Johannesburg: Commercial Finance Director

About the Role

The Commercial Finance Director will lead the commercial finance function across Sub-Saharan Africa, driving financial strategy, risk management, credit governance, and working capital optimization. This role requires a strong commercial acumen with the ability to influence executive decision-making, advanced financial modelling, analysis, and forecasting capability, and excellent leadership skills.

Key Responsibilities

• Develop and implement commercial finance strategies to support business growth and profitability.
• Support strategic initiatives such as new territory expansion, partnerships, and investment opportunities.
• Provide insights and financial leadership to General Manager and regional leadership teams.
• Own the end-to-end health of working capital across the region.
• Optimize cash conversion cycles through effective management of AR and AP.
• Build strong relationships with banks to secure trade finance facilities (overdrafts, invoice discounting, guarantees).
• Oversee credit policies across all markets (SA/SADC/IOI/EAF/WAF).
• Evaluate customer creditworthiness and approve credit limits.
• Manage credit insurance, risk exposure, and bad debt prevention.
• Engage with legal teams on contract terms, disputes, and credit risk escalations.
• Oversees AR team to ensure timely collection and dispute resolution.
• Monitor debtor days, overdue analysis, and partner compliance with payment terms.
• Lead escalations with customers, banks, and internal stakeholders to unblock payments.
• Identify and implement process improvements in billing, invoicing accuracy, and collections.
• Leads AP governance ensuring timely and accurate payments to suppliers and partners.
• Manage payment cycles to optimize cash flow.
• Review vendor terms, early settlement opportunities, and PO/invoice accuracy.

Requirements

• Strong commercial acumen with the ability to influence executive decision-making.
• Advanced financial modelling, analysis, and forecasting capability.
• Excellent understanding of credit management, trade finance, and working capital structures.
• Strong leadership capability managing AR, AP, and credit teams.
• Comfortable travelling extensively across Africa.
• Ability to work under pressure in fast moving environments.
• Excellent negotiation skills especially with customers and banks.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Accounting, Economics, or related field (CA/CPA/CIMA strongly preferred).

Salary & Benefits

• R1.8 million per annum CTC