Head of Finance & Accounting – Gujarati/Hindi Speaking

Role Purpose To lead the Finance & Accounting function, ensuring accurate financial reporting, robust internal controls, effective cost management, regulatory compliance, efficient working-capital management, and reliable financial insights that support profitability and sustainable business growth. Key Responsibilities Financial Reporting: Oversee monthly, quarterly, and annual financial closing, general ledger integrity, reconciliations, and financial statements. Costing & Cost Control: Manage product costing, cost allocation, inventory valuation, operational variances, and cost-reduction initiatives. Budgeting & Forecasting: Lead annual budgeting, financial planning, forecasting, performance monitoring, and variance analysis. MIS & Analytics: Develop management reports, financial dashboards, and profitability analyses to support strategic decision-making. SAP Finance: Oversee SAP Finance and Controlling processes, data accuracy, system controls, and process automation. Internal Controls & Risk Management: Strengthen financial governance, asset protection, fraud prevention, and risk mitigation. Working Capital & Cash Flow: Manage cash-flow forecasting, receivables, payables, inventory, and working-capital efficiency. Tax, Compliance & Audit: Ensure statutory compliance, accurate tax reporting, audit coordination, and timely resolution of audit findings. Business Partnering: Collaborate with procurement, operations, supply chain, and commercial teams on financial analysis, pricing, margins, and investment decisions. Team Leadership: Lead, coach, and develop the Finance & Accounting team, promoting accountability, integrity, and operational excellence. Requirements Ideal Candidate Profile Education & Professional Qualifications Bachelor's degree in Finance, Accounting, Commerce, Economics, or a closely related discipline. Professional accounting qualification such as CPA, ACCA, CA, or equivalent is mandatory. Master's degree or MBA is an added advantage. Active membership in the relevant professional accounting body is preferred. Experience Requirements Minimum 12 - 15 years of progressive Finance & Accounting experience, including substantial leadership responsibility. At least five years in a senior finance leadership role within a large manufacturing or FMCG environment. Demonstrated experience in financial reporting, costing, budgeting, internal controls, working-capital management, auditing, and business partnering. Strong hands-on experience with SAP FI/CO and the use of management information systems (MIS) for executive decision-making. Experience managing multidisciplinary finance teams and partnering with operations, supply chain, procurement, and commercial leadership. Fluency in Gujarati or Hindi is mandatory. Technical Competencies Manufacturing accounting, standard costing, and product costing. Cost-centre and profit-centre accounting. Material, labour, utility, yield, and overhead variance analysis. Financial reporting and period-close management. Budgeting, forecasting, and financial modelling. SAP FI/CO and integration with Materials Management, Production Planning, and Sales & Distribution. MIS development, dashboards, and management performance reporting. Inventory valuation, provisions, and working-capital management. Internal controls, risk management, and audit. Taxation and statutory compliance. Advanced Excel and data-analysis capabilities. Business-case development, capital expenditure, and profitability analysis. Leadership & Behavioural Competencies High integrity and sound professional judgement. Strong commercial and operational business acumen. Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills. Ownership, urgency, and attention to detail. Ability to challenge constructively and influence senior stakeholders. Strong communication and management presentation skills. Effective people leadership and capability development. Process discipline and a continuous-improvement mindset. Data-driven decision-making. Success Definition: First 12 - 24 Months Deliver accurate and timely financial closes and management reports with minimal adjustments. Establish clear cost visibility across operations, products, and stock-keeping units (SKUs), and address significant cost variances. Improve the reliability and utilisation of SAP data while reducing manual reconciliations and workarounds. Strengthen financial controls, account reconciliations, and audit readiness. Improve budgeting and forecasting accuracy and working-capital visibility. Deliver actionable MIS that supports margin improvement, cost control, cash-flow management, and operational decisions. Build finance-team capability in costing, analytics, SAP, and business partnering.