Description
Zutari: Co-creating an engineered impact.
- Zutari is a well-established, management-owned engineering firm with almost 90 years' experience. As human-centred engineering consultants and advisors, we are trusted by our clients, business partners, communities and other stakeholders across Africa.
- We co-create engineering solutions that have a positive impact and improve people's lives. Zutari values inclusion and recognises the importance of a diverse, talented workforce, believing that people need other people to succeed.
What kind of talent do we pursue?
- We employ people with the right attitude and a positive mindset, who are motivated by doing the right thing, getting things done and share a sense of urgency. People who have an impact in our teams and broader community. People who think differently and connect with those around them to co-create new opportunities and leave a meaningful legacy.
About the role:
- The Group Treasurer is responsible for the strategic leadership, governance, and management of Zutari’s treasury function across the Group. The role is accountable for ensuring effective liquidity management, funding readiness, financial risk management, banking strategy, treasury governance, and capital management across multiple entities, jurisdictions, and currencies.
- Reporting to the Group Chief Financial Officer, the role plays a critical part in supporting the Group’s financial resilience, operational agility, and long-term growth ambitions as Zutari evolves into a larger multi-national engineering consulting business. The Group Treasurer will provide specialist expertise on liquidity, guarantees, facilities, foreign exchange, interest rate risk, cross-border cash management, banking structures, treasury controls, and capital planning, while ensuring treasury activities are aligned with the Group’s strategic, operational, and governance requirements.
- This role requires a seasoned treasury specialist with proven experience in leading a dedicated treasury function within a complex, multi-entity, multi-jurisdictional environment. The incumbent must bring deep technical treasury expertise, strong judgement, and the ability to engage credibly with executive leadership, boards, governance forums, banking partners, and internal stakeholders across the organisation.
Key responsibilities
Strategic Treasury Leadership
- Develop and lead the Group treasury strategy to support Zutari’s growth, resilience, and evolving corporate requirements across multiple jurisdictions.
- Partner with the Group Chief Financial Officer on treasury priorities including liquidity resilience, funding capacity, banking structures, capital efficiency, and financial risk management.
- Provide specialist treasury advice to senior leadership on matters relating to cash, liquidity, guarantees, facilities, financial risk, and capital-related decision-making.
- Ensure the treasury function evolves in line with the needs of a growing, multi-national, project-based business operating across multiple legal entities and currencies.
- Contribute to the broader Group finance agenda by ensuring treasury priorities are aligned with business strategy, governance requirements, and operational realities.
Cash, Liquidity and Working Capital Management
- Lead the forecasting, monitoring, and optimisation of Group-wide cash positions, liquidity headroom, and funding requirements.
- Ensure adequate liquidity is maintained across the Group to meet operational, contractual, regulatory, and strategic requirements.
- Optimise cash deployment across entities and currencies, taking into account repatriation constraints, cross-border flows, and local market realities.
- Provide insight into working capital drivers and cash conversion implications in partnership with finance and business leadership.
- Strengthen cash visibility and liquidity planning across the Group through robust processes, controls, and reporting.
Funding, Facilities and Guarantee Management
- Lead the assessment, negotiation, implementation, and ongoing management of short-term and long-term funding facilities as required.
- Manage the Group’s guarantee and bond requirements, including bid bonds, performance guarantees, retention guarantees, advance payment guarantees, and other security instruments relevant to a project-based engineering consulting environment.
- Maintain oversight of facility utilisation, covenant compliance, expiry profiles, pricing, and related obligations.
- Support funding readiness for strategic initiatives, growth opportunities, legal entity requirements, and major project pursuits.
- Advise on the structure and optimisation of banking and guarantee facilities to improve flexibility, cost efficiency, and risk management.
- Contribute to debt portfolio management, refinancing planning, and funding diversification strategies in line with the Group’s growth ambitions.
Financial Risk Management
- Develop and implement treasury risk management frameworks aligned to the Group’s risk appetite and governance standards.
- Identify, assess, and manage treasury-related financial risks, including foreign exchange risk, interest rate risk, counterparty risk, liquidity risk, and selected balance sheet risks.
- Recommend and execute appropriate hedging or mitigation strategies where approved and appropriate.
- Monitor market, regulatory, interest rate, credit, and foreign exchange developments and advise the Group Chief Financial Officer on implications for funding strategy, liquidity resilience, hedging, and treasury risk positioning.
- Ensure treasury risk decisions are well governed, documented, and aligned with policy and delegated authority.
Banking and Treasury Operations
- Lead the design and oversight of efficient banking structures across the Group, including account rationalisation, signatory governance, access controls, and service optimisation.
- Manage strategic relationships with banks and other financial institutions to ensure strong support, competitive pricing, and fit-for-purpose solutions.
