Financial Controller – Financial Planning and Analysis – Al-Futtaim Group

Al-Futtaim Real Estate is hiring a Financial Controller within its Financial Planning and Analysis function, based in Dubai. This role provides a consolidated regional view across the Real Estate Group’s businesses, which means it’s less about running a single entity’s books and more about bringing together financial performance and planning across a portfolio of real estate operations under one group.

Expect the role to involve consolidated reporting and analysis across business units, ownership of budgeting and forecasting cycles, working closely with business unit finance teams to understand variance against plan, and acting as a reliable source of financial truth for senior stakeholders making decisions across the group. Real estate finance brings its own flavor — long investment horizons, asset-level performance tracking, and a mix of recurring and project-based revenue — on top of the usual FP&A rigor.

It suits an experienced finance professional who’s comfortable operating at a group or consolidated level rather than purely within one business unit, with strong technical grounding in financial planning and reporting and the communication skills to translate numbers into something senior stakeholders can act on. Real estate or diversified conglomerate experience is a genuine advantage given the complexity of consolidating across different business lines.

A consolidated FP&A view across Al-Futtaim's real estate businesses gives group leadership the ability to make capital allocation and strategic decisions based on accurate, comparable data rather than a patchwork of business-unit reports that don't quite line up. In a diversified group spanning multiple real estate lines, getting that consolidation right is what makes it possible to compare performance fairly across units, spot underperformance early, and direct investment toward where it will do the most good. Reliable forecasting also matters directly for how the group plans financing and cash flow, particularly in real estate where project timelines and capital commitments stretch out over years rather than months. Getting the numbers wrong, or getting them right too slowly, has real consequences at this level — delayed or inaccurate consolidated reporting can mean decisions get made on outdated information, which in a capital-intensive business like real estate is an expensive mistake to make.

Operating at a group-level FP&A role inside a large, diversified organization like Al-Futtaim is a genuine step up from single-entity financial controller work, because it forces a broader strategic view of the business rather than a narrow focus on one set of books. Learning to consolidate and compare performance across multiple business units builds exactly the kind of commercial, group-level financial thinking that senior finance leadership roles require, so this is a credible stepping stone toward CFO-track positions for someone with the right ambition and performance. Real estate finance specifically is a specialized and valued skill set — understanding asset-level performance, long investment horizons, and project-based revenue recognition is not something every finance professional has, and it opens doors into both real estate and broader investment-related finance careers. Working inside Al-Futtaim also means exposure to a well-established, multi-sector conglomerate with mature finance processes, which is valuable training ground for understanding how finance functions at genuine scale operate, as opposed to smaller or less structured organizations. The stakeholder management side of the role — regularly presenting consolidated analysis to senior, non-finance leaders — also builds the kind of executive communication skill that technical finance roles don't always develop, and that becomes increasingly important the further up the ladder someone goes.

• Professional accounting qualification (CA, ACCA, CPA, or equivalent) with solid post-qualification experience
• Experience in financial planning and analysis, ideally at a group or consolidated reporting level
• Real estate, property, or diversified conglomerate finance experience is a strong advantage
• Strong Excel and financial modeling skills; experience with ERP/BI reporting tools
• Ability to communicate financial analysis clearly to senior, non-finance stakeholders
• Comfortable managing budgeting and forecasting cycles across multiple business units