Head of Shared Services - Dubai

Ensure an effective and efficient finance & operations management for Dubai Shared Service.  Responsible for providing high quality financial support to MEWA & APAC while ensuring 100% compliance to all UAE Corporate, Tax & Finance  requirements. 

Ensuring we have a good working environment in Dubai, aligning the Bull of Rights with MEWA Head Coach and following full policy compliance. 

ACCOUNTING, TAX & COMPLIANCE

• Guarantees 100% compliance with all relevant local legislation (e.g. statutory accounting standards, tax law, civil law) and internal group guidelines.
• Ensures that the accounting is correct, transparent (within the organisation and towards HQ) and complete (including appropriate accruals/deferrals). The financial statements must present a true and fair view of the financial position, financial performance and cash flows of the reported period.
• Assures timely submission of accurate financial information to all stakeholders.
• Pro-actively and cost efficiently manages the year end audit process and external auditors to secure clean Early Warning Memorandums and clean Management Letters strictly avoiding an "Emphasis of Matter" or a "Qualified Opinion".
• While maintaining quality, continuously drives efficiency by streamlining processes (within Finance and beyond Finance) and the use of available tools.
• Establishes an effective tax management in cooperation with the tax specialists in HQ and external tax advisors ensuring that all changes in tax legislation and their implications are evaluated well in advance, a regular tax risk assessment is being conducted and all day to day tax queries are handled in the most cost efficient way. Complies with all relevant HQ Treasury guidelines.
• Establishes and maintains an effective credit risk management, makes sure that payment terms are in line with industry standards, assesses customer creditworthiness on a regular basis, sets credit limits and security requirements for all customers, implements in cooperation with the sales department an effective collection and dunning process and strictly avoids bad debts.
• Sets up an effective cash management by minimizing working capital needs and pro-actively transfers surplus cash to the parent company.
• Aligns all financing (including leasing) and bank selection decisions with the Treasury department in HQ.
• Ensures that reliable liquidity forecasts are being delivered to HQ on time.
• Manages all local insurance topics (cars, claims and general internal inquiries) according to the guideline. 
• Assures the application of and compliance with all relevant HQ guidelines.
• Implements local policies to set principles for behaviour, to have a written documentation of the common sense and to guarantee fair treatment within the organisation.
• Establishes and continuously re-assesses an effective Internal Control System and thus minimises the risk of errors, misconduct or fraud by designing company processes to satisfy the 4-eyes principle, ensuring sufficient segregation of duties and creating awareness about the possibility of fraud.
• Promotes candid business conduct and establishes a climate of honesty, trust and loyalty (= lead by example) and encourage a (confidential) culture of reporting misbehaviour.

DP EXPENSES, PLANNING & ANALYTICS

• Support MEWA & APAC DP markets with checking the MERs, managing the Budget Management tools, Supporting the leadership teams with budget tracking vs plan, Training on DP recharge tool & compliance to controlling guidelines. 
• Support MEWA & APAC business planning process (BP) and revised estimate (RE) cycles ensuring proper resource allocation & providing necessary training to team. 
• Ensure the monthly reporting requirements are met timely (BS & CF Report, Quarterly BS review, Internal control questionnaire).  Address any major controls gaps in alignment with HQ specialists and action immediately on any risks within the balance sheets 
• Partner with the HQ specialists for all reporting and planning requirements. 

LOCAL COMPLIANCE

• Ensure all DAFZA requirements are met & records are always upto date (Trade License renewal, UBO declarations, Filing of resolutions, Audit report submissions,  Office Insurance renewals & filing with DAFZA) 
• Ensure the Red Bull Asia FZE branch office (under Dual licensing) renewals with DED and MOE are done on timely basis. 
• Ensure the office lease renewals are done timely and negotiate with DAFZA for a favorable conditions. 
• Ensure all employee records are maintained upto date and submitted to DAFZA as required.  All employee Visa & Labor card renewals are done timely & no penalties for delayed renewals. 
• Ensure we have a good working environment within Dubai office & full compliance to all local policies aligned with MEWA HC. 
• Ensure support to Red Bull LLC (UAE) in terms of all legal compliance matters, accounting & CSC services. 

OPERATIONS

• Drive the Efficiency and Effectiveness mind-set in the organization.
• Manage the CSC team within Red Bull Asia to ensure proper coordination of process between DPs, ICs and HQ Operations. 
• Ensure a proper set up of O2C process for all RB Asia DP markets & Inter company sales. 
• Intense communication with all Red Bull stakeholders (internal, external & HQ) to understand their needs and support them in the most efficient way for the company. This includes customers, ICs and DPs. 
• Engage with key customers to build trust and establish joint continuous improvement projects to optimize service levels, quality, and costs. (e.g.: build, maintain and develop customer collaboration platforms with top customers for planning and supply chain processes).
• Responsible for the Sales & Operations planning process in the organization to manage all the upstream supply planning & production planning are fully aligned with HQ. 
• Deep understanding and monitoring of all costs occurring in the operational area for all the upstream activities in coordination with HQ Ops. 
• Deep understanding and proper documentation of the processes & systems landscape and assurance of the international Red Bull standards.
• Accountable for the up-to-date and accuracy of data in the relevant Red Bull systems.
• Develop, implement and central storage of all purchasing policies, outsource guidelines and procedures (bid proposals, qualify of vendors, requirements documentation,) in conjunction with HQ and all departments with specific requirements.
• Be the local sustainability ambassador for global and local guidelines / project

PEOPLE MANAGEMENT

• Builds a team of highly engaged and motivated people.
• Ensures that each position is held by a person with the appropriate qualification.
• Agree on annual objectives of key members to ensure the basics are covered and we provide right development plans across the finance organization. 
• Promotes internal training (Finance Academies and Best Practice Workshops) to elevate knowledge levels within the team.
• Assures that all key processes are documented in writing and that checklists are being used.

Degree in Chartered Accountant / Business Administration in Finance

Minimum 3-5 years of relevant Finance & Operations experience in the FMCG industry and a considerable exposure to Commercial Finance. 

Strong accounting (Local Accounting Standards & IFRS), taxation knowledge & international supply chain knowledge.

Very strong leadership skills.

Highly analytical and very skilled individual.

Ability to quickly identify and analyse risks and impacts and able to define alternatives. 

Good communication and presentation skills.

Capable of communicating precisely, effectively and convincingly based on facts with internal and external stakeholders.

IT literate, excellent MS Excel knowledge, familiarity with any ERP system and any integrated business analysis tool is a strong plus (SAP BI/Cognos/Essbase/Hyperion etc). 

Flexible and a team player.

Must be self-motivated, self-directed and be able to work under pressure in a fast paced team environment.