Chief Financial Officer

About the Role:

We’re seeking a hands-on, commercially sharp CFO to drive profitability, cash discipline, and financial transformation for a rapidly scaling online grocery business. This role sits at the intersection of strategic vision, operational finance, and commercial accountability, driving both high growth and improved profitability.

Key Responsibilities:

1. Strategic & Commercial Finance Leadership

• Partner with the leadership team to define and execute the company’s financial roadmap, balancing growth, efficiency, and profitability.
• Lead commercial finance strategy: analyze category margins, pricing, and discount structures; drive optimized cost to serve and contribution margins.
• Establish frameworks for evaluating marketing ROI, promotional efficiency, and dark store-level P&L ownership, as well as category level P&L.
• Build a partnership model with Operations, Marketing, and Tech to align business decisions with real-time financial implications.
• Drive initiatives to achieve EBITDA break-even through structural cost reduction and mix optimization.

2. Daily Finance Operations & Cash Control

• Oversee day-to-day financial operations, including order-level reconciliation, vendor payments, and cash management across stores and digital wallets.
• Ensure strong controls around collections, payouts, refunds, supplier credit terms, and cash handling at the store level.
• Monitor daily bank reconciliations, petty cash, vendor advances, and supplier ledgers, ensuring zero leakage.
• Lead the Accounts Payable and Accounts Receivable functions to ensure timely settlements and working capital efficiency.
• Implement rolling 13-week cash flow forecasting and dashboards for daily liquidity tracking.
• Collaborate with operations to reduce fulfillment, wastage, and logistics costs, improving cash conversion cycles.

3. Financial Planning, Budgeting & Performance Management

• Drive monthly, quarterly, and annual FP&A processes: budgeting, variance analysis, and forecasting.
• Build and maintain robust financial models for GMV, NMV, AOV, CAC, LTV, contribution, and city-level P&L.
• Introduce zero-based budgeting (ZBB) and cost-center accountability across functions.
• Lead weekly performance reviews with department heads on cost vs. target metrics, profitability, and expense optimization.
• Deliver accurate and timely monthly management reports, ensuring data-driven decision-making.

4. Supply Chain & Operations Finance

• Partner with the supply chain, procurement, and operations teams to improve inventory turns, vendor credit, and cost-to-serve models.
• Implement SKU-level profitability tracking across regions and dark stores.
• Lead initiatives to minimize wastage, shrinkage, and disposal loss, ensuring better margin retention.
• Optimize the supplier funding and rebate structures to strengthen gross margins.

5. Internal Audit, Controls & Compliance

• Establish and oversee a robust Internal Audit function covering finance, procurement, store operations, and compliance.
• Conduct monthly internal control checks on cash, stock, and system reconciliations across stores and warehouses.
• Ensure compliance with IFRS and local statutory requirements (SECP, CCP, ACRA, FBR, tax).
• Drive risk management frameworks, including fraud prevention, approval hierarchies, and authority matrices.
• Manage external and statutory audits, ensuring clean opinions and timely closure.
• Set up a compliance dashboard covering key risk indicators, policy breaches, and control exceptions.

6. Systems, Automation & Data Integrity

• Lead full utilization of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations, integrating it with supply chain, procurement, and CRM systems.
• Automate reconciliations, invoice workflows, and MIS generation to ensure speed and accuracy.
• Drive analytics and visualization dashboards that provide store-wise, city-wise, and function-wise profitability snapshots.
• Oversee the creation of a single source of truth for financial data integrity and audit trails.

7. Cost Control, Profitability & Value Creation

• Institutionalize cost-control mechanisms across all functions, enforcing spend discipline and ROI validation.
• Identify and reduce inefficiencies across all departments
• Build and implement profitability scorecards for products, categories, and regions.
• Monitor daily contribution margin and EBITDA bridge to ensure improvement month-over-month.
• Establish regular reviews for SG&A optimization and productivity improvement.

8. Leadership & Team Development

• Build and mentor a multi-layered finance team across FP&A, accounting, treasury, audit, and commercial finance.
• Drive continuous learning and exposure to cross-functional business levers.
• Promote a performance driven and compliant culture where financial accountability is shared company wide.

Qualifications & Experience:

• Chartered Accountant (CA), CPA, CFA, or MBA (Finance).
• 10+ years of progressive experience, with at least 4–6 years in a senior finance leadership role in FMCG, E-Commerce, or Logistics.
• Deep expertise in commercial finance, supply chain finance, and operational cost management.
• Demonstrated success in improving profitability and driving sustainable financial turnaround.
• Hands-on proficiency with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations
• Proven experience with multi-entity consolidation, cross-border operations, and group reporting.
• Strong understanding of IFRS, internal controls, tax, and regulatory frameworks 
• Experience with US GAAP Accounting Standards is preferred
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management with investors, boards, and regulators.