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
