Head of Finance

HEAD OF FINANCE

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia · Full-time · Independent Group Functions

CONTEXT & MANDATE

Echelon is a Saudi-born, sovereign technology company that brings leading global AI technologies to the Kingdom, deploys them with its own forward deployed engineering organisation, compounds partner technology into Echelon IP and, over time, productises Saudi-developed capability.
Echelon runs one aggregated P&L at group level, measures each business unit on contribution margin, prices every open seat on a published framework and is putting a Delegation of Authority with quarterly expenditure ceilings in place. Accounting has been run to date through an outsourced provider.

We are not looking for the most senior controller available. We are looking for someone whose best work is ahead of them, and who wants to build a function rather than inherit one.

THE ROLE: BUILDING THE FUNCTION

You will build and own the finance function end to end, and take the group through its first institutional round and its first audited year as a multi-entity company. The method is not given: you define it, and you grow the team with the group.

• Close & reporting: Run the monthly close and management reporting for the group and by business unit, on a calendar the Management Committee and the Board can rely on.

• Budget & model: Own the budget, the quarterly forecast and the five-year model as the single source of truth, reconciled to the Board pack and the partnership strategy.

• Cash & compliance: Run cash, treasury, statutory accounts, tax and audit for the Saudi operating company and the holding company, and move accounting in-house onto a ledger and ERP that fit.

• Controls: Own the finance side of the Delegation of Authority, from expenditure approvals against quarterly ceilings to the Finance view on every seat release.

• Investor & Board: Run the data room, deal support and the numbers behind term sheets, including partner revenue-share economics and transfer pricing.

WHERE WE ALIGN

FINANCE FIRST

• Qualified: CPA, ACCA, CA or equivalent.

• Hands-on: You have personally owned a close, a forecast and an audit, not only their review.

• Saudi requirements: Working knowledge of ZATCA, GOSI and Saudisation reporting, or deep GCC exposure and the appetite to learn them fast.

OUR VALUES

• Customer first: You measure your work by customer outcomes, and prioritise accordingly.

• Ownership mentality: You own outcomes end to end. When something breaks or stalls, you treat it as yours to fix.

• Clear communicator: You explain complex things simply, to every audience, and make the value of your work visible.

• Comfortable with ambiguity: You make progress with incomplete information, and you enjoy solving problems where there is no structure yet.

• Long-term builder: You invest in Echelon’s long-term success, bringing what you learn back into our strategy and operations.

THE SEAT

• Reports to: Managing Director

• Location: Riyadh, with travel across the Kingdom as required

• Package: A base salary with housing, transport and education allowances, medical cover, and equity through the employee equity programme. Terms are shared at offer stage.

HOW WE WORK

Exact, curious and calm. As comfortable in the ledger as in the model, and more interested in why a number moved than in reporting that it did.

• Curiosity: You want to know how a partner deal turns into revenue, why Frontier attaches to some partners and not others, and what the Board will ask next, before it asks.

• Speed of learning: A new jurisdiction, system or instrument is yours within a quarter, set up from first principles and explained in plain language.

• Ownership: You are willing to be the whole function for a while.

• Judgement: You say no to a spend request with the policy in hand, stay calm under a fundraise timetable, and are exact without being slow.

• Where you are: Time in a venture-backed or fast-scaling company matters more than the number of years. English required; Arabic an advantage.