Chief Financial Officer (CFO)

Monroe Consulting Group, an Executive Recruitment firm, is partnering with a leading organisation within the Industrial sector to hire a Chief Financial Officer (CFO). This leadership opportunity is based in Sepang, Selangor, and is suited for a commercially driven finance executive with a proven track record in strategic financial leadership, business transformation and operational excellence.

Position Overview

Lead the organisation's financial strategy, governance and performance management while serving as a strategic partner to the Chief Executive Officer and leadership team.
Drive sustainable growth, profitability, operational efficiency and long-term value creation across multiple business pillars through data-driven financial leadership.

Key Responsibilities

Own It:

• Lead the overall financial strategy of the organisation, aligned with business priorities and Group financial policies.
• Act as the strategic financial partner to the CEO, Board and leadership team on business performance, growth opportunities, investments and key financial decisions.
• Lead FP&A across Ground Handling, Inflight Catering, Cargo and Engineering, providing a forward-looking view of performance, risks and opportunities.
• Own the annual budget, rolling forecasts, long-range financial plans and scenario modelling across all four business pillars.
• Establish clear financial and operational KPIs covering revenue, profitability, margins, volume, productivity, cash flow, working capital and returns.
• Provide clear performance visibility by business pillar, customer, airline, station, contract and service line.
• Lead monthly business performance reviews, identifying variances against budget and forecast, underlying business drivers and required corrective actions.
• Develop scenarios across revenue, volume, manpower, cost, capex and cash flow to support forward-looking business decisions.
• Lead financial evaluation and business cases for new customer contracts, partnerships, business opportunities, investments and major capital expenditure.
• Drive rigorous assessment of pricing, contract profitability, cost-to-serve, manpower productivity, asset utilisation and return on investment.
• Identify underperforming businesses, customers or contracts and work with business leaders to implement improvement and turnaround plans.
• Ensure accurate and timely management, statutory and Group financial reporting.
• Oversee treasury, cash flow, taxation, credit management and working capital optimisation.
• Proactively identify financial and commercial risks and ensure appropriate mitigation plans are implemented.

Build Trust:

• Uphold the highest standards of financial integrity, transparency, governance and accountability.
• Provide the CEO, Board and Group Finance with accurate, timely and meaningful financial insights to support decision-making.
• Ensure strong financial controls, policies and governance are embedded across all four business pillars.
• Ensure compliance with applicable accounting standards, taxation, statutory requirements and Group policies.
• Provide early visibility of emerging financial risks, performance gaps and control issues, supported by clear recommendations and actions.
• Maintain strong relationships with auditors, banks, tax advisers, regulators and relevant external stakeholders.
• Build financial discipline and accountability across the business, ensuring leaders understand and own their financial performance.

One Team:

• Act as the strategic Finance business partner to the leaders of Ground Handling, Inflight Catering, Cargo and Engineering.
• Embed FP&A and commercial finance capabilities across the business, ensuring Finance works alongside Operations and Commercial teams to understand the drivers behind business performance.
• Partner with Operations to improve productivity, manpower economics, cost efficiency, asset utilisation and station performance.
• Partner with Commercial teams on pricing, contract economics, customer profitability, tenders and new business opportunities.
• Challenge business assumptions and provide data-driven recommendations on volume, pricing, manpower, productivity, cost and margins.
• Support the CEO and leadership team in evaluating strategic initiatives, partnerships, investments and expansion opportunities.
• Optimise resource and capital allocation across the four business pillars based on strategic priorities and expected returns.
• Work closely with Group Finance to ensure alignment on financial governance, reporting and Group priorities.
• Build and develop a high-performing Finance team with strong technical, FP&A, analytical and commercial capabilities.
• Move Finance beyond reporting towards business partnering, insight, challenge and value creation.

Move Fast:

• Provide timely and actionable financial insights to enable faster and better-informed decisions.
• Develop agile rolling forecasts, scenario planning and financial modelling to respond quickly to changing business and market conditions.
• Continuously assess actual performance against budget and forecast and identify emerging risks and opportunities early.
• Work with business leaders to implement corrective actions where performance is below expectations.
• Simplify Finance processes, management reporting and approval workflows without compromising governance or controls.
• Enable rapid assessment of commercial and investment opportunities through robust financial modelling and business cases.
• Ensure Finance remains responsive to the operational requirements of all four business pillars.

Drive Innovation:

• Lead the transformation and digitalisation of the Finance function.
• Maximise the use of SAP, analytics and automation to strengthen financial controls, forecasting, reporting and decision-making.
• Develop integrated FP&A dashboards combining financial and operational KPIs to provide a holistic view of business performance.
• Improve forecasting capability and accuracy through better data, analytics and scenario modelling.
• Drive automation and simplification of transactional activities, allowing Finance to focus increasingly on analysis, insights and business partnering.
• Strengthen data-driven financial modelling to support pricing, resource planning, capacity decisions, capex and profitability management.
• Progressively move Finance from historical reporting towards predictive and forward-looking business insights.
• Continuously benchmark Finance practices against leading aviation, logistics and service organisations.

Delight Customers:

• Partner with Commercial and Operations teams to ensure customer propositions are competitive, financially viable and sustainable.
• Provide financial modelling and insights to support customer proposals, pricing strategies, tenders and contract negotiations.
• Ensure major customer and airline contracts have clear visibility of revenue, cost-to-serve, margins, risks and expected returns.
• Track actual contract performance against the original business case and identify opportunities for margin improvement.
• Balance customer requirements with the organisation's commercial and financial objectives.
• Support the development of win-win commercial solutions that deliver customer value while generating sustainable returns.

Key Requirements

Qualifications & Experience

• Bachelor's Degree in Accounting, Finance or a related discipline.
• Professional accounting qualification such as ACCA, CPA, CIMA, ICAEW or equivalent.
• Membership with the Malaysian Institute of Accountants (MIA), where applicable.
• Preferably 12 to 15+ years of progressive Finance experience, including significant senior finance leadership experience.
• Strong experience across FP&A, financial management, accounting and reporting, commercial finance, treasury, governance, risk and business partnering.
• Experience within aviation, ground handling, logistics, transportation, engineering, catering, services or another operationally complex business would be highly advantageous.
• Strong FP&A capability with demonstrated experience in budgeting, forecasting, scenario modelling, variance analysis and long-range financial planning.
• Demonstrated ability to partner with CEOs and senior leadership teams on strategy, performance, investments and transformation.

Technical / Functional Expertise

• Strong commercial acumen with the ability to connect financial and operational performance and translate data into clear business insights and actions.
• Strong understanding of contract profitability, pricing, cost-to-serve, working capital, capex and investment evaluation.
• Experience with SAP, ERP, finance transformation, automation and data-driven management reporting would be advantageous.
• Proven ability to build and lead high-performing Finance teams with strong business-partnering capabilities.
• Expertise in financial strategy, FP&A, accounting and reporting, treasury management, governance, risk management, financial controls and finance transformation.

Soft Skills & Leadership Competencies

• Strong stakeholder management and communication skills, with the credibility to engage senior management, Board members and external stakeholders.
• High integrity, sound judgement and a strong governance mindset.
• Able to operate effectively in a fast-paced, operational and transformation environment.
• Strategic, forward-thinking and commercially driven leadership approach.
• Strong analytical, decision-making and business partnering capabilities.