Internal Controller

UNIKAI Foods P.J.S.C; Dubai; On-site; AED 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

UNIKAI Foods P.J.S.C in the United Arab Emirates seeks an experienced Internal Controls professional to lead risk-based reviews across finance, operations, and manufacturing. You will design testing plans aligned with key risks and assess control effectiveness.

The role requires 4–7 years in internal controls or related fields within FMCG, with strong accounting knowledge and proficiency in ERP environments such as Oracle, SAP, or Microsoft Dynamics.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Accounting, Finance, Auditing, or a related discipline.
• Professional qualification or progress toward a qualification such as ACCA, ACA, CPA, CMA, CIMA, CIA, or equivalent is preferred.
• Approximately 4-7 years of relevant experience in internal controls, finance, internal audit, external audit, compliance, or risk management.
• Experience within FMCG, food manufacturing, manufacturing, distribution, or a similar inventory-intensive environment is strongly preferred.
• Strong understanding of accounting principles, financial processes, internal controls, business process risks, Delegation of Authority, and segregation-of-duties concepts.
• Practical experience reviewing procurement, inventory, manufacturing, sales, receivables, payables, cash-management, fixed-asset, and commercial processes.
• Experience working with ERP systems and system-based controls; familiarity with Oracle, SAP, Microsoft Dynamics, or similar platforms is advantageous.
• Good understanding of Microsoft Excel and data-analysis techniques, with the ability to identify trends, exceptions, and unusual transactions from large data sets.
• Strong professional judgement, integrity, confidentiality, analytical ability, communication skills, and confidence to challenge control weaknesses constructively.

Responsibilities

• Develop and execute a risk-based annual internal control review and testing plan aligned with key financial and operational risks.
• Review and assess internal controls across financial, operational, commercial, manufacturing, and supporting processes.
• Identify control weaknesses, process gaps, financial risks, policy breaches, and instances of non-compliance, and assess the potential impact where reasonably quantifiable.
• Perform periodic control testing to determine whether established controls are appropriately designed and operating effectively.
• Review selected financial transactions and supporting documentation for appropriate authorization, accuracy, completeness, and compliance with company policies and the Delegation of Authority.
• Review key financial reconciliations and follow up on unusual, long-outstanding, unsupported, or unexplained items.

Skills

Risk management

Internal controls

Auditing

Financial processes

Analytical ability

Communication skills

Education

Bachelor's degree in Accounting, Finance, Auditing, or related

Professional qualification (ACCA/ACA/CPA/CMA/CIMA/CIA) preferred

Tools

ERP systems

Oracle

SAP

Microsoft Dynamics

Job description

• Develop and execute a risk-based annual internal control review and testing plan aligned with key financial and operational risks.

• Review and assess internal controls across financial, operational, commercial, manufacturing, and supporting processes.

• Identify control weaknesses, process gaps, financial risks, policy breaches, and instances of non-compliance, and assess the potential impact where reasonably quantifiable.

• Perform periodic control testing to determine whether established controls are appropriately designed and operating effectively.

• Review selected financial transactions and supporting documentation for appropriate authorization, accuracy, completeness, and compliance with company policies and the Delegation of Authority.

• Review key financial reconciliations and follow up on unusual, long-outstanding, unsupported, or unexplained items.

• Monitor controls relating to accounts payable, accounts receivable, revenue, expenses, cash, banking, treasury, and general ledger activities.

• Review inventory controls, including stock movements, adjustments, write-offs, physical counts, production/warehouse interfaces, and inventory variances.

• Review procurement processes for compliance with purchasing policies, approval requirements, competitive sourcing requirements, and Delegation of Authority.

• Assess controls over vendor and customer master data, pricing, discounts, rebates, promotions, credit terms, and other commercially sensitive transactions.

• Review controls over fixed assets and capital expenditure, including capitalization, transfers, disposals, tagging, and physical verification.

• Review ERP and system-based controls relevant to financial and operational processes, including user access, segregation of duties, maker-checker controls, approval workflows, privileged access, master-data changes, and significant manual overrides.

• Monitor compliance with company policies, procedures, approval limits, and established control requirements and identify recurring or systemic exceptions.

• Conduct risk-based reviews of selected transactions, branches, warehouses, routes, business processes, or other areas based on risk indicators and management priorities.

• Identify unusual transactions, trends, exceptions, management overrides, conflicts of interest, or activities that may indicate control weakness, fraud risk, misuse of company assets, or financial exposure.

• Support investigations into suspected financial irregularities, policy violations, fraud indicators, or control failures as directed, while preserving confidentiality and appropriate documentation.

• Recommend practical corrective actions and process improvements that address root causes without assuming responsibility for implementation by the process owner.

• Maintain a formal Control Findings Register showing the finding, risk rating, root cause, financial exposure where applicable, agreed action, responsible owner, target date, status, and ageing.

• Follow up with responsible departments on agreed corrective actions and monitor timely closure; verify closure evidence for significant findings before marking them complete.

• Maintain appropriate documentation of control reviews, testing performed, evidence reviewed, findings, management responses, and closure verification.

• Support the development and review of policies, procedures, control matrices, Delegation of Authority requirements, and related control documentation.

• Coordinate with Finance, Internal Audit, External Audit, Compliance, IT, and other departments on control-related matters while avoiding duplication of independent assurance work.

• Support management in strengthening the overall control environment and promoting a culture of accountability, transparency, and compliance.

• Perform other control, compliance, and risk-related duties consistent with the independence and purpose of the role, as assigned by the Compliance Manager.

Desired Candidate Profile

• Bachelor's degree in Accounting, Finance, Auditing, or a related discipline.

• Professional qualification or progress toward a qualification such as ACCA, ACA, CPA, CMA, CIMA, CIA, or equivalent is preferred.

• Approximately 4-7 years of relevant experience in internal controls, finance, internal audit, external audit, compliance, or risk management.

• Experience within FMCG, food manufacturing, manufacturing, distribution, or a similar inventory-intensive environment is strongly preferred.

• Strong understanding of accounting principles, financial processes, internal controls, business process risks, Delegation of Authority, and segregation-of-duties concepts.

• Practical experience reviewing procurement, inventory, manufacturing, sales, receivables, payables, cash-management, fixed-asset, and commercial processes.

• Experience working with ERP systems and system-based controls; familiarity with Oracle, SAP, Microsoft Dynamics, or similar platforms is advantageous.

• Good understanding of Microsoft Excel and data-analysis techniques, with the ability to identify trends, exceptions, and unusual transactions from large data sets.

• Strong professional judgement, integrity, confidentiality, analytical ability, communication skills, and confidence to challenge control weaknesses constructively.