Chief Financial Officer (CFO)
Location: Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Workplace Type: On-site
About the Role
The Chief Financial Officer (CFO) will be a key member of our client leadership team and will be responsible for leading the full finance agenda of the joint venture as they move from pilot phase into commercial scale-up. The role will provide both strategic leadership and hands-on execution across business finance, financial planning, accounting, treasury, funding, internal controls, governance, tax, audit, procurement governance, and risk management.
In addition to the core CFO mandate, this role will also serve as the lead strategic finance partner on our client major investment and capital deployment agenda, including AssetCo structuring, investment case development, valuation, capital strategy, and investor / partner-facing financial materials. The CFO will ensure that our client financial architecture is fit for purposes to support rapid growth, infrastructure roll-out, and long-term value creation.
The successful candidate will act as a trusted advisor to the CEO / General Manager, Board, and shareholders, helping shape business decisions with robust financial insight, disciplined capital allocation, and strong governance, while maintaining close control over cost, cash, risk, and investment returns.
Key Responsibilities
1. Strategic Finance Leadership
- Lead overall finance strategy in support of pilot launch, commercial roll-out, and long-term business growth.
- Partner with the CEO / General Manager and leadership team to shape business strategy, evaluate growth options, and ensure the financial sustainability of the JV.
- Provide financial leadership on key investment decisions including network roll-out, vehicle and battery procurement, infrastructure deployment, digital investments, channel expansion, and other growth initiatives.
- Act as a strategic advisor to the Board and shareholders on financial performance, capital requirements, risk exposure, and major investment trade-offs.
- Challenge business assumptions on pricing, BOM (Bill of Materials), battery economics, station roll-out, commercial launch readiness, and operating cost structure to improve decision quality and capital allocation discipline.
2. AssetCo Strategy, Investment Case & Corporate Finance
- Lead the development of AssetCo’s investment case, financial model, valuation framework, and funding strategy to support swap infrastructure roll-out and long-term capital deployment planning.
- Build, refine, and maintain integrated JV and AssetCo financial models, ensuring consistency of assumptions, reporting logic, and alignment with shareholder expectations and BP finance standards where applicable.
- Perform valuation modelling and investment return analysis, including DCF, IRR, ROIC, long-range scenario planning, sensitivity analysis, and stress-case evaluation for major strategic investments.
- Integrate key operational assumptions into financial models, including swap station deployment schedule, battery lifecycle economics, leasing revenue logic, import and landing costs, and infrastructure scaling assumptions.
- Evaluate and recommend suitable capital structure options for the JV and AssetCo, including equity, debt, shareholder funding, leasing, vendor financing, and other structured financing alternatives.
- Work with both shareholders to align on funding logic, intercompany arrangements, capital exposure, and financial implications under different investment scenarios.
3. Financial Planning, Budgeting & Performance Management
- Lead annual business planning, budgeting, periodic forecasting, and long-range financial planning across the JV.
- Develop robust financial models to support strategic decision-making, including business scenarios for pricing, market expansion, operating costs, capex deployment, and profitability pathways.
- Track performance against budget, forecast, and business plan targets, highlighting variances, risks, and mitigation actions in a timely manner.
- Establish management reporting processes that provide clear visibility on P&L, balance sheet, cash flow, capex, opex, and key operating / commercial KPIs.
- Ensure financial plans are realistic, properly governed, and aligned with shareholder expectations and board-approved plans.
4. Business Finance, Pricing & Commercial Support
- Lead or oversee pricing activities, including price modelling, margin analysis, financial evaluation, and approval coordination to ensure decisions support profitability and strategic objectives.
- Evaluate commercial proposals, partnership arrangements, and investment cases to ensure they are financially sound and aligned with CGM and AssetCo targets.
- Develop and maintain costing models for products, operations, infrastructure, and services across both the JV and AssetCo.
- Monitor and manage working capital requirements, including inventory, receivables, payables, deposits, and major commitments, and provide clear forecasts and intervention recommendations.
- Support the business with data-driven financial insight to improve negotiation leverage with partners, suppliers, OEMs, and infrastructure counterparties.
5. Investor / Partner Engagement & Board Support
- Support development of partner-facing investment materials, financial model walkthroughs, funding analyses, and business case presentations for shareholders, financial institutions, strategic partners, and potential AssetCo investors.
- Translate financial output into clear and credible business narratives suitable for Board members, senior stakeholders, banks, investors, and strategic counterparties.
- Support due diligence, Q&A, follow-up materials, MoU / commercial negotiation inputs, and other finance-related discussions with shortlisted partners and stakeholders.
- Prepare financial reports, investment papers, funding requests, and performance updates for Board and shareholder meetings.
- Serve as a credible finance representative in discussions with both shareholder groups, financiers, and senior external stakeholders.
6. Financial Control, Accounting & Reporting
- Ensure timely and accurate financial reporting in compliance with applicable accounting standards, statutory requirements, and shareholder reporting needs.
- Oversee accounting operations, month-end and year-end close, reconciliations, accruals, provisions, and audit readiness.
- Establish and embed strong internal controls, approval processes, and governance frameworks across the JV.
