Financial Operations Lead - Financial Services Client

Korn Ferry; Abu Dhabi; On-site; AED 520,000 - 680,000; Full time

Job summary

Korn Ferry is partnering with a leading UAE institution to recruit a Director of Financial Control. This role manages day-to-day general ledger operations, closes, reconciliations, and payments controls, with a focus on building an AI-enabled accounting capability that scales with volume.

The ideal candidate has 8+ years in accounting operations within banking or financial services, strong IFRS knowledge, and professional qualifications (ACA/ACCA/CPA preferred). UAE-based, full-time role.

Qualifications

• 8+ years in accounting operations, general ledger, or reconciliations within banking or financial services.
• Experience building accounting operations processes and controls in regulated environments.
• Knowledge of CBUAE expectations and IFRS standards; familiarity with AI-enabled matching and automation.

Responsibilities

• Run day-to-day general ledger and journal processing; ensure accuracy and timeliness.
• Execute the accounting close and deliver substantiated ledger balances for reporting.
• Own reconciliations across accounts, clearing exceptions promptly.
• Oversee finance-initiated payments with proper segregation of duties and controls.
• Support financial-statement preparation with accurate ledger data.
• Maintain controls, documentation, and audit trails.

Skills

General ledger

Reconciliations

Closing

Payments controls

AI-enabled matching

Accounting operations analytics

Automation

Education

Bachelor’s degree in accounting or finance

Postgraduate qualification preferred

ACA/ACCA/CPA preferred

Job description

• Korn Ferry has partnered with our client in their search for a full-time Director of Financial Control.
• Our client, a leading institution in the UAE is building and scaling a digital-first financial services organisation. The organisation will initially focus on client segments in the UAE, including mid to large corporates and institutional clients, with plans to expand into additional segments over time. Backed by a strong balance sheet and significant business pipeline, it aims to become a modern, AI-enabled full-service organisation in the UAE.

The Financial Operations Lead owns the organizations day-to-day general ledger, journals, close execution, reconciliations, and finance-initiated payments, and supports financial-statement preparation. The role ensures every transaction is recorded accurately and reconciled, and that payments are processed under sound controls. It builds the accounting operations capability that keeps the organizations books clean, complete, and audit-ready from day one.

Key responsibilities

• Run day-to-day general ledger and journal processing, ensuring transactions are recorded accurately and on time.
• Execute the accounting close, delivering complete and substantiated ledger balances to the reporting team.
• Own the reconciliation process across organization, nostro, suspense, and control accounts, clearing exceptions promptly.
• Operate finance-initiated payments — vendor, payroll, tax, and treasury settlements — under robust authorisation and segregation-of-duties controls, in partnership with Payments Operations for customer payment flows.
• Support financial-statement preparation with accurate ledger data and supporting schedules.
• Maintain accounting operations controls, documentation, and audit trails to a defensible standard.
• Partner with Treasury Operations and Payments Operations to ensure settlement and reconciliation align end-to-end.
• Build the accounting operations team and an AI-enabled reconciliation and close capability — automating matching and exception management across reconciliations, close, and payments — that scales with volume.

Required experience & skills

• 8+ years in accounting operations, general ledger, or reconciliations within banking.
• Deep expertise in general ledger, journals, reconciliations, payments controls, and close execution.
• Proven record building accounting operations processes and controls in a regulated environment; experience standing up accounting operations in a new or newly licensed financial services organization, or a comparable greenfield build, is strongly preferred.
• Strong knowledge of CBUAE expectations and applicable IFRS standards.
• Is able to think beyond manual reconciliation and close processing; brings experience of automated or AI-enabled matching, exception management, and payments controls; advanced accounting-operations analytics.

Qualifications & certifications (preferred)

• Bachelor’s degree in accounting, finance, or a related discipline; a relevant postgraduate qualification is preferred.
• Recognised professional accounting qualification (e.g., ACA, ACCA, CPA) preferred.
• CBUAE Fit & Proper approval where the role holds a controlled function.