Group Chief Financial Officer — Enterprise-Connectivity Business

The mandate

The business provides connectivity and managed services to enterprises and public-sector customers through a mixture of owned network, spectrum-dependent wireless services, leased infrastructure and technology partners. Growth has created a substantial contracted backlog, but the relationship between signed revenue, committed capital and cash is not sufficiently transparent. Some customer solutions require site, device or access investment before billing; others include service credits, change obligations and renewal assumptions that are not reflected consistently in the commercial case.

The Group Chief Financial Officer will reset capital and financial control across that portfolio. The remit covers controllership, planning and performance, treasury, tax, commercial finance, capital allocation, investor or lender relationships, procurement governance, risk partnership and finance transformation. The CFO must join spectrum and infrastructure obligations with customer economics, making clear when an enterprise contract creates durable value and when it consumes scarce capital without an adequate return.

This urgent replacement is a direct mandate. It is not a search for a finance leader who will reduce every investment to a short payback. Spectrum, coverage and enterprise capability can create strategic options whose value develops over time. The board expects those options to be stated explicitly, funded responsibly and reviewed against evidence—not hidden inside broad network budgets.

Scope and operating context

Based onsite in Dubai, the CFO will oversee approximately 1,350 employees and material partners across the United Arab Emirates and a wider international region. The finance organisation includes group and regional control, planning, treasury, tax, enterprise commercial finance, capital governance and finance operations. The business also works through network partners, equipment vendors, systems integrators and financing counterparties.

Spectrum economics vary across licences, leases, sharing and renewal structures. Some rights support several customer or consumer uses, requiring disciplined attribution without pretending the asset can be divided perfectly. Fibre, edge, managed security, devices and customer-specific infrastructure have different lives and residual value. The CFO will establish a capital view that respects those differences while enabling portfolio choices.

Enterprise contracts can conceal risk in implementation and service. Revenue may depend on acceptance milestones; scope changes may be delivered before commercial variation; service credits can compound; and customer concentration can influence working capital. The finance model must follow the contract from bid through delivery, billing, cash and renewal.

First-year agenda

The first one hundred days will establish a reconciled capital, contract and cash baseline. The CFO will review spectrum and infrastructure commitments, work in progress, signed backlog, customer profitability, implementation milestones, unbilled revenue, receivables, service credits, vendor obligations and financing covenants. Several representative contracts will be traced from bid case to actual cash to identify where assumptions escape governance.

The executive will then create a capital taxonomy. Regulatory and resilience commitments, shared network capability, customer-specific build, growth platforms, legacy retirement and strategic options will be separated. Each category will have return and evidence appropriate to its purpose, with explicit operating cost, energy, maintenance, renewal and decommissioning consequences.

Bid and deal governance will be reset. Material proposals must show demand commitment, solution architecture, delivery capacity, partner terms, billing and acceptance, downside, change control and cash. Finance will join early enough to shape the offer, not validate it after commercial promises are fixed. Exceptions will require named executive acceptance and post-award review.

Working capital needs immediate attention. The CFO will improve milestone design, invoicing, dispute resolution, collections and vendor alignment. Unbilled positions and contract assets will have clear owners and ageing. Customer relationships should be protected, but service or scope ambiguity cannot become indefinite interest-free financing.

Spectrum and infrastructure options will be re-evaluated against the enterprise strategy. The business may renew, acquire, lease, share or release rights depending on coverage, capacity, demand and flexibility. The CFO will ensure scenarios capture regulatory, technical and exit dependencies. By year-end, the board should have redirected capital, improved cash conversion and resolved several high-risk contract positions.

Leadership responsibilities

The CFO will provide the chief executive and board committee with an independent view of performance, capital, liquidity, control and risk. Reporting will bridge bookings, backlog, recognised revenue, contribution and cash and will state which future assumptions drive the result. Optimism may not be embedded in definitions or pipeline classifications.

The executive will strengthen finance capability close to customers and network decisions. Commercial finance leaders need technical and contractual fluency; controllership needs visibility into operational milestones; treasury must understand long-duration capital and currency. The CFO will assess leaders, improve succession and reduce dependence on manual expert reconciliation.

External relationships include auditors, banks, investors, regulators, tax authorities, customers and major vendors. The CFO will represent the business transparently, protect legitimate commercial positions and surface disputes early. Related-party, adviser and vendor conflicts require rigorous governance.

Measures of success

The board will review free cash flow, capital deployed and committed, return on invested capital, backlog quality, contract margin, billing, receivable days, service credits, work in progress and liquidity. Spectrum and shared-network investment will be assessed against approved strategic and financial hypotheses, not simplistic project attribution.

Control outcomes include close quality, forecast accuracy, audit findings, capital-stage compliance, contract-asset ageing and procurement transparency. Commercial growth will be reported with a bridge to implementation capacity and cash. Signed value without a credible delivery and collection path will not count as healthy performance.

Candidate profile

Candidates should bring at least 28 years of finance leadership in telecommunications, digital infrastructure, enterprise technology, utilities or another capital-intensive contracted business. They must have held group-level responsibility for control, treasury, capital and board reporting and understand spectrum or regulated-asset economics.

The board will seek evidence of resetting a capital portfolio, changing enterprise bid governance, improving cash from milestone and dispute discipline and making a spectrum or infrastructure decision under uncertainty. Candidates should be credible with technical, commercial, regulatory and lender stakeholders.

The successful CFO will combine technical accounting authority with enterprise judgement. They must fund long-term capability when the thesis is sound, stop customer investment when the return is unsupported and explain both decisions clearly. International tax, currency and financing experience is important.

Compensation and appointment terms

The indicative base range is AED 2,350,000–3,400,000, with annual incentive and long-term participation tied to cash, control and sustained enterprise value. Final terms will reflect relevant capital scale, telecom depth and current arrangements. Mobility, relocation and responsible treatment of forfeited awards will be evaluated individually.

Confidentiality

The client remains unnamed because the CFO succession, spectrum options and capital changes are sensitive. Detailed contract, network and financing information will be disclosed only after identity, conflict and confidentiality checks. Applications must anonymise customer economics, licence terms, lender information and unpublished capital plans.