Lead Product Manager · KFUPM Alumnus

Khaled M. Araj

A Lead Product Manager and KFUPM alumnus building scalable B2B, B2C, and FinTech products across Saudi Arabia. Trusted by Al-Rajhi Bank, Takamol Holding, and other leading KSA enterprises to lead integrations, partnerships, and product strategy.

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia 5+ Years in Product B.Sc. Software Engineering · KFUPM
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Introduction

About Me

Khaled M. Araj

I'm a Lead Product Manager based in Riyadh, a KFUPM alumnus, and a builder at heart. For the past 5+ years I've been shipping scalable B2B, B2C, and FinTech products — leading partnerships with Al-Rajhi Bank, working alongside Takamol Holding, and integrating platforms with some of the largest enterprises in Saudi Arabia.

My focus is on financial services, merchant platforms, and PropTech — where I get to bridge business, technology, and design. I care about the small details that make a product feel right: clean integrations, honest metrics, and teams that ship with intent.

Outside the spreadsheets and PRDs, I lean heavily on modern AI tooling — Claude, ChatGPT, Framer, Lovable, and Perplexity — to prototype faster, write sharper, and think more clearly.

5+
Years in Product
10
Products Shipped
Career Journey

Professional Experience

Oct 2025 – Present
Lead Product Manager
Qawafel
B2B · Riyadh · Full-time · Hybrid
  • Led middleware integrations (Odoo, Qoyod, SAP) for enterprise onboarding.
  • Managed Al-Rajhi Bank partnership to unlock SME financial services.
  • Owned product roadmap, KPIs, and OKRs across teams.
  • Ran sprint planning and authored PRDs.
Jul 2023 – Sep 2025
Product Manager
Qawafel
B2B · Riyadh · Full-time · Hybrid
  • Built and prioritized the marketplace roadmap.
  • Increased retailer satisfaction by 30% via automated dispute workflows.
  • Optimized 3PL logistics integrations and reduced operational cost.
  • Drove user research to shape feature priorities.
Nov 2024 – Sep 2025
Lead Product Manager
Innovate Gate
B2C & B2B · Riyadh · Consultation Contract · Hybrid
  • Established and hired the full tech, design, and product teams.
  • Integrated 3rd-party providers (Statista, ClickPay, Unifonic).
  • Signed MOUs with IMAMU & KKU — drove a 40% user increase.
  • Set department KPIs and ran sprint prioritization.
Jan 2024 – Mar 2026
Product Manager & Senior Business Analyst
Squadio
B2C & B2G · Part-time · Remote
  • Led Musaned (TAKAMOL) update — escrow accounts and expanded admin authority.
  • Authored Musaned's BRD as official tech & business reference.
  • Drove SAMA regulatory approval to launch the FinTech app.
  • Managed MUNASEB backlog and bug prioritization.
Jul 2022 – Jul 2023
Business Analyst
Shgardi
B2C · Khobar · Full-time · Onsite
  • Reduced delayed orders by 66% by identifying root causes.
  • Redesigned the partner app — moved admin tasks to a dedicated portal.
  • Led market-entry case studies for a package delivery subsidiary.
Feb 2022 – Jun 2022
Business Analyst
Misaan FinTech
P2P · Riyadh · Full-time · Onsite
  • Documented and tracked all features of Dawul social trading app.
  • Launched the MVP of Nosooh.com — wealth consultation platform.
  • Analyzed user behavior for audience segmentation.
Nov 2021 – Jan 2023
Quality Assurance Engineer
Innosoft
B2G · Part-time · Remote
  • QA across 5+ governmental Agile projects (SPA, PEP, Eastern Chamber, EC Incubator).
  • Ensured delivery matched BRD documents and project requirements.
Expertise

Skills & Capabilities

Product Strategy

Defining the why, the what, and the when — and getting the room to agree on it.

Product Vision OKRs & KPIs Roadmapping Go-to-Market Prioritization Frameworks (RICE, MoSCoW) Product-Market Fit Competitive Analysis Discovery North Star Metrics

Business & Analysis

Turning raw business needs into structured, shippable, measurable specs.

