Central Bank of Oman is seeking to recruit competent, committed, self-motivated and enthusiastic candidate to work as Fintech Subject Matter Expert.
Role Purpose:
The Subject Matter Expert (SME) – National Fintech Strategy Implementation will provide specialized technical, strategic, regulatory, and industry expertise to support the effective implementation of the National Strategy
The SME provides deep technical and strategic expertise to the National Fintech Strategy Taskforce, guiding the design, revision, and implementation of the national fintech strategy and its associated tactical plans. The role serves as a trusted advisor to decision-makers, ensuring that strategic choices, deliverables, and solutions are grounded in evidence, aligned with national priorities, and informed by current global fintech, regulatory developments, investments movements, best practices and other developments.
The SME acts as the technical conscience of the taskforce — someone who can translate fast-moving global fintech developments into practical, context-appropriate recommendations, while also ensuring the discipline of execution: that plans stay current, that deliverables remain consistent with the strategy's intent, and that institutional knowledge is retained and transferred rather than lost with any single individual.
The role will serve as a trusted technical advisor throughout the implementation lifecycle, from detailed initiative design through execution, review, and evaluation.
Key Responsibilities:
1 Strategic Advisory & Decision Support
- Provide specialised expertise and evidence-based insight to guide taskforce and national leadership decisions on fintech strategy direction, priorities, and trade-offs.
- Advise decision-makers by synthesising complex technical, regulatory, and market information into clear, actionable recommendations.
- Anticipate emerging risks, opportunities, and disruptions in the fintech landscape, and proactively brief leadership on their strategic implications.
- Advise internal and external stakeholders on technical, regulatory, policy, and implementation considerations.
- Identify emerging developments that may affect implementation of the Strategy
2. Strategy & Tactical Plan Stewardship
- Lead the continuous review and revision of the national fintech strategy's tactical plan, ensuring it remains responsive to market developments, technological change, and shifting national priorities.
- Establish and maintain a structured cadence for strategy performance review, incorporating lessons learned, stakeholder feedback, and updated market intelligence.
- Assess whether proposed outputs adequately address the objectives and intended outcomes of the Strategy.
- Review significant changes to the scope or direction of strategic initiatives from a technical perspective.
- Identify gaps, redundancies, or misalignments between the tactical plan and the overarching national strategy, and recommend corrective action.
- Provide recommendations to improve the quality, relevance, feasibility, and impact of deliverables.
3. Policy & Regulatory Advisory
- Provide technical input on regulatory and policy initiatives arising from the Strategy.
- Identify regulatory or policy considerations that may facilitate or constrain implementation.
- Support assessment of emerging business models, technologies, products, and services.
- Provide recommendations on approaches that balance innovation, market development, consumer interests, risk management, and financial-sector considerations.
- Support coordination with relevant regulatory and policy functions where specialized input is required.
- Work closely with legal, regulatory, technology, and policy stakeholders to ensure cross-functional alignment on fintech initiatives.
4. FinTech & Emerging Technology Expertise
Provide specialist input and advices as relevant, across areas including:
- Digital payments and financial services.
- Open Banking and Open Finance.
- Real World Assets Tokenization.
- Artificial Intelligence and advanced analytics.
- Digital identity and eKYC.
- Cloud computing and digital infrastructure.
- Blockchain and distributed ledger technologies.
- RegTech and SupTech.
- Digital banking.
- Islamic FinTech.
- Financial inclusion.
- Cybersecurity and technology risk.
- Data governance and data-driven financial services.
- FinTech entrepreneurship, investment, accelerators, and innovation ecosystems
5. Implementation Support
- Support the design and implementation of complex, high-priority deliverables, including regulatory frameworks, technical sandboxes, Digital asset Initiatives, Open Banking & Finance Initiative, SupTech and RegTech Initiatives, and other market infrastructure projects.
- Provide hands-on technical guidance during the execution phase of key initiatives, troubleshooting issues and unblocking implementation bottlenecks.
- Contribute to the development of business cases, feasibility studies, and implementation roadmaps for priority fintech initiatives.
6. Knowledge Transfer & Capability Building
- Transfer specialised fintech knowledge and best practice to taskforce members, government stakeholders, and relevant national institutions to build sustainable internal capability.
- Design and deliver structured knowledge-sharing sessions, briefings, and working sessions on emerging fintech topics (e.g., digital assets, tokenisation, CBDCs, open banking, RegTech).
- Mentor junior analysts and government staff assigned to the taskforce, building a pipeline of internal fintech expertise.
- Document key decisions, lessons learned, and institutional knowledge to ensure continuity beyond the SME's own tenure.
7. Research & Market Intelligence
- Monitor global fintech, and regulatory developments (e.g., central bank digital currencies, tokenisation, stablecoins, open finance, AI in financial services) and assess their relevance to national priorities.
- Benchmark national strategy progress against comparable international jurisdictions and fintech hubs, identifying best practices and lessons learned.
- Prepare position papers, briefing notes, and strategic assessments on request for taskforce leadership and government stakeholders.
Qualifications & Experience:
-Bachelor's degree in Finance, Economics, Computer Science, Law, or a related field; a Master's degree or relevant postgraduate qualification is highly desirable.
-Relevant professional certifications in FinTech, financial services, technology, innovation, risk, regulation, or digital transformation are advantageous.
-Minimum 8-10 years of progressive experience in fintech, digital banking, payments, capital markets, or financial regulation, including prior exposure to national or regional strategy development.
Please Submit your application before 12th Oct 2026