Vice President, Group Finance

About the Role

Our client ranks among the premier industrial engineering conglomerates worldwide, spanning diverse markets, business lines, and subsidiaries. The Group specializes in delivering extensive engineering, manufacturing, infrastructure, technology, and industrial solutions across capital-intensive sectors.

The Vice President of Group Finance is a senior executive tasked with steering the Group's financial strategy, governance, reporting, planning, performance tracking, and capital discipline. Collaborating closely with the Group CFO, executive leadership, regional finance heads, and business unit chiefs, this role strives to enhance financial resilience, operational excellence, and sustainable growth within the global organization.

Key Responsibilities

• Drive the design and implementation of the Group's finance strategy consistent with corporate objectives, growth goals, and shareholder interests.
• Serve as a strategic counsel to the Group CFO and leadership on financial results, capital distribution, enterprise risk, investments, and value creation over the long term.
• Provide leadership to finance functions across the Group to ensure uniformity, rigor, and high-quality standards in global operations.
• Manage comprehensive budgeting, forecasting, long-term planning, and performance management at the Group level.
• Perform financial analyses encompassing revenue, margins, cash flow, working capital, project profitability, cost efficiency, and capital returns.
• Craft high-level insights and scenarios to guide strategic decision-making and verify business plans are commercially realistic and aligned with financial targets.
• Lead accurate and prompt consolidated financial reporting, ensuring adherence to accounting standards, regulations, internal controls, and governance frameworks.
• Strengthen financial controls, policies, processes, and systems across all operations.
• Collaborate with regional finance heads and business leaders to enhance financial performance, accountability, and standardized reporting metrics.
• Support commercial evaluations, project reviews, pricing strategies, contract risk analysis, and margin improvements.
• Oversee capital investment decisions, including organic growth, acquisitions, divestitures, restructuring, and strategic alliances, ensuring thorough financial evaluation.
• Work with corporate development and legal teams on mergers, integration efforts, and portfolio optimization, emphasizing disciplined risk-return assessment.
• Manage cash flow forecasts, liquidity, working capital efficiency, and partner with treasury on funding, debt, banking, currency risks, and capital structure.
• Advocate and lead finance transformation initiatives such as process automation, ERP enhancements, shared services, data governance, analytics, and digital tools.
• Build and mentor a high-performing finance team, fostering accountability, collaboration, skill development, and succession planning.

Qualifications and Experience

• Extensive finance leadership experience of at least 15–20 years in multinational industrial, engineering, manufacturing, infrastructure, energy, construction, or capital project sectors.
• Strong background in group finance functions including corporate finance, FP&A, controllership, reporting, business partnering, or regional finance management.
• Accomplished in navigating complex matrix organizations with multiple entities, geographies, and reporting lines.
• Experienced in capital-intensive and project-driven businesses with a focus on working capital and large-scale transformations.
• Prior involvement supporting executive committees, boards, audit committees, investors, or shareholders preferred.
• Familiarity with M&A activities, integration, restructuring, and portfolio management advantageous.
• Deep technical expertise in financial reporting, consolidation, management accounting, budgeting, forecasting, cash flow management, controls, and governance.
• Proficient with IFRS, US GAAP, or similar accounting standards.
• Strong skills in financial modeling, investment evaluation, capital allocation, and scenario planning.
• Ability to analyze complex financial and operational data and convey clear insights to executives.
• Knowledgeable in ERP systems, finance transformation methods, BI tools, shared service models, and digital finance platforms.
• Bachelor's degree in Finance, Accounting, Economics, Business, Engineering, or related field; professional accounting certification (CPA, CA, ACCA, CIMA or equivalent) highly preferred.
• Advanced degrees such as MBA are a plus.

Ideal Candidate Profile

This senior finance leader should have a blend of deep financial expertise and pragmatic commercial insight. They must possess strong leadership skills and the capability to influence diverse stakeholders in complex industrial workplaces. Comfort with board-level strategic discussions, rigorous business unit performance scrutiny, and driving disciplined execution throughout a global finance organization is essential.