Established in the 1930s as a trading business, Al-Futtaim Group today is one of the most diversified and progressive, privately held regional businesses headquartered in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Structured into five operating divisions; automotive, financial services, real estate, retail and healthcare; employing more than 35,000 employees across more than 20 countries in the Middle East, Asia and Africa, Al-Futtaim Group partners with over 200 of the world's most admired and innovative brands. Al-Futtaim Group’s entrepreneurship and relentless customer focus enables the organization to continue to grow and expand; responding to the changing needs of our customers within the societies in which we operate. By upholding our values of respect, excellence, collaboration and integrity; Al-Futtaim Group continues to enrich the lives and aspirations of our customers each and every day
Overview of the role Reporting to Acting CFO, the incumbent will develop a process across the Retail Division to drive improvements in business performance management, reporting and decision-making. The individual will be the finance lead for the Retail Division in developing and implementing a roadmap for the FP&A target operating model that covers; people, processes, systems and governance.
What you will do

• Lead the preparation of management reports, monthly performance reviews and provide ad hoc analysis on business initiatives.
• Develop KPIs to understand business performance measured against targets, strategies, and trends.
• Lead in the implementation of report & forecast automation and enhancement of business processes.
• Lead the preparation on store profitability reports and continuously analyse performance across brand / country / store
• Provide ad hoc modelling and analysis
• Lead Continuous Improvements that strengthen the controls environment and drive improvements in process efficiency and effectiveness that deliver standardisation, automation and simplification across the Retail Division reporting.
• Manage financial data structure
• Work on system projects to enhance functionality.
• Manage data entry & reconciliations to reporting systems (Anaplan, SAP, BI, ETC.)

Required skills to be successful

• Strong business partnering skills, able to engage with people at all levels within the business, who can win over stakeholders and deliver tough conversations to the wider business when required
• Ability to effectively communicate complicated challenges to different areas of the business.
• High level of commercial acumen with the ability to think creatively and influence commercial decisions
• Ability to motivate and focus direct report to ensure they perform to their potential, as well as influence and motivate outside of a direct reporting line.
• Is a self-starter who willingly takes ownership of problems and opportunities.
• Strong and proven ability to plan, organise and prioritise own workload, and to manage the workload of others to ensure deadlines are met
• User knowledge on SAP and BPC

What equips you for the role

• Should have minimum of 8 years of industry experience, preferably in Retail though not essential.
• Has a strong track record of playing a lead role in management reporting processes.
• Demonstrated ability to deliver process improvement and change management.
• Has a high level of understanding of dealing with broad geographic span and bringing information together for senior management.
• Previous experience of full triangulation across; P&L, Balance Sheet and Cash flow.

About Al-Futtaim Retail Al-Futtaim Retail has established itself as one of the leaders in Retail across the Middle East, Africa & Asia over the past 30 years. We have developed partnerships with some of the biggest and most respected Brands in the world including IKEA, ACE and Toys R Us in the Middle East and the Inditex Group of Brands (Zara, Mango, Bershka and P&B) across Asia. We are also one of the largest Global partners of Marks and Spencer’s in both regions with over 75 stores offering both fashion & food options.

Most recently we have been responsible for bringing brands to the Middle East for the first time with the exciting launches of Watsons and B&Q and we aim to continue to be agile and adaptive to our markets with new launches and further development. For this to be possible we aim to recruit the best talent from all backgrounds who will continue to challenge and develop our diverse workforce which includes over 100 nationalities across 12 countries. Join us today and make a difference…