Principal Finance Business Partner - Networks

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.