Associate Director - Financial Planning & Analysis (FPA) - Dubai

Job Description

The role holder will have the overall responsibility of DHAM Group five-year strategic planning, annual budgeting and periodical forecasts. The role holder is also responsible for business/financial analysis with commercial/financial recommendations and cash-flow reporting for the Group and works very closely with ED-FP&A and collaborates with portfolio heads/associates and facilitates for informed strategic decision making and thus creating positive impact and influence DHAM commercial, operational and financial performance.

• In close association with ED FP&A, heads of departments and leadership team, manage the development of the strategic five-year planning and annual budgets.
• Develop, review and monitor appropriate metrics and KPIs for the business to measure growth, profitability, expense control and productivity; deliver innovative, high value-adding financial information to the management team for strategic decision making.

Core Responsibilities

• Develop, enhance, automate and optimize DHAM strategic business planning processes on a continuous basis to ensure comprehensive, high quality business plan submission to DH and DHAM management.
• Work closely with departments / business units to develop plan and forecasts. Critically analyses, challenges submissions and recommends for optimization.
• Keep abreast of both global and local market trends and indicators, short term and long term, and foresee / forecast potential impact of DHAM businesses and its plans.

• Ensure budgetary controls are adequately placed through systems and processes.
• Continuously monitor business performance against approved plan and highlight potential deviations and suggest mitigation options, if any, to respective teams and higher management.
• Responsible for group cash-flow reporting and project capex reporting to ensure liquidity and solvency for the Group.
• Work together with Accounting, Treasury and Investment functions in Finance to ensure proper recording of transactions which facilitate reporting and monitoring.

• Develop, enhance business analysis framework and templates to facilitate standardization of business analysis methodology, techniques, inputs, output and monitoring.
• Support management and department heads with required business/commercial/financial analysis with recommendation to support strategic, informed decision making in line with best practices.

• Conduct financial impact and profitability analysis on any asset price revisions and provide scenario analysis and recommendations.
• Review analysis shared by the team on the renewal scenarios and related price changes, through rental alignment with new leases pricing.
• Monitor spending for capital projects by developing adequate control tools and mechanisms. Educate relevant teams for informed decision making and effective controls.
• Perform capital expenditure and working capital analysis as well as industry / peer group comparisons as required for DHAM corporate as well as for business units.

• Provide financial inputs on critical and high value deals and business cases to evaluate their commercial viability and impact on overall budget that guides the business unit heads in critical decision making.
• Provide financial inputs and recommendations, for memos to top management, Project Investment Committee and Executive Management Committees.
• Work closely with the ED FP&A and be integral part of special projects, critical contracts and various initiatives undertaken / lead by FP&A function.

• Always thrive for innovative ideas and suggestions w.r.t. processes, costs and revenue in order to achieve continuous improvement in organizational and operational efficiencies.
• Stay abreast of current and new financial reporting guidelines, technologies, tools and techniques that can be used within DHAM to improve planning, monitoring, reporting and control.

Minimum Qualification:

• Bachelors degree in Accounting or Finance, CA, CPA, CMA or equivalent is required.
• Masters degree in Finance/ Accounting, or MBA Finance preferred.

Experience:

• Minimum 8-10 years of Finance / Accounting experience preferably in a large retail / real estate conglomerate.
• At least 2 years in the Middle East within FP&A is preferred.
• Previous experience using Hyperion is preferred.