Principal Finance Business Partner - Networks

Help Us Build The Future of Travel At Airalo, we're making it easier for people to stay connected wherever they travel. As the world's first eSIM store, we help millions of travelers access affordable mobile data in 200+ countries and regions around the world. Today, we're a team of 400+ people across 60+ countries, building a product used by travelers every day. We've grown quickly, but we've worked hard to keep what matters: trust, ownership, and the freedom for people to do great work without unnecessary layers or bureaucracy. We're fully remote by design, genuinely global, and united by a shared mission to make travel simpler for everyone. Your Next Destination Location: Remote, anywhere in Spain, the UK, or the UAE. Contract: Spain: Full-time, permanent contrato indefinido via Deel (our employer of record in Spain) UK: Full-time, permanent (local contract) UAE: Full-time, permanent via Deel (our employer of record in the UAE) Benefits: Learn more about our benefits here in this link - https://airalo-public.notion.site/Benefits-25396a97ffca81fb9bc1f0be479f1be3?pvs=74  Languages: English is our main working language day to day, so you'll need to be comfortable communicating in it both in meetings and async. Curious what it's actually like to work at Airalo? We've put together a guide for each of the hubs we hire from most, covering our benefits, remote culture, employment setup, and what our team values most: Life at Airalo · España: https://airalo-public.notion.site/life-at-airalo-espana Life at Airalo · United Kingdom: https://airalo-public.notion.site/life-at-airalo-united-kingdom Life at Airalo · United Arab Emirates: https://airalo-public.notion.site/life-at-airalo-united-arab-emirates   This is a senior, high-impact Finance Business Partner role Business Partnering with Airalo's Networks Team. You will own the financial performance of our global network supply. From gross margin and pricing economics to infrastructure investment and vendor commercials. This role reports to the Director, Strategic Finance and will work closely with the VP of Networks and the extended Networks Team. You will be the primary financial authority on all things supply-side: ensuring every network dollar is optimised, every commitment is well-governed, and every strategic decision is underpinned by rigorous financial analysis. This role suits a commercially driven finance professional who is equally comfortable in a negotiation room, a data tool, and a Board presentation. What you'll do: 1. Gross Margin & Network Economics • Own the gross margin line for all network supply. Build and maintain executive-ready profitability reporting by country, region, provider, and travel corridor, including top-destination performance and financial impact of new plan types. • Identify and close margin leakage across the supply chain. Lead destination-based pricing frameworks, modelling COGS inputs and demand elasticity to set pricing that meets margin targets. • Establish and track critical unit economics, Cost Per GB, Cost Per Activation, breakage rate, and contribution margin, providing financial sign-off on all new product launches and commercial expansions. 2. Inventory & Capacity Planning • Lead financial oversight of eSIM inventory procurement. Evaluate volume commitments, utilisation rates, and demand-supply alignment across all network providers through robust demand forecasting models. • Optimise inventory holding levels and procurement horizons to minimise working capital exposure and reduce write-off risk from excess or expiring stock. • Develop and maintain the financial framework for IMSI lifecycle management ensuring costs are appropriately governed, tracked, and reported. 3. Cost Optimisation & Vendor Negotiation • Serve as the Finance lead in MNO and supplier contract negotiations. Quantify the financial value of all commercial terms — pricing tiers, volume thresholds, payment schedules, and SLAs and drive ongoing rate benchmarking across the provider portfolio. • Own invoice validation and reconciliation for major providers, ensuring billed amounts reconcile to actual usage. Build and maintain vendor financial scorecards tracking cost performance and billing accuracy. • Establish and enforce internal controls over vendor payments, contract adherence, and cost accruals, including four-eye verification for high-value commercial decisions. 4. CapEx & Core Network Investment • Own financial planning and tracking for the Core Network programme — infrastructure CapEx, managed services OpEx, and connectivity costs. Evaluate build vs buy decisions and multi-year investment scenarios. • Partner with the Networks team on the long-term infrastructure roadmap, providing financial assessment and investment analysis to support key strategic milestones. • Track actual spend vs budget monthly, provide variance analysis, and maintain a rolling view of committed spend and forecast-to-complete. 