About the Role: Responsibilities, Skills, and Requirements
Ever thought about what it takes to keep the numbers behind a major construction firm running like clockwork? United Engineering Construction (UNEC) is looking for a Senior Accountant in Dubai who can do exactly that — someone who speaks the language of ledgers, ERP systems, and project costs as fluently as the site teams speak concrete and steel. This isn't a back-office role where you'll disappear into spreadsheets; it's a chance to be the financial backbone of a company that builds things you can actually drive past and point to. If you're already in the UAE and ready to start soon, keep reading.
About the Company
UNEC has built its reputation the old-fashioned way — one solid project at a time. The culture here is grounded, practical, and refreshingly free of corporate theatre. People roll up their sleeves, get into the details, and take genuine pride in the work. Finance isn't treated as a nuisance to be managed; it's respected as the function that keeps everything honest and on track.
Expect a team that values accuracy over noise, and colleagues who'd rather solve a problem together than pass it along. Growth here tends to come to those who earn it through consistency and care — which, if you're the type who reconciles because it's satisfying, should suit you just fine.
What You'll Be Doing
- Own the day-to-day accounting operations — from journal entries and general ledger maintenance to the month-end close that everyone else depends on
- Prepare and review financial statements, ensuring they're accurate, timely, and actually useful to the people making decisions
- Manage reconciliations across bank accounts, suppliers, and project-related accounts — and chase down discrepancies before they become problems
- Work within Epromis ERP to keep records clean, reports flowing, and data trustworthy
- Support VAT filings, audits, and compliance requirements in line with UAE regulations
- Partner with project and operations teams to track costs and flag variances early, not after the fact
- Mentor junior accounting staff and help raise the overall standard of the finance function
What You'll Bring
Must-Haves:
- A Bachelor's degree in Accounting, Finance, or a related field
- 8–12 years of accounting experience, with a solid chunk of it in the UAE
- Hands-on proficiency with Epromis ERP — you should know your way around it, not just have heard of it
- Prior experience in a construction company — you understand retention, progress billing, and why project accounting is its own beast
- Currently based in the UAE and available to join immediately
Nice-to-Haves:
- CPA or CMA certification (highly preferred, and we mean it)
- Arabic language skills — a real advantage in this market
- The temperament to stay calm when deadlines stack up
Not sure you tick every box? We'd still love to hear from you — sometimes the right person looks a little different on paper than in practice.
Why You'll Love Working Here
- Immediate start — no drawn-out onboarding limbo if you're ready to go
- Competitive salary package aligned with your experience
- A finance function that's genuinely valued, not sidelined
- Real exposure to large-scale construction projects — the kind that build a career, not just a CV
- A grounded, no-drama team culture where good work gets noticed
- Based in Dubai, one of the most dynamic construction markets in the world
Look, the perks are solid, but the real draw is simpler than that: a stable company, a serious role, and colleagues who respect what you bring to the table. If that sounds like the kind of place you'd want to spend your working hours, this one's worth a proper look.
Common Interview Questions and Tips
To help you prepare and feel confident, here are some questions you might encounter during the interview process for this role.
- Walk me through how you'd handle the month-end close in a construction company — what's different from a standard close, and where do the bottlenecks usually show up?
- Tell me about your hands-on experience with Epromis ERP. Which modules did you use day to day, and what's one thing you'd change about how it handles financial reporting?
- How do you approach progress billing and revenue recognition on a long-term project? Walk me through a time you had to reconcile billed amounts against actual costs.
- Retention and advance payments can sit on the books for a long while. How do you track and reconcile them so nothing slips through the cracks?
- Describe a reconciliation you handled where the discrepancy wasn't obvious — a supplier statement, a bank account, a project ledger. How did you find the root cause?
- What's your working knowledge of UAE VAT rules as they apply to construction — say, on retention releases or variations? How have you handled a VAT filing that didn't look right on the first pass?
- Tell me about a time you caught a cost variance on a project before it became a real problem. What did you do with that information, and who did you tell?
- Have you ever had to push back on a project manager or site team about costs they didn't want to hear? How did that conversation go?
- Describe your experience mentoring junior accountants. What did you actually change about how they worked?
- You're juggling an audit request, a VAT deadline, and a month-end close in the same week. How do you decide what gets done first?
- This role works closely with site and operations teams who aren't finance people. How do you explain a financial issue to someone who just wants to get the project built?
- What drew you to construction accounting specifically — and what keeps you in it?
- The team here values accuracy over noise and solving problems together rather than passing them along. Can you give me an example of how you've worked