Business Requirements (BRD) PRDs Workflow Mapping Process Optimization Market Entry Studies Stakeholder Management Revenue Modeling Unit Economics SAMA Compliance

Technical Fluency

Comfortable in the engineering room — software engineering background helps.

API Integrations Middleware (Odoo, Qoyod, SAP) System Design Database Logic Webhooks & Cronjobs Payment Gateways Escrow Architecture QA & Test Planning

Tooling

The day-to-day stack — for planning, tracking, designing, and shipping.

Jira ClickUp Notion Confluence Figma Miro Google Analytics Mixpanel Postman Excel / Sheets

AI & Modern Workflow

An AI-native operator — these tools sit inside every part of my workflow.

Claude ChatGPT Perplexity Framer Lovable Vercel Midjourney Prompt Engineering AI-assisted Prototyping

Leadership

Building, hiring, and coaching cross-functional teams that ship.

Team Building & Hiring Cross-functional Leadership Mentorship Sprint Planning Conflict Resolution Executive Communication Decision Making

Partnerships & GTM

Closing the deals and integrations that move the product forward.

Strategic Partnerships 3rd-party Integrations Bank & FinTech Onboarding MOUs & Agreements Vendor Management B2B Sales Enablement

Research & Data

Letting the user — and the numbers — settle the argument.

User Research User Interviews Behavioral Analysis Cohort Analysis Funnel Optimization

Domains

Industries where I've shipped, scaled, and learned the hard way.

FinTech B2B Marketplaces PropTech Logistics & 3PL Wealth Management Social Trading GovTech (B2G) EdTech
Portfolio

Products I've Shipped

Qawafel Apex
Automated SME Financing Platform
iGate
Entrepreneurship Platform
Munaaseb
PropTech · KSA
Amlak.sy
PropTech · Syrian Market
Musaned
Takamol Holding
Qawafel Marketplace
B2B Marketplace
Qawafel Merchant
Merchant Platform
Shgardi Partner
Logistics
Misaan Dawul
Social Trading
Misaan Nosooh
Wealth Management
Selected Work

Case Studies

Qawafel · B2B Marketplace

Automating Retailer Disputes at Scale

Product Manager · Marketplace & Operations
+30%
Retailer Satisfaction
Problem

Retailers were losing trust in the platform. Dispute resolution was manual, inconsistent, and slow — hurting retention and burying the support team in repetitive escalations.

Role

Owned the marketplace roadmap end-to-end. Led discovery with retailers and support, then drove cross-functional execution with engineering, design, and operations.

Decision

Built automated dispute management and support workflows — clear SLAs, status visibility, auto-routing, and a self-serve resolution path for the most common cases.

Result

+30% retailer satisfaction, faster resolution cycles, reduced support load, and stronger marketplace retention.

Shgardi · Last-Mile Logistics

Cutting Delayed Orders by Two-Thirds

Business Analyst · Operations & Logistics
−66%
Delayed Orders
Problem

A high share of orders were being delivered late. Customer trust was eroding, and the team had no shared view of why orders missed their SLA.

Role

Owned the delayed-orders project end-to-end. Coordinated with finance, logistics, courier ops, and partner support to define the problem and the measurement model.

Decision

Built a delay-reason tracking system, segmented root causes (courier, partner, address, peak hours), then shipped targeted operational and product fixes for each segment.

Result

−66% delayed orders, measurable improvement in on-time delivery, and a sharper operational picture for the leadership team.

Credentials

Education & Certificates

B.Sc. Software Engineering

King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals (KFUPM)
Sep 2017 — Jan 2022 · Honors Grade
Graduated within 4 years and a half — one semester ahead of class.

Certifications

  • Entry Certificate in Business Analysis (ECBA) IIBA · 2023
  • Certified Software Engineer SCA · 2022
  • Essential Management Skills IBMI · 2020
  • Business & Marketing for Engineers KFUPM · 2021
  • Project Management KFUPM · 2021
  • Leading Cultural Diversity Teams Coventry · 2021
Say Hello

Always happy to talk product.

Whether it's FinTech, PropTech, marketplaces, or just a good conversation about building things — my inbox is open.

khaledaraj18@gmail.com +966 53 526 3839 LinkedIn