Senior Cost Controller

Role Overview

Elegancia Services Group is seeking a Senior Cost Controller to join its Finance / Catering Operations function in Lusail, Qatar. This role focuses on controlling costs, improving profitability, and strengthening financial discipline across catering and related operational sites.

The position sits within the catering, hospitality, food services, and facilities management environment, with responsibility for performance tracking, budget adherence, inventory accuracy, procurement cost oversight, and reporting for multiple sites and projects.

Core Responsibilities

• Track and manage food, beverage, and operational expenditure across all catering sites and projects.
• Review daily, weekly, and monthly cost statements, then identify and explain any deviations.
• Keep operations aligned with approved budgets and established cost control processes.
• Assess the profitability and margin performance of catering contracts.
• Perform detailed cost reviews and share practical corrective recommendations with management.
• Create and maintain standardized recipe costing worksheets.
• Monitor food cost ratios and consumption patterns.
• Evaluate menu profitability and suggest menu engineering improvements.
• Follow wastage, spoilage, and yield differences to reduce avoidable losses.
• Confirm that portion sizes and recipe specifications are consistently followed.
• Oversee inventory control activities in central kitchens, warehouses, and catering locations.
• Carry out regular physical stock counts and reconcile differences.
• Monitor stock transfers, movement, and usage trends.
• Investigate inventory gaps and implement corrective measures.
• Maintain proper FIFO and stock rotation discipline.
• Examine purchase requests, purchase orders, and supplier quotations.
• Watch market pricing and identify opportunities for savings.
• Coordinate with Procurement to secure competitive sourcing.
• Check supplier invoices against approved purchase orders and delivery documentation.
• Work collaboratively with Executive Chefs, Site Managers, Operations Managers, and Procurement teams.
• Monitor labor productivity and staffing-related costs at catering sites.
• Support the launch of new catering projects through budget preparation and cost forecasting.
• Analyze meal counts, consumption data, and client billing accuracy.
• Prepare monthly Food Cost Reports, Inventory Reports, and Profitability Analysis reports.
• Produce management reports that highlight key cost performance indicators.
• Support both internal and external audit activities.
• Ensure compliance with company policies and client contractual obligations.

Requirements

• A bachelor’s degree in Accounting, Finance, Hospitality Management, or a related discipline is required.
• Professional certifications such as CMA, ACCA, or CPA are considered an advantage.
• Applicants should have 5 to 8 years of experience in cost control within large-scale catering, remote site catering, industrial catering, or hospitality operations.
• Experience handling multiple catering sites and high-volume meal production is strongly preferred.
• Strong understanding of food cost control and inventory management is essential.
• Hands-on experience with ERP platforms such as SAP, Oracle, Microsoft Dynamics, or catering/FMCG software is expected.
• Advanced Excel capability, including Pivot Tables, VLOOKUP/XLOOKUP, and Power Query, is needed.
• Applicants must have strong analytical and reporting ability.
• Knowledge of menu costing, recipe costing, and catering contract profitability is important.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills are required.

Preferred Background

• Industrial catering experience.
• Remote camp catering experience.
• Exposure to oil and gas catering operations.
• Background in facilities management catering services.
• Experience in central kitchen operations.
• Experience handling high-volume catering operations of 5,000+ meals per day.

Key Performance Indicators

• Food cost percentage against budget.
• Inventory variance percentage.
• Waste reduction percentage.
• Contract profitability.
• Purchase price variance (PPV).
• Stock accuracy and reconciliation.
• Labor cost percentage against revenue.
• Monthly cost savings achieved.
• Timeliness and accuracy of cost reports.

Industry

This role is associated with catering, hospitality, food services, and facilities management operations.

Location

Lusail, Qatar.

Employment Notes

This is a full-time role. No start date, application deadline, salary, or vacancy count was specified in the source information.