Chief Financial Officer

About the Role

We are seeking a dynamic and commercially driven Chief Financial Officer (CFO) to spearhead the financial strategy and operations for a leading food manufacturing and distribution enterprise in Saudi Arabia. This is a high-impact leadership position that goes beyond traditional financial reporting, requiring a strategic partner to the CEO and executive team. The ideal candidate will possess a unique blend of financial acumen and operational expertise, driving profitable growth, optimizing manufacturing performance, and enhancing working capital and cash generation.

Key Responsibilities

The CFO will lead a finance organization of over 100 professionals and collaborate closely with key functions including Commercial, Manufacturing, Procurement, Supply Chain, and Distribution. The role demands a deep understanding of the financial intricacies of a high-volume food manufacturing and distribution business, from ingredient and packaging procurement to final customer delivery. Core responsibilities include:

• Driving Profitable Growth: Implement rigorous strategies for pricing, trade-spend, promotions, customer and channel profitability, and product mix optimization to enhance revenue and margins.
• Manufacturing Economics: Optimize raw material costs, conversion expenses, yield, waste reduction, productivity, and capacity utilization to improve operational efficiency and profitability.
• Working Capital & Cash Management: Strengthen cash conversion cycles by enhancing receivables management, credit control, collections, inventory optimization, expiry risk mitigation, supplier payment strategies, and accurate cash forecasting.
• Data-Driven Decision Making: Transform complex financial and operational data into actionable insights, enabling timely and informed management decisions.
• Commercial Challenge: Scrutinize and validate sales forecasts, revenue assumptions, promotional strategies, and route-to-market investments to ensure alignment with financial objectives.
• Operational Partnership: Collaborate with Manufacturing and Supply Chain leaders to drive productivity improvements, cost control, yield enhancement, planning precision, and inventory discipline.
• Capital Investment Evaluation: Assess and prioritize capital expenditure proposals related to capacity expansion, automation, warehousing, fleet, equipment, and distribution infrastructure to support long-term growth.
• Performance Optimization: Identify and address underperforming customers, channels, territories, products, SKUs, and commercial agreements to enhance overall business performance.
• Performance Management: Lead fact-based performance reviews that drive accountability and actionable outcomes, fostering a culture of continuous improvement rather than retrospective reporting.
• Finance Organization Leadership: Develop and nurture a high-performing finance team characterized by strong capabilities, robust controls, disciplined reporting, and leadership depth.

Candidate Profile

We are looking for an experienced senior finance leader with a proven track record in food manufacturing, FMCG production, or a similarly complex high-volume consumer products environment. The ideal candidate will bring:

• Extensive Finance Leadership: At least 18 years of progressive finance experience, including significant responsibility for operating profit and loss (P&L) management.
• Commercial Finance Expertise: Strong background in pricing strategies, gross-to-net analysis, trade spend optimization, promotional effectiveness, and customer/channel profitability.
• Manufacturing Finance Proficiency: Deep experience in cost accounting, raw material management, conversion cost control, yield improvement, waste reduction, inventory optimization, and supply chain economics.
• Team Leadership: Proven ability to lead large, multi-layered finance teams and enhance finance operating models to support business growth and complexity.
• Influence & Collaboration: The confidence and credibility to challenge and engage with senior leaders across Commercial, Manufacturing, Procurement, and Supply Chain functions.
• Language Proficiency: Fluency in both English and Arabic to effectively communicate and drive alignment across diverse teams and stakeholders.

This is an exceptional opportunity for a commercially astute CFO who combines financial rigor with the agility to influence critical operational and commercial decisions at pace, driving sustainable growth and value creation for the organization.