OQ
Senior Specialist, Budget & Cost Control
- Permanent
- Muscat, Oman
- Experience 5 - 10 yrs
Job expiry date: 26/12/2025
Job overview
Date posted
11/11/2025
Location
Muscat, Oman
Salary
Undisclosed
Compensation
Comprehensive package
Experience
5 - 10 yrs
Seniority
Senior & Lead
Qualification
Bachelors degree
Expiration date
26/12/2025
Job description
The Senior Specialist, Budget & Cost Control, plays a critical role in managing and optimizing the financial performance of OQ’s Upstream Operated Assets. Reporting to the Manager of Budget & Cost Control, this position leads the preparation, consolidation, and monitoring of annual budgets (CAPEX and OPEX), ensuring alignment with corporate strategy, operational plans, and financial targets. The role involves rigorous tracking of commitments, expenditures, and accruals, analyzing deviations between budgeted and actual spending, and providing actionable insights to management for informed decision-making. The Senior Specialist acts as the single point of accountability for financial oversight of operated assets, driving efficiency, cost transparency, and adherence to internal and external financial governance standards. The position requires deep proficiency in SAP, strong analytical and forecasting capabilities, and a collaborative approach to working across technical, operational, and finance functions to ensure fiscal discipline and performance integrity within the company’s growth and planning objectives.
Required skills
Key responsibilities
- Lead the budgeting process for Upstream Operated Assets, coordinating CAPEX and OPEX inputs from technical and operational teams.
- Consolidate annual budgets and forecasts ensuring alignment with corporate strategy and business planning objectives.
- Monitor financial performance, tracking actual expenditure against approved budgets and identifying key variances.
- Conduct mid-year and quarterly reforecasting, updating budget assumptions and financial outlooks based on operational performance.
- Provide detailed budget vs. actual analysis and explain material deviations with root cause analysis.
- Manage cost tracking across WBS elements, cost centers, and project activities, ensuring data integrity within SAP.
- Support the monthly Value of Work Done (VoWD) process, validating data accuracy and consistency.
- Coordinate closely with Finance, Operations, and Planning teams to ensure cost transparency and efficient fund utilization.
- Assist in financial close processes by ensuring budgetary impacts are captured and reconciled in SAP.
- Support audits and stakeholder reviews, providing documentation, data, and analysis as required.
- Enhance budgeting and cost control processes through continuous improvement initiatives and adoption of best practices.
- Prepare reports and dashboards to communicate financial performance and forecasts to management.
- Train and mentor team members on cost management processes, SAP functionalities, and reporting standards.
Experience & skills
- Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Accounting, or related discipline.
- Minimum of 6 years’ experience in budgeting, cost control, or financial management, preferably in the oil and gas or energy sector.
- Strong understanding of CAPEX and OPEX management for large-scale projects or operated assets.
- Proficiency in SAP (finance, budgeting, and cost control modules) and advanced Excel skills.
- Experience with Value of Work Done (VoWD) reporting and cost accruals tracking.
- Ability to prepare and analyze complex financial data, budgets, and forecasts.
- Strong communication and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to present insights to senior leadership.
- Excellent organizational and time management skills; capable of meeting tight deadlines under pressure.
- Demonstrated ability to improve financial processes and apply best practices in budgeting and cost optimization.
- Fluent in English; Arabic language proficiency preferred.
