Business Development Lead (MENA Region)

United Kingdom / Ireland
Welo Data – Welo Data Commercial /
Full Time /
Hybrid
Welo Data works with technology companies to provide datasets that are high-quality, ethically sourced, relevant, diverse, and scalable to supercharge their AI models. As a Welocalize brand, WeloData leverages over 25 years of experience in partnering with the world’s most innovative companies and brings together a curated global community of over 500,000 AI training and domain experts to offer services that span:

ANNOTATION & LABELLING: Transcription, summarization, image and video classification and labeling.
ENHANCING LLMs: Prompt engineering, SFT, RLHF, red teaming and adversarial model training, model output ranking.
DATA COLLECTION & GENERATION: From institutional languages to remote field audio collection.
RELEVANCE & INTENT: Culturally nuanced and aware, ranking, relevance, and evaluation to train models for search, ads, and LLM output.

Want to join our Welo Data team? We bring practical, applied AI expertise to projects. We have both strong academic experience and a deep working knowledge of state-of-the-art AI tools, frameworks, and best practices. Help us elevate our clients' Data at Welo Data.

ROLE OVERVIEW
We are seeking a dynamic and regionally connected Business Development Lead to spearhead our commercial expansion across the Middle East while supporting the European market. This role is pivotal to executing Welo Data’s strategic growth plan in MENA, leveraging deep regional expertise, cultural fluency, and a robust professional network to unlock new opportunities and partnerships. This role reports directly to the VP Commercial.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
·       Contribute to Welo Data’s commercial strategy across the Europe and the Middle East, with a focus on high-growth markets such as Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Qatar.
·       Identify and cultivate relationships with regional stakeholders, including government entities, tech hubs, academic institutions, and enterprise clients in partnership with the our leadership team.
·       Translate regional trends and client needs into actionable business plans and tailored solutions, leveraging our Solutions team.
·       Drive new business acquisition and account expansion across AI, LLM, and data-centric verticals.
·       Collaborate with internal teams to deliver customized proposals, pricing models, and service packages.
·       Represent Welo Data at regional conferences, industry events, and client meetings.
·       Partner with global commercial, operations, and delivery teams to ensure seamless execution of regional programs.
·       Provide market intelligence and feedback to inform product development and service innovation.

QUALIFICATIONS
·       Proven experience in business development or commercial leadership within Europe and the Middle East, ideally in AI, data services, or technology sectors.
·       Strong network across MENA, with demonstrated success in building partnerships and closing deals.
·       Deep understanding of regional business culture, regulatory environments, and commercial dynamics.
·       Excellent communication and negotiation skills.
·       Bilingual fluency in Arabic and English is strongly preferred.

NICE TO HAVE...
·       Experience working with multilingual data workflows, annotation platforms, or AI model training.
·       Familiarity with Gulf Arabic, Levantine, Egyptian, or North African dialects and their commercial applications.
·       Prior engagement with regional localization, NLP, or LLM initiatives.
·       Knowledge of the competitor landscape and positioning differentiators.