Finance Director - MENA
Location: Dubai (UAE & KSA remit)
Elevate is a global agency network specialising in sport and fan-first strategies powered by cutting-edge insights and proprietary AI technology. Established in 2018, we support over 1,000 ambitious brands across sports, entertainment, consumer products, and retail, delivering personalised strategies that turn followers into devoted fans.
Central to our approach is the synergy between our team’s deep expertise and EPIC, which integrates tools for consumer insights, ticketing, property analytics, and more. This combination empowers clients to maximise ROI, enhance fan engagement, and craft campaigns that inspire lasting loyalty.
Our team of 500+ employees spans the globe with in 20 locations worldwide. We value recruiting diverse individuals to our team to bring new perspectives to our company and look forward to learning more about you in the recruitment process. To learn more and see what we’ve been up to, follow Elevate on X, LinkedIn or Instagram.
Role Overview
The Finance Director will act as a strategic business partner to the Executive Director, Corporate Finance and leadership team, providing clear, real-time insight into the financial health, performance, and trajectory of the Elevate business across KSA and the UAE.
The role goes beyond financial control and reporting, focusing on interpreting what the numbers are telling the business, supporting strategic decision-making, advising on growth, liquidity, and risk, and ensuring strong fiscal discipline and fiduciary governance across the organisation.
Key Responsibilities
Financial Leadership & Stewardship
- Lead day-to-day financial management across KSA and UAE entities
- Act as custodian of the organisation’s fiscal position and fiduciary responsibilities
- Maintain robust financial controls, policies, and governance frameworks aligned with group standards
- Ensure compliance with all statutory, tax, Zakat, VAT, and regulatory requirements
- Provide leadership with a clear, real-time understanding of financial performance, cash position, and risk
- Identify financial risks and proactively recommend mitigation strategies
Management Reporting, Controls & Visibility
- Deliver accurate, timely management accounts with clear insight into performance drivers
- Maintain full visibility of cash flow, working capital, liquidity, and funding headroom
- Ensure consistency, integrity, and auditability of financial data across entities
- Provide clear variance analysis explaining performance against budget and forecast
Forecasting, Budgeting & Financial Cadence
- Review and stabilise existing budgeting and forecasting processes, addressing gaps inaccuracy, assumptions, and ownership
- Improve forecast reliability through tighter definitions, stronger inputs, and disciplined governance
- Provide quarterly forecast updates supported by a variance analysis vs the annual budget
- Separate committed revenue, probable pipeline, and upside within forecasts
- Strengthen integration between pipeline data, delivery plans, headcount, and financial forecasts
- Establish and lead a structured monthly financial cadence with leadership
- Improve visibility of seasonality, client concentration, and revenue timing
- Enhance variance analysis to focus on root causes and corrective actions
- Ensure alignment with group planning and reporting cycles
Commercial, Client & Project Economics
- Develop a deep understanding of the agency’s business model, revenue streams, and cost drivers
- Analyse client portfolios, revenue concentration, pricing, and margin performance
- Track peaks and troughs in client demand and pipeline volatility
- Analyse project-level costing, profitability, and delivery efficiency
Strategic Finance & Decision Support
- Advise leadership on priorities, trade-offs, and investment decisions
- Define and refine performance metrics reflecting true commercial performance
- Provide forward-looking insight into business trends, risks, and outlook
- Embed strategic finance into growth planning and organisational decision-making
Liquidity, Funding & External Relationships
- Identify options for liquidity, funding, and financial support
- Build and manage relationships with banks, auditors, advisors, and financial partners
- Lead long-term financial planning, scenario modelling, and stress testing
Shared Services & Group Integration Leadership
- Lead the finance function’s collaboration with shared service teams across HR, buisness operations, procurement, marketing and legal
- Act as primary owner of shared service relationships for finance
- Ensure effective information flow, issue escalation, and resolution
- Drive alignment and horizontal integration between local operations and group systems and processes
Skills & Experience
- Senior finance leadership experience within an agency, consulting, or professional services environment
- Strong understanding of KSA and UAE financial, tax, and regulatory frameworks
- Proven ability to deliver strategic financial insight beyond reporting
- Experience with project-based costing, margin analysis, and client profitability
- Strong commercial acumen and stakeholder management skills
- Ability to bring “best in class” finance experience to an agile agency environment
- Experience in growth-stage or multi-entity regional businesses
- Experience partnering closely with founders or boards
Personal Attributes
- Strategic, commercially minded, collaborative and analytically strong
- Able to translate complex financial data into clear, actionable insight
- Confident advisor at executive and board level
- Pragmatic, hands-on, and comfortable in a fast-paced agency environment
- High integrity with a strong sense of fiduciary responsibility