Budget Specialist - UAEN

Hafeet Rail; Abu Dhabi; On-site; AED 180,000 - 300,000; Full time

Job summary

Hafeet Rail in Abu Dhabi is seeking a Budget Specialist to own day-to-day budget integrity, forecasting, and cost control for infrastructure projects.

You will maintain project budgets, track costs, prepare cost-to-complete forecasts, and support value engineering initiatives with strong ERP and data visualization skills.

Qualifications

• Fully qualified accountant with professional certification is required.
• Minimum 3–5 years in budgeting, cost control or project finance roles.
• Experience in infrastructure, construction, engineering, or capital projects preferred.

Responsibilities

• Maintain detailed project budgets across the portfolio, ensuring alignment with capex allocations.
• Track and reconcile actual costs against budget, producing variance reports weekly and monthly.
• Manage budget transfers, variations, and change orders in the project cost tracker.
• Maintain project cost tracker as the single source of truth for budget and commitment data.
• Ensure correct coding and classification of all expenditure across cost centers.
• Prepare rolling cost-to-complete forecasts with project managers and engineers.
• Consolidate project inputs into portfolio-level submissions for the annual budget.
• Model scenario analyses for scope changes and risk events.
• Contribute to monthly management accounts with accurate accruals and commitments.
• Assist in developing financial models for feasibility studies and project appraisals.
• Produce monthly project dashboards and conduct root-cause variance analysis.

Skills

Budgeting

Variance analysis

Cost control

ERP systems

Power BI

EVM (Earned Value Management)

CAPEX vs OPEX

Rail infrastructure experience

Education

Fully qualified accountant (CA/CIMA/ACCA/ACA)

Tools

SAP

Oracle

Job description

Job Purpose

The Budget Specialist is a technically focused finance professional responsible for the day-to-day integrity of budget management, forecasting, and cost control. Reporting to the Senior Manager — Finance, this role provides the granular financial discipline that underpins effective capex deployment.

Principal Accountabilities

Core

The Budget Specialist acts as the financial engine behind project performance reporting — tracking actuals against approved budgets, identifying variances early, and supporting the value engineering programme by quantifying and validating cost savings. This is an ideal role for a detail-oriented finance professional looking to deepen their expertise in infrastructure cost management.

Budget Management & Control

• Maintain detailed project budgets across the full portfolio, ensuring alignment with approved capex allocations
• Track and reconcile actual costs against budget on a weekly and monthly basis, producing clear variance reports
• Process and review budget transfers, variations, and change orders in the project cost tracker
• Maintain the project cost tracker as the single source of truth for all budget and commitment data
• Ensure correct coding and classification of all expenditure across cost centers

Forecasting & Planning

• Prepare rolling cost-to-complete (CTC) forecasts in collaboration with project managers and engineers
• Support the annual budget cycle by consolidating project-level inputs into portfolio-level submissions
• Model scenario analyses for scope changes, risk events, or program re-phasing
• Contribute to monthly management accounts by providing accurate project accruals, prepayments, and commitments
• Assist in the development of financial models for feasibility studies and project investment appraisals

Reporting & Variance Analysis

• Produce monthly project financial dashboards for the Senior Manager — Finance and project leadership
• Conduct root-cause variance analysis on cost overruns, highlighting drivers and recommending corrective actions
• Support preparation of board and executive reporting packs, ensuring data accuracy and narrative clarity
• Maintain audit-ready records of all budget approvals, transfers, and supporting documentation

Value Engineering Support

• Quantify and validate cost savings identified through value engineering initiatives against baseline budgets
• Maintain the VE savings tracker, ensuring all submissions are correctly logged, evidenced, and tiered per the incentive framework
• Liaise with cost managers, quantity surveyors, and procurement to verify that savings are realized and locked in
• Provide financial analysis to support VE proposals at technical and commercial review stages

Systems & Process

• Operate and maintain the project cost management system, always ensuring data integrity
• Develop and improve budget templates, reporting tools, and forecasting models
• Support finance system upgrades and implementations as required
• Identify and recommend process improvements across budget control and reporting workflows

Knowledge, Skills, and Experience

Academic Qualifications:

• Fully qualified accountant — CA, CIMA, ACCA, or ACA

Experience:

• Minimum 3–5 years of experience in a budgeting, cost control, or project finance role
• Experience working in infrastructure, construction, engineering, or capital project environments

Other Skills:

• Familiarity with ERP systems (SAP, Oracle, or equivalent) for cost and budget management
• Strong understanding of CAPEX vs OPEX treatment and project cost accounting principles
• Exposure to rail, utilities, or regulated infrastructure sectors
• Experience with project management information systems or cost management platforms
• Power BI or similar data visualization experience
• Understanding of earned value management (EVM) principles