Finance Manager

About the Company

petenco is an independent advisory, investment partnership, and delivery firm active across the energy and chemicals value chain. Its work spans renewables, power and utilities, refining and petrochemicals, as well as storage and terminal assets. The company blends executive-level advisory with hands-on delivery, helping projects move from concept through to operating stage with strong governance, strategy execution, and capital project oversight.

Role Overview

This position places full responsibility for financial control, reporting, treasury, tax, and cash management within a fast-moving energy advisory, investment, and delivery environment. The role leads the Dubai finance hub, supervises the Senior Accountant, and coordinates finance staff assigned to projects across the UAE and other regions. It also owns strategic treasury activities, including direct interaction with banks and lenders for project financing, along with complete oversight of UAE VAT and Corporate Tax compliance. This is an on-site role based in Dubai with travel to project locations as needed.

Key Responsibilities

• Take ownership of month-end close discipline and timelines, including review of journals, accruals, and cost allocations, and prepare monthly management reporting packs with clear commentary on variances, cash position, and P&L performance at both entity and project level.
• Drive treasury strategy by handling cash forecasting, liquidity planning, and the full project financing cycle, from identifying financing partners and preparing information memoranda to negotiating and finalising funding arrangements.
• Maintain banking relationships and credit facilities, manage weekly payment runs with strict approval controls, track multi-currency cash positions, shape FX hedging approaches, and support working capital efficiency.
• Lead project accounting setup, monitor project costs and budget-to-actual performance, support project close, and ensure accurate project P&L and margin reporting while working closely with Project, Engineering, and Commercial teams to minimise revenue leakage.
• Own UAE VAT and UAE Corporate Tax processes end to end, including registrations, calculations, filings, payments, and FTA communication, while ensuring IFRS compliance across entities and coordinating audits through to closure.
• Guide and develop the Senior Accountant and site-based finance team members, establish reporting standards and cadence, and strengthen finance operations through SOPs, templates, automation, and tighter internal controls.

Candidate Profile

You should bring a strong finance background with substantial experience in accounting or finance roles, including UAE exposure and people management experience. The role requires solid understanding of IFRS, UAE VAT, UAE Corporate Tax, treasury tools, FX hedging, and project finance structures, along with advanced Excel capability for reporting, modelling, and reconciliations. Professional fluency in English is essential.

Must-Have Requirements

• A bachelor’s degree in Finance, Accounting, or a closely related discipline.
• At least 8 years of progressive experience in finance or accounting, including work in the UAE and evidence of team leadership.
• Strong working knowledge of IFRS, UAE VAT, and UAE Corporate Tax, together with practical exposure to treasury instruments, FX hedging, and project finance structures.
• Advanced Microsoft Excel skills, especially in reporting, financial modelling, and reconciliations.
• Full professional proficiency in English.

Preferred Qualifications

• A professional certification such as CA, ACCA, CPA, CFA, or an equivalent qualification.
• Prior exposure to treasury operations, project finance, or capital structuring, particularly across multiple entities or jurisdictions.
• Experience with ERP systems such as SAP, Oracle, Microsoft Dynamics, or comparable platforms.
• Arabic language ability.

Why This Role Stands Out

You will own the finance function for an energy advisory and delivery business and work directly with the CEO, with meaningful influence over capital and financing decisions. The role offers broad responsibility across control, treasury, tax, and project finance, with clear end-to-end ownership in a disciplined, execution-focused setting.

Location

Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Full-time, on-site.

Application Note

Applications are reviewed continuously, and shortlisted candidates will be contacted if there is a match. No external application links are included here.