Strategic Finance Intern

ABOUT THE JOB Lean is hiring a Strategic Finance Intern to join the FP&A team as we scale across multiple markets and product lines. You'll work on the same forecasting, budgeting, and analysis that leadership uses to make decisions. Not a sandbox version of it. You'll own defined pieces of that work end to end, with a senior member of the team reviewing your output. This role suits someone early in their finance career who already builds models without being asked, wants to know why a number moved before anyone else notices, and wants to understand how a multi-product fintech actually makes money. ABOUT LEAN Lean is the leading financial infrastructure provider in the Middle East. We power some of the region’s largest companies with APIs that enable payments, account verification, financial data access, and other critical financial infrastructure. What started as the region’s pioneering Open Banking platform and quickly became the de facto leader in account aggregation and payment initiation in the region is now becoming something bigger: a multi-product infrastructure company powering payments, data, and lending across MENA. We’ve processed billions of dollars in transactions. We’re trusted by 350+ clients - from Tabby and Tas’heel to Hungerstation - and backed by General Catalyst, Sequoia, and Shorooq. Our $67.5M Series B was just the beginning. We’re expanding into new markets, opening offices, acquiring businesses, and building capabilities that didn’t exist here before. RESPONSIBILITIES - Revenue Forecasting - Maintain the inputs to the monthly rolling forecast: pull actuals, check them against assumptions, and flag where they diverge - Build one scenario analysis from first principles (for example, a new market launch or product line) and present it to the team - Turn forecast outputs into a one-page summary a non-finance leader can act on - Budgeting - Collect and consolidate budget inputs from business units during the annual cycle, and follow up until the data is complete - Prepare the monthly variance analysis vs. budget, with a written explanation of the top three drivers - Take one cost category, map what drives it, and come back with at least one quantified saving - Test AI-enabled tools that could automate part of the FP&A workflow, and document what works and what doesn't - Financial Analysis & Management Reporting - Own the commercial deals tracker: keep it accurate, reconcile it with Sales, and flag deals that put the forecast at risk - Prepare assigned sections of the monthly management report - Run a unit economics or profitability analysis on one product or client segment - Research a market Lean is evaluating (pricing, competitors, regulation) and present a recommendation - Build inputs and test scenarios for pricing models WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR - Final-year student or graduate within the last 12 months, in Finance, Accounting, Economics, Engineering, Mathematics, or another quantitative field - Strong Excel or Google Sheets. You can build a driver-based model from a blank sheet - Evidence you've built something analytical on your own initiative: a model, an investment pitch, a case competition, a research project. Show us the work - Clear writing. You can explain what a number means and why it moved, in plain language - You close the loop without being chased - Genuine curiosity about payments, open banking, or fintech - Advantageous: a prior internship in FP&A, corporate finance, banking, consulting, or a startup; SQL or Python; progress toward CFA or ACCA NB. While we think the above experience could be important, we’re keen to hear from people that believe they have valuable experience to bring to the role. If you identify with the team and mission, but not all of our requirements, then please still apply!! WHY JOIN US? We’re building the financial infrastructure for MENA. Not as a slogan, as a fact. Since 2019, we’ve become the first regulated Open Banking and Open Finance company operating across the UAE and Saudi Arabia. We’ve processed billions of dollars. We connect millions of accounts. We enable companies like Binance, Careem, and Etisalat to build products that were previously impossible in this region. Our recent $67.5M Series B from General Catalyst and Sequoia isn’t just validation: it’s fuel. We’re expanding into new markets, launching new products, and setting the pace for what financial innovation looks like in MENA. We solve hard problems. We move fast. We hold ourselves to a high standard. And we’re looking for people who’ve done this before to help us do it right. If you’re motivated by building something that lasts, not just something that scales, Lean is where you need to be. Not only do we offer competitive salaries, private healthcare, and flexible office hours, but we also insist that every member of the team hold a meaningful equity stake in the business to ensure long-term alignment. We'd love you to join us for this journey! Lean is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace and is an affirmative action employer. We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender identity or Veteran status. When applying for a job at Lean Technologies, we will need to collect, use and share Personal Data about you with different members of our team during the application process. This may mean transferring your data to members of the team in one of our office locations worldwide outside of the country you are in. Please refer to our Privacy Notice on our website for more information about how we may use and store your Personal Data