Purpose & Overall Relevance for the Organisation:

Position is integral to the on-going focus on the following general core purpose. It aims at:

1. Strengthen governance and accountability within organisation as a second line of defence while balancing it with operational efficiency. Engage in evaluation and remediation of controls that allow reliable financial reporting and improve operational efficiency.
2. Safeguard from theft, dishonesty and prevent misuse of company assets such as cash, inventory etc. Prevent and detect frauds at workplace and retail stores via audits, investigations and continuous monitoring.
3. Have a deep dive understanding of business systems and processes to support business with control recommendations. To be successful in this role, you should have a passion for solving complex business process issues and/or process improvement and have a strong understanding of business processes and controls with ability to employ an insights-driven approach to controls assessment.
4. Ensuring compliance with applicable external laws and internal regulations as well as the established Group Internal Control frameworks, and Group/Market/Brand best practices and policies.
   
   
   Key Responsibilities:

1. Risk and control management

• Timely coordination/execution of the ICS / Self Assessment of key controls as well as including the mandatory documentation in TeamMate and heading remediation of all identified control deficiencies in collaboration with local Senior Management.
• To review, assess and identify risk within the business proactively and continuously. Reduce and mitigate risk with the implementation of comprehensive risk reduction strategies and countermeasures.
• Responsibility for the timely resolution of all audit/Internal Control findings as identified by Corporate Internal Audit and Group Internal Control
• Develop and/or maintain the continuous monitoring framework i.e. key risk indicators.
• Identify opportunities and provide solutions for process enhancements (including automation) to drive process efficiency. Execute assigned projects in areas such as process redesign and process harmonization.
• Build a strong internal and external network and contribute to the growth and development. Actively share best practices with and from other markets.

2. Policies & Procedures awareness and processes improvement

• Raise awareness/maintain knowledge of the Global/Market/Local policies and procedures, including regular trainings at local level.
• Design, develop, implement and regular update of local policies (based on global/market policies if existing), procedures and related internal controls, based on best practices and Group requirements.
• Develop, support and lead initiatives/projects focused on improving the efficiency, transparency and effectiveness of business processes.
• Support compliance investigations conducted by the Regional Compliance Officer, Legal Director and address fraudulent/risk related control remediations with urgency  as per recommendations.

3. Reporting

• Produce periodic report for audits to give local senior management visibility of the risk, findings and opportunities.
• Immediate communication of major control deficiencies
• Timely coordination support on bi-annual Representation Letter process.
• Participation in the Global/Market ICS network including ICS calls, WebEx sessions, conferences, sharing of best practices.

4. Profit Protection

1. • Prepare a risk assessment for retail stores and develop audit plan to evaluate retail controls against standards.
   • Continuously monitor high risk transactions in stores and evaluate potential frauds/ abuses
   • Act as advisor to retail teams in setting new process and standards
   • Ensure that the shrinkage is properly computed, investigated and reported
   • Investigation of Internal and External theft and fraud incidents and relevant hotline escalations

Relationship and Performance Management

• Focus on performance through active management and delivery based on KPIs and project schedules.
• Communicate and assertively drive improvements (control and commercially) with local stakeholders
• Develop a strong peer network within the function itself or between functions as needed to drive key processes.
• Business partnering mindset, balanced of good interpersonal and collaboration skills and ability to organize and prioritize.

6. Key Relationships:

• Local: Country Leads, Finance Heads, Heads of Departments and Process Owners.
• Market: EM Hub Internal Control and Profit Protection
• Global Functions: Finance, Corporate Internal Audit, Group Internal Controls, Risk Management, Compliance, Sales Channels (Retail, Wholesale, eCom)
• External auditors.

7. Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:

1. • Thorough understanding of internal control and auditing standards
   • Strong analytical skills and business acumen
   • Fraud investigation, resolution and reporting ability
   • Project management skills, including the ability to lead projects or work on several projects simultaneously.
   • Competence in influencing and communicating across all organizational levels.
   • Proficient spoken and written command of English is a must. Arabic spoken and written skills is a significant advantage

8. Requisite Education and Experience / Minimum Qualifications:

2. • University degree in Finance and accounting/auditing qualification (e.g. CA, CPA, CIA, CIMA, ACCA) is a Plus
   • International experience and track record in similar discipline gained with blue chip companies / internal audit. Related industry experience is strongly preferred.
   • Minimum of 5-8 years in audit and/or retail loss prevention/ profit protection role. Additionally, 1-2 years of experience in managing a team is preferred.
   • Knowledge of systems such as SAP, Teammate+, Power BI
   • Good understanding of COSO frameworks
   • Expert Proficiency in MS Office