- Oversee treasury operations, systems, and controls to ensure accuracy, efficiency, resilience, and compliance.
- Ensure strong governance over bank account management, payment controls, mandates, and treasury-related operational processes.
- Drive the development of treasury reporting, dashboards, controls, and systems capability to support increased scale, visibility, and decision-making sophistication across the Group.
- Support the evolution of treasury technology, ERP integration, and cash visibility tools in line with the Group’s growth and complexity.
- Drive the continuous improvement of treasury processes, reporting, controls, and use of treasury related systems.
Treasury Governance, Policies and Compliance
- Develop, implement, and maintain treasury policies, frameworks, procedures, and internal controls that reflect best practice and the Group’s evolving needs.
- Ensure compliance with treasury related regulatory requirements, internal policies, delegated authorities, and banking obligations across jurisdictions.
- Support internal and external audit processes relating to treasury and ensure timely resolution of treasury control findings.
- Prepare and present treasury updates, risk exposures, facility positions, and key funding matters for executive and governance forums, including board and committee structures where required.
- Support the Group Chief Financial Officer in articulating treasury related risks, opportunities, and strategic choices at board and committee level.
- Maintain strong documentation and governance discipline across treasury decisions, facilities, instruments, and approvals.
Capital Structure and Corporate Finance Support
- Support the Group Chief Financial Officer in evaluating and optimising the Group’s capital structure, funding mix, tenor profile, and balance sheet resilience over the medium to long term.
- Support the Group Chief Financial Officer on intercompany funding arrangements, legal entity funding requirements, and balance sheet optimisation.
- Manage intercompany loans, cash movements, and related treasury arrangements across the Group in line with governance, tax, and legal requirements.
- Provide treasury input into mergers, acquisitions, restructurings, integrations, and other strategic corporate activity where relevant.
- Assess the treasury and funding implications of major strategic decisions, business expansion into new jurisdictions, and changes in the Group’s operating model.
- Contribute specialist treasury insight to long-term financial planning and strategic decision-making
Requirements:
Qualifications
Education / Certification / Memberships
- Bachelor’s degree in finance, Accounting, Economics, or a related field.
- Postgraduate qualification in Finance, Treasury, Business, or related discipline.
- Specialist treasury certification or treasury association membership.
Experience
- Minimum 10 -12 years’ progressive finance experience, including significant specialist treasury experience and leadership of a dedicated treasury function in a senior treasury role.
- Proven experience leading treasury in a complex, multi-entity, multi-jurisdictional, and multi-currency environment.
- Demonstrated experience in liquidity management, cash forecasting, banking relationships, facilities, guarantees, treasury controls, and financial risk management.
- Strong experience in foreign exchange, interest rate, and liquidity risk management.
- Proven experience negotiating and managing banking facilities, guarantee instruments, covenant obligations, and refinancing processes.
- Proven track record of designing, leading, and maturing treasury capability in complex corporate environments.
- Experience designing and implementing treasury policies, controls, governance frameworks, and treasury reporting for senior leadership and governance forums.
- Demonstrated ability to engage credibly with senior executives, boards, banks, auditors, and other key stakeholders.
- Experience in large corporate, multinational, or similarly complex organisations
Advantageous
- Experience in engineering, infrastructure, construction, professional services, or other project-based environments with significant guarantee and cross-border funding requirements.
- Exposure to capital structure planning, intercompany funding, M&A, restructuring, or post-merger integration.
- Experience with treasury systems and finance ERP integration.
- Experience operating in African and other emerging market environments
Skills
- Deep technical treasury expertise across liquidity, funding, guarantees, and financial risk management.
- Strong understanding of banking products, treasury instruments, balance sheet management, and cross-border cash management.
- Ability to assess and solve complex treasury issues in a practical and commercially sound manner.
- Strong financial modelling and cash flow forecasting capability.
- Strong governance, control, and policy development capability.
- Ability to prepare and present clear treasury insights for executive, board, and committee audiences.
- Excellent negotiation and relationship management skills.
- Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to engage effectively with senior stakeholders.
- Strong analytical capability and sound judgement.
- Advanced Excel and strong treasury systems / ERP capability.
- Leadership and team development capability.
Competencies
- Strategic Treasury Leadership
- Liquidity, Funding and Cash Management Expertise
- Financial Risk Management and Hedging Insight
- Banking, Facilities and Guarantee Management
- Treasury Governance, Controls and Compliance
- Capital Structure and Balance Sheet Insight
- Stakeholder Influence and Relationship Management
- Cross-Functional Leadership and Collaboration
- Change Leadership and Continuous Improvement
- Sound Judgement in Complex and Multi-Jurisdictional Environments