Costing and Budgeting Section Head - Retail | Saudi Arabia

We are seeking a dedicated and meticulous Costing and Budgeting Section Head for a prominent and leading retail company in Saudi Arabia, renowned for its commitment to excellence and innovation.

Key Accountabilities

• Lead end-to-end costing for all stock-keeping units, including raw materials, packaging, logistics, warehousing, and import-related costs
• Analyze cost variances between actual and standard, providing root-cause analysis for margin changes
• Drive the annual budgeting process covering profit and loss, balance sheet, and cash flow across all sales channels
• Prepare monthly rolling forecasts incorporating seasonality, promotions, and new launch cycles
• Monitor category-wise gross margins and recommend pricing strategies
• Track promotional spending against budget and measure return on investment
• Analyze individual location profit and loss statements, including rent, staff, occupancy, and operating costs
• Oversee inventory valuation and provisioning for slow-moving or short-life items
• Partner with supply chain to optimize replenishment costs and reduce write-offs
• Lead periodic physical counts and reconcile costing discrepancies
• Present monthly budget versus actual reports to operations and senior management with variance explanations
• Support commercial teams in launch cost tracking including sampling and testers
• Lead and mentor a small team of cost analysts and budget coordinators
• Drive automation in budget consolidation and standard cost updates

Knowledge, Skills, and Experience

We are Looking for:

• 
  8+ years of experience in costing and budgeting or management accounting
• At least 2 to 3 years in a supervisory or section head role
• Bachelor’s degree in accounting, finance, or business administration
• Professional Certifications including CMA, CIMA, CPA, FP&A, or supply chain costing are a plus
• Experience across fast-moving consumer goods, food and beverage, cosmetics, or beauty retail sectors
• Proven experience with retail profit and loss components including location expenses and promotional accounting
• Experience with budgeting tools and business intelligence platforms
• Familiarity with enterprise resource planning systems in finance and controlling modules
• Resilience under month-end closing and budget season pressure