About the Opportunity
A diversified, UAE-based logistics and supply chain organization is seeking a commercially minded and strategically focused Finance Leader to join its senior leadership team.
This is a confidential leadership appointment. The identity of the organization will be shared with shortlisted candidates at the appropriate stage of the selection process.
The role goes beyond traditional finance management. The successful candidate will be responsible for improving business performance and profitability, supporting strategic decision-making, and maintaining strong financial governance.
Operating at the intersection of finance, operations, and commercial functions, this individual will help shape business strategy while ensuring financial control and accountability. The position requires a hands-on leader who understands asset-intensive and operationally complex businesses and can translate financial insights into measurable business outcomes.
Key Responsibilities
Strategic Business Partnering
- Act as a trusted financial advisor to the senior executive leadership team.
- Support strategic planning, growth initiatives, and long-term business objectives.
- Provide financial insight and commercial guidance for key business decisions.
- Constructively challenge assumptions and ensure investment decisions are supported by robust financial analysis.
- Lead business-case development for new customers, contracts, capital expenditure, acquisitions, and expansion opportunities.
- Evaluate strategic opportunities through financial modelling, ROI analysis, and scenario planning.
- Support pricing strategy, commercial negotiations, and customer profitability assessments.
Commercial Finance and Performance Management
- Drive profitability improvement across business lines.
- Lead monthly business-performance reviews with operational and commercial teams.
- Analyse revenue, margins, utilization, productivity, and cost drivers.
- Develop and maintain meaningful KPI dashboards.
- Identify opportunities to improve margins, optimize resources, and enhance operational efficiency.
- Monitor performance against budgets, forecasts, and strategic objectives.
- Translate financial analysis into practical recommendations and measurable actions.
Financial Planning and Analysis
- Lead annual budgeting, rolling forecasts, and long-range planning.
- Develop robust forecasting models and performance-reporting frameworks.
- Provide insight into financial performance, risks, and business trends.
- Help business leaders understand the financial impact of operational decisions.
- Develop scenario models covering changes in volume, pricing, cost, capacity, and market conditions.
- Monitor achievement of financial targets and recommend corrective action where required.
Financial Management and Governance
- Oversee accounting, reporting, treasury, tax, audit, and internal controls.
- Ensure timely and accurate financial reporting in accordance with IFRS and applicable regulations.
- Maintain effective governance, risk-management, and financial-control practices.
- Ensure compliance with UAE VAT, Corporate Tax, and other statutory requirements.
- Manage banking relationships, funding requirements, and lender-reporting obligations.
- Lead internal and external audits and ensure the timely closure of audit findings.
- Continuously improve financial systems, reporting processes, and controls.
Operational Finance
- Partner closely with operational teams across logistics and related activities.
- Develop a detailed understanding of operational cost drivers and business economics.
- Improve cost visibility, ownership, and accountability across business units.
- Drive initiatives relating to productivity, asset utilization, capacity optimization, and working-capital improvement.
- Support operational decision-making through meaningful financial analysis.
- Ensure financial measures accurately reflect operational performance.
Cash Flow and Working Capital
- Lead cash-flow forecasting and liquidity planning.
- Improve working-capital performance through effective management of receivables, payables, and inventory.
- Strengthen credit-control and collection performance.
- Drive initiatives that improve cash conversion and reduce financial risk.
- Ensure appropriate funding is available to support operational and growth requirements.
Leadership and Team Development
- Build and lead a high-performing finance function.
- Strengthen capability across finance and associated support functions.
- Promote accountability, collaboration, continuous improvement, and commercial awareness.
- Coach and mentor team members to enhance analytical and business-partnering capabilities.
- Build strong partnerships between finance, operations, and commercial teams.
Candidate Profile
We are seeking a strategic and commercially oriented finance leader not a candidate whose experience is limited primarily to financial control or reporting.
The ideal candidate will combine strong financial discipline with commercial acumen, operational understanding, and the confidence to influence senior business decisions.
Essential Requirements
- Professional qualification such as CA, ACCA, CPA, CIMA, or equivalent.
- Approximately 10–15 years of progressive finance experience, including senior leadership responsibility.
- Strong experience in FP&A, commercial finance, business partnering, and strategic decision support.
- Demonstrated ownership of business-unit or divisional P&L performance.
- Experience within logistics, supply chain, transportation, warehousing, freight, manufacturing, distribution, or another asset-intensive industry.
- Strong financial modelling, planning, forecasting, and business-case development capabilities.
- Working knowledge of UAE VAT, Corporate Tax, and applicable regulatory requirements.
- Proven ability to engage, challenge, and influence executive stakeholders.
- Experience leading and developing finance teams.
Preferred Experience
- MBA or relevant postgraduate qualification.
- Experience in logistics, 3PL, temperature-controlled supply chains, or related operations.
- ERP implementation or business-intelligence experience.
- Experience supporting business transformation, acquisitions, or rapid-growth initiatives.
- Exposure to board reporting and executive-level presentations.
Leadership Competencies
- Strategic thinking and strong business acumen.
- Commercially focused and results driven.
- Willingness to challenge constructively.
- Highly analytical and data driven.
- Strong communication and influencing skills.
- Practical and hands-on leadership style.
- High integrity and sound professional judgement.
- Ability to build trust across functions.
- Comfortable operating in a dynamic and fast-paced environment.
Key Success Measures
- EBITDA and profitability improvement.
- Forecast accuracy and budget achievement.
- Working-capital performance and cash generation.
- Delivery of margin-enhancement initiatives.
- ROI achieved on capital investments.
- Successful execution of strategic growth projects.
- Timely and accurate financial reporting.
- Strong audit and compliance outcomes.
- Finance-team capability, engagement, and development.
- Effectiveness of finance business partnering.
Confidentiality Notice
This appointment is being managed on a strictly confidential basis. The organization's identity and further role details will be disclosed only to shortlisted candidates. Applicants are requested to treat all information shared during the recruitment process as confidential.