5. Planning, Reporting & Decision Support • Own annual budgeting and rolling forecasts for all Networks-related COGS, infrastructure spend, and operating costs. Produce the relevant Scorecards and other Leadership-facing reports that translate complex supply and margin data into clear narratives to enable robust decision making. • Lead ad hoc commercial and strategic analysis, corridor-level profitability, breakage impact and new market entry economics. • Partner with Data and Engineering to ensure financial data pipelines are reliable and governed, while driving a culture of financial rigour across the Networks team. What you'll bring: • 7+ years of experience in Strategic/Commercial Finance, FP&A, or Management Consulting, with direct ownership of a COGS line, supply-side P&L, or major cost function. • Strong industry knowledge in Telecommunications (eSIM, MNO, wholesale data) or supply-intensive, data-heavy sectors, including familiarity with network cost concepts (e.g., Cost Per GB, roaming economics). • Proven commercial acumen with a track record of leading vendor negotiations, structuring high-value deals, and managing multi-supplier performance frameworks. • Advanced analytical skills, including expert-level financial modeling and active SQL proficiency for cost analysis and data reconciliation. • Data visualization expertise with experience building executive-facing dashboards in Looker, Tableau, or equivalent BI tools. • Exceptional leadership and communication skills, with a demonstrated ability to independently navigate ambiguity, manage competing priorities, and influence senior operational leaders. • Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Economics, Engineering, or a quantitative field; an MBA or CFA designation is highly desirable. Why People Join Us 🇪🇸 Why people join us in Spain We started Airalo to make staying connected effortless, wherever you are in the world. Today, millions of travelers rely on our eSIMs, and many of the people building the product were customers first. Our team is united by a shared belief that great work happens when people are trusted to own what they do. As Airalo continues to grow, so do the opportunities to learn, take on new challenges, and make a real impact. For many of our teammates in Spain, it's the combination of stability, flexibility, and genuine work-life balance that makes Airalo feel like home. 🇬🇧 Why people join us in the UK We started Airalo to make staying connected effortless, wherever you are in the world. Today, millions of travelers rely on our eSIMs, and many of the people building the product first discovered us as customers. Our team spans 60+ countries, but what people often notice quickly is how work actually feels here. There's trust to own what you do, space to focus without constant layers of process, and a clear sense of what you're responsible for from day one. As Airalo continues to grow, people tend to stay for a mix of things: the chance to work on a product used globally, the autonomy to shape how they work, and the opportunity to keep taking on new challenges without getting stuck in one lane. 🇦🇪 Why people join us in the UAE We're a fully remote team across 60+ countries, built on a simple idea: trust people to own their work and deliver without unnecessary layers or heavy process getting in the way. Many people joining us from the UAE are looking for clarity in scope and real ownership in their role. They want to know what they're responsible for, how success is measured, and have direct access to the people making decisions. What often stands out is the combination of a global, product-led company with a flexible remote setup. For many, it's the opportunity to work on a product used by millions of travelers worldwide, alongside a team that moves quickly and values clear ownership and accountability. Before You Hit Apply By applying, you acknowledge and agree that, in case of successful application, Airalo may request to run background checks as a condition for entering into an agreement with you. Rest assured that these checks will only occur upon your prior consent and at the end of the selection process, and will be strictly limited to what is allowed under the laws that are applicable to you. All data that you share or that we collect in connection with such checks will be processed in accordance with our Privacy Policy, available here: www.airalo.com/more-info/privacy-policy?srsltid=AfmBOooBT0rXAj1FaNelZ3VfN0wvhwzvAoxdtHnOKSVETpiSjiXVuycy    We sincerely thank all applicants in advance for submitting their interest in this opportunity. Airalo is an equal-opportunity employer and values diversity, equity & inclusion. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations upon request for individuals with disabilities throughout our job interview process.