Director Finance

Role Purpose

The Director Finance leads the finance operations of the Quality Service Center in Mauritius. You are accountable for the integrity of the General Ledger, the timely and accurate month-end and year-end closing, and the performance of Accounts Receivable collection across around +20 countries in Africa. You lead a team of about +50, and act as the main link between the Quality Service Center / Country/ Area and Region finance stakeholders.

Key Responsibilities

General Ledger and Financial Reporting

• Supervise General Ledger accounting for all in-scope African entities, ensuring accuracy, compliance and consistency of postings.
• Own the month-end, quarter-end and year-end closing calendar, and make sure closings are delivered on time and to quality standards.
• Ensure the recording and integrity of financial statements, including balance sheet reconciliations, accruals, intercompany matching and account analysis.
• Support internal and external audits of countries, and ensure compliance with group accounting policies, IFRS and internal control frameworks.

Accounts Receivable and Collections

• Lead and supervise the collection process across the sub region Africa, for freight, demurrage and detention, and local charges
• Drive DSO reduction, overdue recovery and cash conversion, and monitor ageing
• Define collection strategies by country and customer segment, and escalate high-risk accounts with area and regional finance teams.
• Oversee cash application, dispute resolution, bad debt provisioning and write-off recommendations.

People and Operational Leadership

• Manage, coach and develop a team of around 50 people through team leaders and managers.
• Set clear objectives, KPIs and SLAs, and build a culture of quality, accountability and continuous improvement.
• Drive process standardization, automation and simplification across GL and AR operations.

Stakeholder Management

• Act as the primary interface with country finance, regional finance and commercial stakeholders across Africa.
• Report regularly on closing performance, collection KPIs, quality metrics and risks to senior leadership.
• Manage cross-cultural and cross-time-zone communication with a diverse set of local teams.

Candidate Profile

Education and Qualifications

• Degree in Accounting, Finance or a related field.
• Recognized professional accounting qualification is required (ACCA, CPA, ACA, CA, CIMA or equivalent).

Experience

• Senior experience in finance leadership within a shared service center or multi-country finance environment.
• Proven track record supervising GL, closing and financial statement production.
• Strong experience supervising collections and credit control, ideally in the shipping, logistics or transport industry.
• Experience managing large teams (50+), including multiple management layers.
• Exposure to African markets is a strong advantage.

Technical Skills

• SAP is mandatory; knowledge of SAP S/4HANA is a plus.
• Strong command of IFRS, month-end closing processes and internal controls.
• Solid analytical skills and experience with KPI and dashboard reporting.

Leadership and Soft Skills

• Strong people management, with the ability to motivate and develop a large, multi-skilled team.
• Excellent communication skills in English (French is a plus), with credibility at both operational and executive levels.
• Ability to influence and align regional and country finance stakeholders.
• Rigorous, results-oriented and comfortable working to tight closing deadlines.

Key Performance Indicators

• Closing timeliness and accuracy (days to close, number of post-close adjustments)
• DSO, overdue ratio and cash collection performance
• Quality of reconciliations and audit results
• Team engagement, retention and productivity
• Stakeholder satisfaction