Finance Lead UAE & Finance Business Partner, Specialty Care – Greater Gulf

Job title: Finance Lead UAE & Finance Business Partner, Specialty Care – Greater Gulf

Location: Dubai, UAE (covers the full Greater Gulf MCO. The role may, over time, be based in any MCO location depending on organizational needs and business requirements)

About the job

As Finance Lead UAE & Finance Business Partner, Specialty Care – Greater Gulf within our Finance team, you'll provide strategic financial partnership and decision support to the Specialty Care GBU across the Greater Gulf MCO while overseeing all financial operations, compliance, and reporting for Sanofi UAE's business, serving as a trusted finance partner to UAE Country leadership. Ready to get started?

Ready to push the limits of what's possible? Join Sanofi in one of our corporate functions and you can play a vital part in the performance of our entire business while helping to make an impact on millions around the world.

About Sanofi:

We're an R&D-driven, AI-powered biopharma company committed to improving people's lives and delivering compelling growth. Our deep understanding of the immune system – and innovative pipeline – enables us to invent medicines and vaccines that treat and protect millions of people around the world. Together, we chase the miracles of science to improve people's lives.

Main responsibilities:

Business Support & Value Creation:

• Provide financial and commercial decision support aligned with MCO priorities and strategy, acting as a trusted advisor to business leaders across therapeutic areas and functions
• Own and drive P&L accountability for the MCO, ensuring that all commercial decisions, investments, and resource allocation choices are evaluated through the lens of financial impact and P&L delivery
• Partner with business leaders on investments, portfolio choices, and resource allocation using ROI, business cases, and KPIs
• Support new product launches through financial planning, pricing strategy, market access economics, reimbursement scenario modelling, and post-launch performance tracking
• Evaluate commercial opportunities in digital health, e-commerce, and emerging channels, assessing financial viability and return on investment in the context of evolving Gulf market dynamics
• Ensure commercial strategies and initiatives are translated into clear financial targets, business cases, and measurable outcomes
• Act as a trusted point of contact for the business, proactively communicating key milestones, financial performance, forecasts, and business review timelines
• Lead financial evaluations for Go/No-Go decisions, assessing value, risks, and financial impact of business initiatives, market access decisions, and new projects
• Critically review business models and go-to-market flows, evaluating commercial viability, financial implications, and execution efficiency
• Influence senior stakeholders without direct authority, building credibility through data-driven insights, financial storytelling, and proactive engagement across cross-functional teams

2. Planning, Forecasting & Performance Tracking:

• Develop high-quality financial plans and forecasts (IBP, Budget, Rolling Forecast), including accurate monthly and quarterly revenue outlooks, in close collaboration with Controlling Operations
• Take full P&L ownership of the planning cycle, ensuring that revenue, gross margin, operating expenses, and BOI targets are robustly built, clearly communicated, and actively defended throughout the year
• Ensure plans and forecasts reflect validated business assumptions, commercial conditions, market dynamics, and macroeconomic factors specific to Gulf markets, including oil-linked government spending cycles, FX exposure, and tender seasonality
• Build and maintain scenario planning and sensitivity analysis models to support agile decision-making under conditions of market uncertainty or business volatility
• Lead multi-country financial consolidation across the Greater Gulf cluster, ensuring consistency, accuracy, and alignment with regional and global reporting standards
• Review and challenge forecast assumptions to ensure robustness and realism
• Monitor operating expenses and identify efficiency and cost optimization opportunities
• Take accountability for P&L delivery — going beyond budget tracking to proactively identify risks and opportunities, drive corrective actions, and dynamically reallocate resources to protect and enhance financial outcomes
• Track actual versus planned performance across revenues, costs, and resources, and provide timely course correction recommendations
• Ensure timely reporting and lead periodic business performance reviews
• Leverage planning and analytics tools including TM1, SAP, and Power BI to enhance forecast quality, reporting efficiency, and business insight delivery

Commercial Execution & Governance:

• Review tender dashboards, shipment status, commercial agreements, and outstanding deliveries (including goods and free goods), ensuring execution discipline, visibility, and issue resolution
• Monitor Stock in Trade (SIT) levels and obsolescence risks, ensuring inventory is appropriately managed to minimize expiry and financial leakage
• Oversee distributor management, including sell-in versus sell-out reconciliation, distributor stock levels, and tender deliveries to ensure accurate revenue recognition and commercial transparency
• Monitor government account deliveries, receivables and collection risk, and support proactive cash collection strategies in coordination with the CI2C and TRM teams
• Ensure pricing compliance across all markets, monitoring adherence to approved price lists, tender-awarded prices, and contractual terms to mitigate financial and reputational risk
• Review payment terms and DSO, supporting balanced commercial decisions and effective cash management
• Support sound cash management, risk management, and disciplined capital and resource allocation
• Ensure commercial conditions, incentives, Gross to Net (GtN), and other standard cost items are correctly reflected in systems, properly accrued, and regularly reviewed and trued up
• Maintain readiness for SOX compliance and internal audit reviews, ensuring documentation, controls, and processes are audit-ready at all times
• Lead Alliance reporting processes and coordinate cross-functional data gathering from relevant departments to support alliance product requirements

Analysis & Insight:

• Provide in-depth analysis of sales performance, channel dynamics, market trends, and customer and product profitability
• Prepare forward-looking analyses, scenarios, and investment business cases aligned with country and portfolio priorities
• Work closely with Insights & Analytics teams to integrate market data and analytics into financial planning and decision-making
• Develop and maintain dashboards and data visualizations to communicate financial performance and commercial insights in a clear, accessible, and impactful manner for diverse audiences
• Monitor regulatory changes across Gulf markets that may impact financial reporting, pricing, or commercial operations, and proactively communicate implications to relevant stakeholders

Additional responsibilities of Finance Lead UAE:

• Serve as strategic finance partner to the CFO and UAE Country leadership team, providing data-driven insights to guide business decisions
• Monitor UAE market trends and macroeconomic developments to assess financial impact and support country strategy execution aligned with Sanofi's global objectives
• Oversee all financial operations including Account-to-Report (A2R) process, Source-to-Pay (S2P) operations, Treasury functions (cash flow forecasting, cash budgets, liquidity management, working capital optimization), Customer-invoice-to-Cash (CI2C/O2C) operations, Tax processes, balance sheet review and reconciliation, accounts payable/receivable, vendor management, banking relationships, and month-end/year-end close processes
• Ensure accurate statutory financial reporting in compliance with IFRS, Sanofi's global accounting policies, and coordinate annual audits with external auditors
• Ensure full compliance with UAE regulatory requirements including VAT, Corporate Tax, Federal Tax Authority (FTA) reporting, tax compliance, and transfer pricing documentation
• Ensure robust internal controls framework to safeguard assets and ensure financial data integrity
• Lead internal and external audit processes, ensuring timely resolution of findings and implementation of corrective actions
• Build and maintain strong relationships with external auditors, tax advisors, banking partners, and UAE regulatory authorities, serving as the primary finance representative for the country
• Collaborate cross-functionally with Legal, Compliance, Procurement, Commercial, and regional/global finance teams to ensure integrated financial governance and best practices

Communication & Stakeholder Management:

• Coordinate closely with stakeholders across Finance, MCO, and cross-functional teams to ensure alignment and transparency
• Translate complex financial information into clear, actionable insights for senior management, adapting communication style and depth to the audience
• Support the CFO in preparing financial reports, dashboards, and presentations for internal and external audiences, including Board and ExCom-level reporting packages
• Communicate effectively, ensuring financial narratives are accessible and impactful across the diverse stakeholder landscape of the Greater Gulf
• Demonstrate cross-cultural stakeholder management skills, navigating the diverse nationalities, working styles, and business cultures present across Gulf markets to build trust and drive alignment
• Maintain a positive working environment; foster collaborative teamwork and an inspiring, performance-driven culture

About you

Experience: A seasoned finance professional with 10–15 years of Progressive experience across finance operations, FP&A, controlling, and business partnering within multinational pharmaceutical and healthcare environments. Demonstrates a proven track record of leading GBU, regional, and franchise-level financial operations with strategic impact, including business case development, investment appraisal, resource allocation, and P&L management in complex matrix organizations. Brings deep expertise in multi-country financial consolidation and reporting across diverse regulatory environments, preferably with knowledge of GCC/MENA regional dynamics, local tax, and regulatory frameworks. Possesses a solid background in pharmaceutical commercial finance and go-to-market strategy, encompassing tender management, distributor relationships, pricing compliance, commercial schemes, market access economics, and revenue recognition in regulated markets.

Soft and technical skills: Highly proficient in leveraging advanced financial tools and technologies, including SAP, TM1, Power BI, PLai, and advanced Excel and PowerPoint, to drive financial planning, reporting, and analytics. Demonstrates exceptional ability to support C-level executives — including CFOs, Regional Finance leads, and General Managers — with data-driven insights that influence strategic decisions. Experienced in system implementations, process improvement initiatives, and financial transformation projects that deliver measurable business outcomes. Combines strong technical acumen with proven leadership capabilities, strategic thinking, and data storytelling expertise to translate complex financial information into compelling narratives. Excels at navigating complex organizational structures while driving financial excellence and business impact through clear communication and analytical precision.

Education: Bachelor's or Master's degree in Finance, Accounting, Economics, Business Administration, or a related discipline. Professional qualifications such as CA, CPA, CFA, ACCA, or CMA preferred.

Languages: Fluency in English is required; Arabic is an advantage

Why choose us?

• Make your work count by supporting a company that brings life-changing treatments to millions — and is committed to doing right by patients, communities, and the planet
• Drive progress from within by helping simplify, scale, and modernize how a global biopharma business delivers smarter, faster, and more sustainably
• Support teams across science, medicine, and operations by building better systems, shaping bold strategies, and enabling innovation at speed
• Make an impact across borders and functions, collaborating with leaders to turn complex challenges into real-world solutions
• Advance your career through stretch roles, cross-functional moves, and development opportunities designed to match your ambition
• Thrive in inclusive, high-performing teams where every role matters and every voice helps shape what's next
• Work directly with the CFO and senior finance leadership on strategic initiatives that shape the future of the Greater Gulf MCO

Pursue Progress. Discover Extraordinary.

Join Sanofi and step into a new era of science - where your growth can be just as transformative as the work we do. We invest in you to reach further, think faster, and do what's never-been-done-before. You'll help push boundaries, challenge convention, and build smarter solutions that reach the communities we serve. Ready to chase the miracles of science and improve people's lives? Let's Pursue Progress and Discover Extraordinary – together.

At Sanofi, we provide equal opportunities to all regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender identity, protected veteran status or other characteristics protected by law.