Head of Finance

Department: Controllership

Employment Type: Full Time

Location: Kuwait

Description

Tabby is the GCC's leading shopping and payments platform, giving millions of people across Saudi Arabia and the UAE more control in the way they spend, save and earn. Headquartered in Riyadh, we've grown into one of the largest fintech companies to come out of the Arab world, working with +65,000 sellers, from global names like Apple, IKEA, Adidas and Shein to the region's leading retail groups.

We're now building a local team on the ground in Kuwait, with a renewed presence in the market coming soon. This is a rare chance to join us at the start of a local launch, shaping how we show up for Kuwaiti shoppers and sellers from day one, backed by the scale, technology and track record we've built across the region.

If you want to help us build something significant in Kuwait, backed by proven regional success, we want to hear from you.

ROLE PURPOSE The Head of Finance, Kuwait is the senior finance leader in country and the accountable owner of the Kuwait entity’s
books, records, statutory reporting and financial control environment. The mandate is deliberately weighted towards
controllership and financial reporting: designing the close, the chart of accounts, the reporting pack and the control
framework correctly the first time, so that Kuwait scales without accumulating reporting debt.

Key Responsibilities

1. Financial reporting and controllership (primary focus)

Own the Kuwait books: Full accountability for the general ledger, chart of accounts, accounting manual and month-end close for the Kuwait entity, aligned to Group policy and the group accounting platform.
Deliver the monthly close: Run a disciplined close calendar with defined cut-offs, task ownership and dependencies; deliver the Kuwait reporting pack to Group Finance on the group timetable, complete with variance commentary and balance sheet substantiation.
Statutory financial statements: Prepare the Kuwait statutory financial statements and notes to a publication standard, including Arabic-language reconciliation where required, statutory reserve transfers under the Kuwait Companies Law, and full cross-reference, casting and footing checks before issue.
Group consolidation: Ensure Kuwait reports cleanly into the group consolidation — intercompany reconciliation and settlement, transfer pricing support, related-party disclosure, and consistent application of group accounting policies.
Reconciliations and substantiation: Own a complete reconciliation framework: bank and payment-service provider settlement, receivables subledger to GL, merchant payables, collections and recoveries, and suspense clearing with ageing and escalation of unresolved items.

2. Regulatory, tax and statutory compliance
Central Bank of Kuwait reporting: Own the preparation, review and timely submission of all CBK regulatory returns and prudential reporting applicable to the licensed entity, and act as the finance counterpart on regulatory queries, inspections and information requests.
Licensing and capital: Support the licensing and authorisation process with financial projections, capital adequacy analysis and regulatory capital monitoring, and maintain compliance with minimum capital and any prudential ratios imposed on the entity. (Note: appointment to senior positions in CBK-supervised entities is subject to regulatory fit-and-proper assessment and non-objection.)
Tax: Manage all Kuwait tax obligations and filings, including corporate income tax where applicable based on the entity’s ownership structure, Zakat and KFAS contributions for Kuwaiti shareholding companies, withholding and retention requirements on payments to contractors and suppliers, and any applicable domestic minimum top-up tax assessment for the group. Coordinate with Group Tax and external advisers.
Statutory and corporate filings: Maintain good standing across all statutory filings and renewals — Ministry of Commerce and Industry, commercial registration, social insurance, labour and any sector-specific obligations.

3. Controls, audit and risk

Control environment: Design and operate the Kuwait financial control framework — delegation of authority, segregation of duties, payment and journal approval workflows, and access controls in the accounting and payment systems.
External audit: Own the annual audit end to end: audit planning, PBC schedules, technical positions and memoranda, resolution of findings, and timely signed accounts.
Documentation: Maintain written accounting policies, process narratives and technical position papers so that judgements are auditable and survive personnel change.

4. Market entry, build-out and leadership
Build the team: Recruit, develop and lead a small high-calibre finance team as the market scales, and build local bench strength rather than dependency on a single individual.
Stakeholder management: Act as the trusted finance voice in the Kuwait leadership team and a reliable, low-surprise partner to Group Finance, Legal, Compliance, Risk and Treasury.

Skills, Knowledge and Expertise

• Professional accounting qualification — ACA, ACCA, CPA, CA or equivalent.
• 8–12+ years of progressive finance experience, including a period in an audit or advisory practice (Big Four) and demonstrable ownership of a controllership function.
• Deep, practical IFRS expertise with a track record of preparing IFRS financial statements and technical position papers that have withstood audit scrutiny.
• Hands-on IFRS 9 expected credit loss experience in a lending, consumer finance, BNPL, banking or receivables-intensive business
• Experience of a regulated financial-services environment, including regulatory reporting to a central bank or comparable supervisor.
• Working knowledge of the Kuwait regulatory, tax and statutory landscape, or clearly transferable GCC experience with the ability to get current quickly.
• Proven month-end close ownership with a strong reconciliation and control discipline, and evidence of having built or materially improved a close process.
• Comfort operating with limited infrastructure — a builder who is equally willing to design the policy and clear the
• reconciliation.
• Fluent English; professional Arabic (essential for statutory, regulatory and audit interaction in Kuwait).

Based in Kuwait

Preferred

• Prior experience launching a new legal entity, licence or market — including entity incorporation, systems set-up and first audit.
• Fintech, payments or high-growth technology experience, with an appreciation of scale, automation and data quality.
• Experience within a multi-entity group reporting into a central group finance function and consolidation.
• Exposure to receivables financing, securitisation or debt facility reporting and covenant compliance.
• Strong systems capability — ERP implementation, reporting automation, and comfort working directly with large datasets.