Associate Director - Financial Analyst

We are supporting a leading UAE-based leisure and entertainment organisation with the appointment of an Associate Director – Financial Analysis. The role will provide commercial and financial insight across business performance, pricing, forecasting, budgeting, revenue optimisation and feasibility studies. We are seeking a strong Senior Manager-level FP&A or Commercial Finance professional ready to step into an Associate Director role and partner closely with senior leadership

Associate Director – Financial Analysis

Location: Dubai, UAE
Salary: AED 41,000 per month
Sector: Leisure & Entertainment

We are partnering with a leading UAE-based leisure and entertainment organisation on the appointment of an Associate Director – Financial Analysis.

This is a highly commercial, analytical role sitting close to senior leadership and supporting strategic decision-making across a major entertainment business. The position will combine FP&A, commercial finance, business performance analysis, pricing, forecasting, business cases and data-led decision support.

The successful candidate will ideally be operating at Senior Manager level and ready to progress into an Associate Director position, with the ability to move beyond traditional financial reporting and translate complex financial and operational data into clear commercial recommendations.

The role supports budgeting, planning, performance reporting, forecasting, pricing and financial modelling, with a strong emphasis on providing actionable insights to the wider business.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead detailed analysis of business performance, identifying key revenue drivers, operational trends, risks and opportunities.
• Analyse performance across individual revenue-generating activities, including revenue, utilisation, customer demand and overall commercial performance.
• Assess pricing performance and customer demand to identify opportunities to optimise pricing, promotional activity and revenue.
• Support the development of pricing strategies, including elasticity analysis, dynamic pricing and commercial bundling opportunities.
• Analyse partner and revenue-share performance, including revenue generation, conversion rates and average transaction values.
• Provide recommendations to improve commercial performance, profitability and revenue growth.
• Support annual business planning, ensuring financial assumptions are commercially realistic and aligned with wider strategic objectives.
• Consolidate business plans and develop high-quality financial analysis and presentations for senior management.
• Lead budgeting, forecasting and scenario modelling, including revenue and profitability forecasts.
• Conduct sensitivity analysis and rolling forecasts to provide greater visibility around future business performance.
• Produce management reporting, analysis and presentations for senior leadership and key stakeholders.
• Identify potential cost-control issues, revenue leakage and areas of underperformance through detailed profitability analysis.
• Develop and enhance automated reporting and BI dashboards to improve visibility of financial and operational performance.
• Prepare financial feasibility studies and business cases for new projects, investments and commercial opportunities.
• Evaluate the financial and strategic implications of potential initiatives and provide evidence-based recommendations.
• Translate large amounts of financial and operational data into concise, actionable insights for management.
• Partner closely with Finance, Commercial, Operations and senior business leaders to support strategic and day-to-day decision-making.
• Act as a genuine finance business partner rather than purely a reporting function, providing challenge and commercial insight where required.

Candidate Profile

We are looking for a commercially minded finance professional with a strong combination of financial analysis, FP&A and business partnering experience.

You will ideally bring:

• 7+ years' relevant experience across financial planning, business analysis and/or commercial finance, including managerial-level responsibility.
• Strong budgeting, forecasting, financial modelling and business-planning experience.
• Proven ability to interpret data and turn analysis into practical commercial recommendations.
• Strong business performance and profitability analysis experience.
• Experience preparing financial feasibility studies and investment/business cases.
• Strong management reporting and senior stakeholder presentation capability.
• Exposure to dashboards, BI tools, data visualisation and automated reporting.
• Experience operating within a large, complex or matrix organisation.
• A self-driven, analytical style with the ability to manage multiple priorities and work to demanding deadlines.
• Leisure, entertainment, attractions, hospitality or another high-volume consumer-facing environment would be advantageous, although broader commercial-sector backgrounds can be considered. The formal specification identifies leisure/entertainment and attractions experience as preferred rather than mandatory.

A Bachelor's degree in Finance, Business, Economics, Analytics or a related discipline is required, with an MBA viewed favourably. A professional accounting qualification is not a prerequisite for the position.

For this search, we are particularly interested in UAE National talent; a Family Book is not required.

This is a strong opportunity for an established Senior Manager who has already developed broad commercial finance exposure and is looking to take the next step into an Associate Director-level role with significant visibility and influence across the business.