We are looking for a Finance Director with a strong traditional finance foundation ideally from UAE banking, fintech, or regulated financial services, who has developed meaningful exposure to digital assets and is ready to go deeper.
You do not need to be a DeFi native. You do need to be genuinely curious about the space, fast to learn, and commercially focused enough that your first question is always about revenue and margin rather than process and compliance. The token treasury and Shariah structuring complexity will be supported by specialist advisors; your job is to own the financial operating engine and make the business legible — to the board, to investors, and to itself.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
Financial Planning & Forecasting
- Build and own the group's annual budget and rolling 12/24-month financial forecast across all three entities
- Design the financial planning cadence — monthly reviews, quarterly reforecasts, annual board-level planning cycle
- Stress-test plans against revenue scenarios, token price movements, and operational cost variables
- Ensure all three entities operate from a single consolidated financial model with clear entity-level visibility
Single Source of Truth — Reporting
- Create integrated financial and commercial reporting that eliminates reconciliation gaps between sales data, treasury, and accounts
- Own all management reporting outputs — weekly financial flash, monthly board pack, quarterly business review
- Design the KPI dashboard framework that the executive team uses as its primary operating instrument
- Prepare clean, investor-grade financial reporting for strategic partners, ecosystem stakeholders, and prospective capital providers
Management by P&L
- Lead the shift to P&L-driven management — segmented by entity, product line, and market
- Partner with each business lead to define their unit economics, revenue drivers, and cost accountability
- Build the reporting cadence and accountability framework that ensures commercial leads own their numbers
- Identify margin leakage, cost overruns, and revenue shortfalls early and escalate with recommended actions
Path to Profitability
- Define a credible, board-approved path-to-profitability roadmap with milestones, owners, and measurable outcomes
- Track performance against that roadmap monthly and drive corrective action when the business deviates
- Model the cash runway implications of commercial decisions — hiring, product investment, market expansion — before they are made
- Advise the COO and CEO on capital allocation trade-offs with clear financial rationale
Treasury & Cash Management
- Manage multi-currency operational treasury across fiat and digital asset holdings
- Maintain real-time visibility of cash position across entities and jurisdictions
- Coordinate with the token advisory function on ZIG treasury governance — vesting, reserves, liquidity runway
- Manage banking relationships and ensure operational accounts are structured efficiently across DIFC and UAE free zone entities
Controls, Compliance & Audit
- Implement financial controls frameworks appropriate to a regulated virtual asset business operating in the UAE
- Own the external audit relationship and ensure group accounts are produced on time and to standard
- Coordinate with legal and compliance teams on VARA obligations, AML/KYC requirements, and any ADGM or DIFC reporting
- Maintain awareness of Islamic finance compliance requirements for Zamanat products — Shariah structuring decisions will be led by specialist advisors
Commercial Finance & Decision Support
- Build financial models for new business opportunities — fee structures, partnership economics, new product launches
- Support fundraising processes with financial data rooms, models, and investor materials
- Lead the financial due diligence response for prospective investors and strategic partners
- Provide finance perspective in commercial negotiations with institutional partners and ecosystem stakeholders
EXPERIENCE & QUALIFICATIONS
Required
- 8–12 years in finance, with meaningful time in a commercially oriented role beyond pure controllership
- UAE market experience — familiarity with local banking, regulatory environment, and doing business in the GCC
- Demonstrated ability to build financial infrastructure in a scale-up or growth-stage environment
- Hands-on track record of building P&L reporting frameworks, forecasting models, and management reporting from scratch
- Qualified accountant — ACA, ACCA, CPA, or CFA strongly preferred
- Genuine familiarity with digital assets — can hold an intelligent conversation about token economics, DeFi mechanics, and on-chain treasury without needing a primer
- Comfortable operating without a large support team; hands-on until the function scales
Preferred
- Background in UAE or MENA fintech, digital banking, financial exchange, or asset management
- Experience working in or alongside DIFC, ADGM, or VARA-regulated entities
- Exposure to Islamic finance products — murabaha, sukuk, ijara — even at a working familiarity level
- Prior experience supporting a fundraise, capital raise, or M&A process from the finance side
- Exposure to institutional trading, exchange operations, or multi-entity group finance
- Arabic language a plus, not a requirement
What We Are Not Looking For
- A pure financial controller whose primary lens is month-end close and statutory compliance
- Someone who has only worked in large, well-resourced finance teams with established processes
- A candidate who needs deep DeFi or blockchain expertise on day one — we will invest in the right person's development
- Anyone who cannot give a clear answer to: what does a path-to-profitability plan actually look like in practice?
WHAT SUCCESS LOOKS LIKE
60 days
- Full picture of current financial state, data gaps, and reporting deficiencies documented and shared
- Banking, audit, and key vendor relationships inherited and active
- First consolidated monthly reporting pack produced and delivered to the COO
90 days
- Single source of truth financial reporting live across all three entities
- Rolling 12-month forecast built and stress-tested
- Budget vs. actuals tracking operational with weekly flash reporting in place
12 months
- Board-approved path-to-profitability plan in place with monthly tracking cadence
- P&L management framework embedded — business leads own their numbers
- Finance function structured and staffed to scale beneath this hire
- Group audit-ready and positioned for next capital raise
WHY THIS ROLE
Digital asset infrastructure is moving into its institutional phase. ZIGChain, ZIGMarkets, and Zamanat are building at the intersection of blockchain, Islamic finance, and GCC capital markets — a combination that is both genuinely rare and commercially significant.
This Finance Director will shape how the group operates, how it is understood by investors, and how fast it reaches sustainable scale. The scope is real, the mandate is broad, and the trajectory is up.
