Financial Controller

Overview

Role Purpose

Scope Of Function (Phase 1)

• General Accounting — month-end close, journal entries, balance-sheet reconciliations, entity-level financials across all current entities
• AR & Revenue Accounting — revenue recognition, AR ageing, customer & aggregator reconciliation, cash recon
• Tax & Compliance — UAE VAT and Corporate Tax, UK tax (Public entity), Transfer Pricing documentation, regulatory filings
• Treasury & Master Data — bank account governance, banking relationships, chart of accounts, vendor & customer master data, project / WBS structure
• Project Accounting absorbed into GA — projects become a coding dimension, not a function
• Phase 2 (~6–9 months in): Accounts Payable merges into the function, expanding scope to ~12 direct or matrixed reports

Key Responsibilities

• **Build the CoE on five pillars:**
• (1) single chart of accounts and master data; (2) standard close calendar and ledger discipline; (3) documented controls and maker-checker everywhere; (4) technology that does the work, not the people; (5) service-level agreements with the brands.
• **Own month-end close:**
• Sign off financial statements per entity, ensure a 5-working-day close cycle, lead the close calendar across all functions.
• **Embed segregation of duties and maker-checker:**
• Implement maker-checker on journals, balance-sheet recons, vendor master, bank-detail changes, and payment release.
• **Lead prior-year cleanup:**
• Supervise external secondment team (3–6 months) clearing historical audit findings, restating positions where required, building the BSR pack going forward.
• **Tax & compliance ownership:**
• Direct oversight of UAE VAT/CT, UK CT/VAT, transfer pricing, ESR, AML/KYC for vendors, UBO registration.
• **Master data governance:**
• Establish single source of truth for COA, vendor master, customer master, cost centres, projects/WBS.
• No brand creates GL codes or vendors without CoE sign-off.
• **Build & maintain policy and SOP library:**
• Ensure every transaction class has a documented policy and SOP, version-controlled, periodically reviewed.
• **External audit relationship:**
• Primary contact for external auditors, manage audit timeline, address management letter points, drive control-environment improvements.
• **Develop the team:**
• Coach Sr Accountants, fill critical vacancies, build a succession bench, partner with HR on capability building.
• **Partner with brands and FP&A:**
• Publish SLAs to brands; provide clean, timely actuals to FP&A; support business cases and investment reviews with reliable data.
• **Scale the platform:**
• Year 2 deliverable — make the CoE replicable for a new geography or brand addition without redesigning the model.

Qualifications & Experience

• Qualified accountant — CA, ACCA, CPA, or equivalent (mandatory)
• 10–15 years progressive finance experience, including 4+ years as Financial Controller, Head of Finance, or CoE leadership
• Multi-entity, multi-jurisdiction exposure — UAE + UK essential;
• F&B, hospitality, or multi-outlet retail background strongly preferred
• Demonstrated experience building or transforming a finance function from fragmented to controlled
• Strong NetSuite (or equivalent ERP) expertise; experience integrating ERP with operational systems
• Excellent communicator able to partner with operations and senior leadership