- Maintain transparency over commitments, liabilities, payment schedules, capex deployment, and working capital exposure.
- Oversee preparation of finance sections of board papers, management reports, and investment decision materials.
7. Treasury, Funding & Cash Flow Management
- Lead treasury and cash flow management to ensure sufficient liquidity for operations, launch execution, and growth investments.
- Manage funding requirements, capital calls, shareholder funding requests, banking relationships, and cash deployment priorities.
- Monitor payables, receivables, deposits, and cash commitments to ensure disciplined liquidity management and timely funding visibility.
- Establish robust cash forecasting processes to support management decision-making, investment planning, and mitigation of liquidity risks.
- Ensure payment processes are efficient, controlled, and aligned with contracts, budget approval, and available cash.
8. Governance, Compliance & Risk Management
- Ensure our client operates in full compliance with local legal, tax, statutory, and regulatory requirements.
- Maintain a strong internal control environment, including delegated authority, procurement governance, contract review discipline, financial policy implementation, and audit readiness.
- Identify, assess, and mitigate key financial, commercial, operational, and compliance risks facing the JV and AssetCo agenda.
- Support management in maintaining compliance with the joint venture agreement, shareholder obligations, and other governance requirements.
- Ensure major investments and business cases are supported by sufficient financial rigor, risk analysis, and governance approval.
9. Procurement Governance & Investment Discipline
- Oversee governance of purchasing, vendor contracting, PO approvals, and payment controls to ensure expenditures align with approved budgets and business priorities.
- Challenge cost assumptions, vendor commercial terms, and business cases to ensure competitiveness, value for money, and disciplined use of funds.
- Ensure one-time pilot costs, recurring operational costs, and commercial launch investments are clearly tracked, justified, and appropriately approved.
- Support financial evaluation of major suppliers, service providers, infrastructure partners, and strategic counterparties.
- Drive cost discipline while enabling the business to execute effectively and at appropriate speed.
10. Tax, Audit, Systems & Finance Operating Model
- Oversee tax planning, compliance, filings, and coordination with tax advisors and relevant service providers.
- Lead external and internal audit processes, ensuring readiness, responsiveness, and timely closure of action items.
- Manage relationships with banks, auditors, accounting firms, payroll providers, tax advisors, and other finance-related vendors.
- Lead finance requirements for ERP and systems readiness, including chart-of-accounts alignment, forecasting structures, reporting logic, and management information design to support business scale-up.
- Build a fit-for-purpose finance operating model, including processes, templates, workflows, internal controls, and outsourced resource management suitable for a lean and growing JV.
11. Team Leadership & Capability Building
- Build and lead a lean, high-performing finance organization, including internal team members and outsourced finance resources where applicable.
- Set clear priorities, operating rhythms, accountability, and service expectations across the finance function.
- Coach business stakeholders to strengthen financial awareness, commercial discipline, and decision-support capability across the organization.
- Promote a culture of integrity, control, business partnership, transparency, and continuous improvement.
- Operate effectively in ambiguity and help build finance capability in a fast-changing, build-from-scratch environment.
Required Skills & Qualifications
Education
Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Accounting, Economics, or a related discipline.
Experience
- Minimum 12–15 years of relevant finance experience, including substantial leadership experience in financial planning, controllership, business finance, treasury, governance, and compliance.
- Prior experience as CFO, Finance Director, Head of Finance, or a senior finance leadership role is strongly preferred.
- Proven experience in building finance processes and controls in a lean or newly established organization.
- Strong experience managing external accounting, tax, audit, banking, and compliance stakeholders.
- Experience working in Vietnam and strong familiarity with local finance, tax, statutory, and regulatory requirements is highly preferred.
Skills & Competencies
- Strong strategic finance capability combined with hands-on execution.
- Deep understanding of financial planning, accounting, internal controls, treasury, and risk management.
- Strong commercial acumen and ability to evaluate investments, pricing, partnerships, and operating models.
- Sound judgment and ability to balance business growth with control and governance.
- Excellent stakeholder management, with confidence engaging Board members, shareholders, banks, auditors, and senior leaders.
- Strong analytical, problem-solving, and decision-support capability.
- Excellent communication and presentation skills.
- Ability to work effectively in ambiguity and in a build-from-scratch environment.
- Fluency in English is required; Vietnamese is strongly preferred.
Personal Attributes
- High integrity and a strong sense of accountability.
- Strategic, commercially sharp, and disciplined.
- Hands-on, practical, and execution-focused.
- Calm under pressure and able to manage complexity.
- Strong ownership and follow-through.
- Comfortable operating in a lean organization with evolving structures.
- Collaborative across cultures and shareholder environments.
- Detail-oriented with a strong governance mindset.
Nice to Have(s)
- Professional qualifications such as CPA, ACCA, CIMA, CFA, or equivalent are strongly preferred.
- MBA or an advanced business degree is an advantage.
- Experience in a joint venture, start-up, growth-stage company, or a new market/business build environment is highly desirable.
- Experience in relevant sectors such as mobility, automotive, EV (Electric Vehicle), infrastructure, retail, energy, technology, or other asset-heavy / operational businesses is a strong advantage.