Nawaf Al Harthi

Strategic HR partner to leadership in one of the UAEs fastest-scaling digital banks,
supporting the build-out of engineering, product, data and corporate teams. Own
the full recruitment lifecycle across all functions — from intake through sourcing,
screening, interview design, offer and onboarding.
▸ Service delivery: ~46-day average time-to-fill; CV-to-hiring-manager turnaround
within 3-4 days; ~80% offer acceptance rate.
▸ Hiring volume: 20+ hires delivered since March 2026, plus an IT Audit Manager
in Abu Dhabi. Currently delivering a Fujairah build-out target of 82 UAE National
hires across Compliance, Risk and Operations.
▸ Sourcing strategy: Direct-sourcing-led approach combining LinkedIn Recruiter,
ATS, Bayt.com and active partnerships with Emirates Institute of Finance and
Higher Colleges of Technology (Fujairah and other emirates) to build a
sustainable UAE National pipeline.
▸ Workforce planning: Drive workforce planning, organisation design and
Emiratization strategy in a high-growth fintech where roles, structures and
priorities evolve quickly.
▸ People analytics: Use pipeline and hiring data to inform leadership decisions on
hiring velocity, channel ROI and talent gaps.

Led recruitment for one of the most technically complex employers in the region,
hiring across IT, software, engineering, exploration and geoscience disciplines.
Acted as Head of Recruitment during the incumbents absence — owning team
performance, stakeholder relationships, and recruitment strategy across all skill
pools.
▸ Hiring volume: Delivered ~126 hires single-handedly across Exploration,
Petroleum Engineering, IT and Infrastructure — without a supporting recruiter
team.
▸ Service delivery: ~60-day time-to-fill on highly technical, hard-to-fill roles; CV
to-hiring-manager handover within 3-4 days; consistently positive hiring
manager feedback and repeat-partnership requests.
▸ Process re-engineering: Re-engineered recruitment workflows, intake processes
and stakeholder communication, improving alignment between hiring
managers, HR and candidates.
▸ Workforce strategy: Owned succession planning and workforce strategy for
critical technical disciplines, partnering with senior leadership on long-term
capability building.

Managed a recruitment team of three, delivering full-cycle hiring across
engineering, marine and corporate functions. Led manpower planning and
recruitment budgeting in a unionised, project-driven heavy industry environment.

Ran full-cycle recruitment within the People & Technology stream during a major
group-wide integration programme. Coordinated multi-stakeholder interview loops
and kept hiring managers aligned through structured candidate updates.

Owned end-to-end recruitment for Abu Dhabi Finance, covering corporate, finance
and technology hires. Led a special project to hire 40 specialised educators —
managing volume, quality and timeline simultaneously. Built SOPs and SLAs for
onboarding and Emiratization reporting, lifting consistency and stakeholder trust.

Completed Etihads competitive Graduate Manager Programme and progressed
into a recruitment role with international scope. Led volume and international
hiring campaigns and supported large-scale restructuring hiring projects.

Handled HR operations and employee support for a leading global oilfield services
company.