2. Holdco Architecture, Systems & Synergy

• Design the holding-company structure: which entities sit where, in which jurisdictions, and why - with counsel and tax advisers.
• Select and implement the group ERP and consolidation platform. Own the selection criteria, the sequence and the delivery.
• Build shared services where they create real margin and demonstrable synergy value, and resist them where they destroy unit-level clarity.
• Set intercompany and transfer pricing policy across a group where one entity generates leads, another converts them, a third delivers the product and a fourth manages money - across the UAE, the US and potentially Europe.
• Produce unit-level P&Ls that roll up cleanly and let leadership see which businesses earn their capital.

3. Capital Allocation Across Unlike Businesses

• Own the framework that decides where the next dollar of operating cash goes - paid media, headcount, software build, fund seed capital, acquisitions or reserve - with an explicit hurdle rate and time horizon for each.
• Allocate across assets with genuinely different return profiles, risk characteristics and payback periods, and defend the trade-offs to the CEO with a model behind them.
• Own group headcount and cost strategy. Be the person who can say no, with numbers.

4. The Cash Engine - Direct-Response Economics

• Required, not optional. The group is funded by performance marketing and will be for the foreseeable future.
• Own CAC, LTV, LTV:CAC, ROAS, CPQC, contribution margin and cash payback by funnel, offer, channel and cohort.
• Own the front-end versus back-end monetisation model, and the timing mismatch between media spend today and payment-plan collections over twelve months.
• Improve pricing and offer-ladder economics across low, mid and high ticket.
• Model cohort behaviour, renewals, churn, refunds, chargebacks and payment-plan default — and build them into the forecast rather than discovering them later.
• Set the media spend guardrails that keep the group liquid in a bad month without capping a good one.

5. Fund Structuring, Regulation & Investor Infrastructure

• Lead jurisdiction and structure selection for the investment fund with counsel - DIFC, ADGM or otherwise - and own the trade-offs.
• Stand up the operating infrastructure: fund administration, NAV calculation, audit, fee and carry mechanics, subscription and redemption processes.
• Build investor reporting infrastructure capable of serving hundreds of investors on a reliable cadence.
• Own regulatory compliance across the group: UAE regimes including VARA and ADGM where applicable, FTC and advertising-claims compliance in marketing, securities considerations across the investment products, and the regulatory perimeter around the wealth and tax planning tools.

6. Treasury, Cash & Group Risk

• Own rolling 13-week and 12-month cash forecasts at entity and group level, and the liquidity view across the whole structure.
• Optimise working capital - processor reserves and holdbacks, refund provisions, receivable ageing on payment plans.
• Own banking, merchant accounts and payment processors: redundancy, concentration risk, chargeback ratios and cost of processing.
• Set treasury policy for digital asset exposure: custody, counterparty limits, stablecoin policy, valuation and controls.

7. Legal & Corporate Affairs

• You are not expected to be a lawyer. You are expected to own the function so the CEO does not have to.
• Own the relationship with, and the budget for, external counsel, auditors, tax advisers and transaction advisers across jurisdictions.
• Own the corporate calendar across every entity - filings, licences, renewals, tax deadlines. Nothing lapses, particularly not during diligence.
• Own commercial terms on major partnerships, vendor, affiliate and talent agreements; legal drafting stays with counsel.

What You Must Bring

Required

• 10-20 years in finance, including 3+ years as CFO, Group CFO or VP Finance with full P&L and balance sheet accountability.
• Direct, hands-on experience of a transaction. You have been on a sell-side or minority sale process and can describe what you personally built - the model, the CIM, the data room, the diligence responses - and what went wrong.
• Multi-entity holdco or portfolio experience. You have run finance across several unlike businesses, not one company with divisions, and you can explain how you consolidated and how you allocated between them.
• Sum-of-the-parts fluency. You can value a software business, a subscription publishing business, a services business and a fee-earning investment business, and explain why each methodology is the right one.
• Performance-marketing economics. You have owned unit economics in a business spending meaningful money on paid acquisition - CAC, LTV, payback, front end versus back end. Required. Not the defining filter, but a candidate who cannot do this cannot protect our cash engine.
• Multi-jurisdiction experience with real consolidation, ideally including the UAE, the US and Europe.
• Experience owning the relationship with external counsel, auditors and transaction advisers.
• Fully conversant in both IFRS and US GAAP, and able to defend technical positions under scrutiny.
• A prolific, demonstrable user of AI tools in finance work - you can show us what you have built or automated.

Strongly Preferred

• Financial services depth - you have worked across at least two of publishing, education, software, wealth management or fund management.
• You have structured or operated an investment fund: jurisdiction, administration, NAV, fee and carry mechanics, investor reporting.
• PE-backed or PE operating experience - you understand how institutional buyers think and what they discount.
• Crypto and digital asset exposure. You do not need to be a trader, but you cannot be squeamish about the asset class.
• Subscription accounting and deferred revenue depth across high-ticket, payment plan and recurring products.

Do Not Apply If…

• Your entire career has been in large corporate environments with no exposure to founder