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Commercial Operations Finance Manager
Commercial Operations Finance Manager
- Security & Investigations
- Recently Added
- Cape Town
- Full-time
- Location -
- Position -
- Salary -
- Cape Town
- Full-time
- Market Related
Overview:
Our client is a fast-moving, project-driven business operating across cross-border trade, supply chain and logistics, where margin lives or dies in the detail. They’re looking for a Commercial Operations Finance Manager to sit right at the intersection of Finance and Operations, not producing reports from the sidelines, but actively protecting and growing margin across every project, region and product line.
This is deliberately not a traditional accounting role. You’ll own gross margin performance, get hands-on with pricing, costing, procurement and FX exposure, and partner directly with Commercial and Operations teams to make sure every deal that gets signed is actually profitable. You’ll also take functional ownership of SAP Business ByDesign, lead process improvement across the business, and manage a small team (a Financial Controller and a Bookkeeper) while keeping operational finance clearly separate from core accounting.
This suits someone genuinely energised by complexity: multiple projects, multiple moving parts, and an environment where you’re expected to make good calls without waiting for perfect information. Candidates earlier in their career are welcome to apply, provided they can show real hunger, a track record of high performance, and the discipline to execute under pressure.
View requirements and responsibilities
Responsibilities:
- Own and drive gross margin performance across projects, regions and product lines
- Implement and manage margin control frameworks covering pricing, costing, procurement and FX exposure
- Partner with Commercial and Operations teams to validate deal profitability
- Identify and correct margin leakage with clear, actionable fixes
- Drive strong cost discipline across supply chain and project delivery
- Act as the primary finance partner to Operations, Commercial and Supply Chain
- Provide financial insight on project costing and profitability, cash flow dynamics, and working capital optimisation
- Support contractual structuring and commercial decision-making
- Embed financial discipline into day-to-day operational execution
- Lead end-to-end process mapping across order-to-cash, procure-to-pay and the project lifecycle
- Identify inefficiencies and implement scalable, best-practice processes
- Drive continuous improvement and operational excellence, with strong process alignment across regions
- Act as functional owner and improvement lead for SAP Business ByDesign
- Drive adoption, optimisation and automation across the system
- Ensure the system aligns with project, logistics and cross-border requirements
- Act as the key interface between business users and system capability
- Lead and optimise management reporting frameworks, including margin reporting, cash flow reporting and management accounts
- Act as functional lead on BI and reporting optimisation, ensuring accurate, timely and decision-focused output
- Drive strong data integrity and a single source of truth
- Maintain strong financial governance and control frameworks
- Manage risks relating to cross-border trade, FX exposure, contractual commitments, and supply chain and procurement
- Support audit, tax and statutory processes alongside outsourced partners
- Lead and manage the Financial Controller and Bookkeeper, keeping operational finance and accounting responsibilities clearly separated
- Build a high-performing, detail-oriented team
Requirements:
- 5–10 years’ experience in commercial or operational finance roles
- Experience in project-based and/or cross-border environments
- Proven track record in margin optimisation and cost control
- Strong ERP exposure
- Experience with BI and reporting tools
- Strong commercial and operational acumen
- Ability to operate across finance, operations and commercial functions
- Highly analytical, with strong problem-solving ability
- Process-driven, with strong attention to detail
- Ability to influence and partner effectively with stakeholders
- Comfortable making decisions under pressure and with incomplete information
- Comfortable operating in ambiguity while still delivering structured outcomes
- A genuine ownership mindset, driven to improve the business rather than just report on it
- Experience specifically with SAP Business ByDesign
- Hustle Co.