Vice President - Accounting

Job description / Role

INSPIRE | EXHILARATE | DELIGHT

For over six decades, Chalhoub Group has been a partner and creator of luxury experiences in the Middle East. The Group, in its endeavour to excel as a hybrid retailer, has reinforced its distribution and marketing services with a portfolio of eight owned brands and over 300 international brands in the luxury, beauty, fashion, and art de vivre categories. More recently, the Group expanded its expertise into new categories of luxury watches, jewellery, and eyewear.

Every step at Chalhoub Group is taken with the customer at heart. Be it constantly reinventing itself or focusing on innovation to provide luxury experiences at over 750+ experiential retail stores, online and through mobile apps, each touch point leads to delighting the customer.

Today, Chalhoub Group stands for 14,000 skilled and talented professionals across seven countries, whose cohesive efforts have resulted in the Group being ranked third in the Middle East and first in Saudi Arabia as a Great Place to Work®.

To keep the innovation journey going, the Group has set up "The Greenhouse", which is not just an innovation hub, but also an incubator space and accelerator for start-ups and small businesses in the region and internationally. This is just one of the several initiatives taken by the Group to reinvent itself, catalysed by forward thinking and future-proofing. The Group has also been embedding sustainability at the core of its business strategy with a clear commitment towards people, partners and the planet, and by being a member of the United Nations Global Compact Community and signatory of the Women's Empowerment Principles.

The Role:

We are looking for an experienced leader to join the Group as VP, Accounting. This position is responsible for building out a first-class Shared Services function overseeing the delivery of shared services including order-to-cash, procure-to-pay, fixed assets, IFRS 16 and reporting throughout the Group across GCC, Europe, the Americas and Asia. This role will report to the Group CFO and work closely with Finance divisions and executive stakeholders across the Group. The role will help the Group to drive efficiency and scalability to support the rapid growth of the business.

To be successful you should be driven to succeed, highly organized, and have excellent leadership, communication, and interpersonal skills. You should have deep knowledge and experience in best practice accounting/finance automation strategies, processes optimization, ERP and other software, and project management and you should be familiar with the workings and interrelations of different departments and functions.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:

Strategic Leadership:

- Work closely with the CFO and executive team to develop and execute strategies that supports the company's Group Strategic goals.
- Lead the Accounting team to develop and manage a comprehensive roadmap of strategic initiatives, using a systematic approach to balance immediate requirements with our long-term strategic vision.
- Define the end-state for a best-in-class service organization.
- Exceptional conceptual and analytic problem-solving capabilities to support both operational and strategic decision making.

Operational Leadership:

- Develop and implement strategies to streamline the overall Accounting and Shared Services Center function maximize efficiency and reduce costs while maintaining quality standards and is accountable for its successful implementation per the timelines outlined within the plan.
- Accountable for the successful implementation of the Accounting and Shared Service Strategy per the timelines outlined within the plan.
- Strong leadership and team management skills with proof points of being a hands-on executor.
- Develop and implement accounting policies and procedures to enhance internal controls and streamline financial operations.
- Build and lead a high-performing accounting team, fostering a culture of collaboration, accountability, and professional development.
- Collaborate with Finance, tax, legal and Internal Audit team to mitigate financial, legal risks and compliance risks.
- Foster a culture of continuous improvement within the organization. Encourage feedback from both customers and employees, and use insights gained to optimize processes, workflows, and service delivery mechanisms.

Reporting & Consolidation:

- Oversee month-end close processes and provide accurate and timely reporting.
- Manage the accounting team to ensure timely and accurate financial reporting and year end Group consolidation.
- Develop and maintain accounting policies compliant with policies and procedures and IFRS.
- Collaborate with external auditors during the annual audit process.

Shared Services:

- Oversee the Shared Service Centre with its operations for order-to-cash, procure-to-pay, fixed assets, IFRS 16 and reporting.
- Design and implement efficient and effective policies, systems, and controls to drive and enhance process compliance with internal controls and IFRS accounting standards.
- Drive process improvements and automation to enhance financial operations efficiency.
- Ensure best-in-class use of technology, including AI and RPA to drive process efficiencies through automation and provide insights, analysis, and recommendations on process optimization based on best practice.
- Establish clear metrics and monitoring processes effectively measure Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that drive efficiencies and ensure compliance with Service Level Agreements (SLAs) with internal and external customers.
- Implement cost-control measures to optimize profitability and financial efficiency and foster an environment of continues end-to-end process improvements across the organisation.

Requirements

What you'll need to succeed:

- Internationally recognized professional qualification such as ICAEW, CPA and/or CMA or equivalent.
- Bachelor's Degree in Accounting or Finance.
- Top Business school MBA level education preferred.
- Demonstrated success within audit of a Big 4 practice and held a senior role leading a large Accounting/Shared Services organization (minimum of 7 years).
- Experience with Shared Services with in-depth process knowledge covering key SSC and Finance themes is essential.
- Hands on experience in setting up a Finance Shared Service organization.
- Experience working in a high growth area within a transformative environment.
- Experience working in Retail, Distribution or Consumer industries preferred.
- In-depth experience in operations automation and data driven projects (Big data, Artificial Intelligence, Machine learning etc.).
- Good understanding of ERP systems (e.g. ORACLE, SAP etc.) with and end-to-end thinking mentality is a must.
- Proven track record of managing many projects simultaneously, managing and driving cost efficiencies, and ensuring projects achieve schedules.
- Ability to build a network and develop strong working relationships.

What we can offer you

With us, you will turn your aspirations into reality. We will help shape your journey through enriching experiences, learning and development opportunities and exposure to different assignments within your role or through internal mobility. Our Group offers diverse career paths for those who are extraordinary, every day.

About the Company

The Chalhoub Group is the leading partner for luxury across the Middle East since 1955. As an expert in retail, distribution and marketing services based in Dubai, the group has become a major player in the fashion, beauty and gift sectors regionally.

By blending its Middle East expertise and intimate knowledge of luxury, Chalhoub Group is building brands in the region, by offering service excellence to all its partners and a unique experience to its customers through its passionate teams.

With a growing workforce of more than 9,000 people, implemented in 14 countries, as well as the operating of over 470 retail outlets, the group's success is attributed to its most valued asset of highly skilled and dedicated teams. Professionalism and passion are what fuel the Chalhoub Group's competitive edge in today's market.

By being committed to implementing sustainable practices into their business, the Chalhoub Group has been awarded in 2013 the CSR Label from the Dubai Chamber of Commerce.