development professional to our team to drive Winnow’s growth within the hospitality sector across the MENA region. In this pivotal role, you will shape and execute the strategy to expand our footprint, identifying opportunities and leading initiatives that drive impactful results especially across the GCC markets.

Based in Dubai and with fluency in Arabic, you will collaborate with a diverse, international team spanning sales, marketing, tech, and account management across five global locations. We foster a hybrid work environment, with team members coming together in the office on Tuesdays and Thursdays to collaborate and innovate. This is a unique opportunity to be part of a mission-driven company making a real difference.

Key objectives

• Lead the full end to end sales process with customers in MENA
• Review and develop the Business Development strategy within the MENA region
• Manage the building of a pipeline within the industry in order to expand sales penetration, and provide solutions-based sales and service offering to customers
• Develop deep relationships with key influencers in the market to help build a demand for our product
• Develop strategies for winning and growing our business with clients, ensuring we obtain the buy-in of the full decision making unit
• Nurture new accounts, highlighting early successes and advocating for scaling of our technology across their business
• Expand existing accounts, building on past successes to roll out across entire portfolios
• Identify routes into our target clients and build C suite-level relationships
• Monitor closely the activities of competitors and look to possible co-operations or acquisitions
• Represent Winnow taking speaking opportunities at conferences and events to drive sales and grow our network

• Fluency in Arabic is required
• Experience in SaaS sales will be welcomed. You are proven in successfully navigating the sales cycle and in creating urgency and progression to drive sales swiftly to a close
• Experience in technology sales, with a track record of closing deals with large corporates preferred
• Experience in a high-performing sales team with a proven track record of exceeding sales targets
• Experience selling to hospitality, primarily hotels and contract catering is a plus
• You are likely to be degree educated

Personal attributes

• You are results driven and can demonstrate how you have delivered effective solutions at pace
• You can demonstrate success in collaborating cross-functionally in order to deliver the best to your customers. You value the need to build strong partnerships internally and invest time in this activity
• You are transparent and act with integrity at all times
• You are able to organise self, including effective scheduling, prioritisation and time management skills, managing multiple tasks in parallel and completing tasks to tight deadlines
• You demonstrate excellent communication skills. You are a confident and articulate presenter to audiences small and large. You communicate clearly in both written and spoken language. You listen attentively; you process and comprehend what you hear
• You have a track record of identifying and understanding complex problems, analysing options and deploying sound and sometimes tough decision-making skills
• You have strong analytical skills and are proven in using data to quickly get to the root cause of an issue from which you can start to work on a solution

Our shared attributes

• You are both passionate and measured. You carefully balance the need for quick solutions and pragmatism with the ability to step back, take in the bigger picture and build for the long term
• You are transparent in approach and enjoy healthy, respectful debate. You work hard to build open and honest collaborative relationships
• You get things done and seek to continually improve. Your customers want you on their team
• You are passionate about the value of food and are committed to the fight against food waste
• You are humble in approach and quick to pitch in if you see someone struggling

• Competitive base salary
• Company stock options package
• Eligible for discretionary annual bonus
• 2 Wellness hours per month, plus 204 AED monthly wellness allowance
• Employee Assistance Programme - 24/7 helpline for your wellbeing
• Group Life Insurance policy
• Private health insurance + Annual ticket for yourself
• 22 days of paid annual leave in addition to national holidays
• Where possible, we try and finish up at 3PM on Fridays
• Ability to buy extra holidays as needed
• You will love what you do – waking up every day solving one of the biggest social problems of our generation
• Committed team members with broad experience who share a common passion to build a world class business