Office Manager

Run the entire back office of a premium Dubai automobile workshop. AED 7,000 per month.

Our long-serving colleague is moving on after nine years. If you can start within a couple of weeks, you will work alongside him through a full month-end cycle - the payroll run, the accountant’s pack, the renewals - before he hands over. You would not be starting from a blank page. You would inherit a role someone spent nearly a decade building, from the person who built it.

This is a wide role. The money, the staff paperwork, the government renewals, the building itself. If you like owning your own territory and being the person management turns to when something needs solving, keep reading.

One thing to know up front: this is a six-day role, Monday to Saturday, on site at our workshop.

WHAT YOU WOULD OWN

FINANCE AND PAYMENTS - 40%

You are the link to our outsourced accountants. You collect supplier invoices, expenses and transaction data and send them across each month for the P&L, tax filing and audit. You raise invoices in Zoho Books, file every receipt to Google Drive, process customer card payments, reconcile settlements against bank credits, and keep the daily sales logs accurate.

We run a workshop system built on Zoho Creator, and our service advisors enter parts and job details into it. You cross-check the parts prices they enter against the purchase orders, so nothing goes out mispriced. You flag anything that looks wrong.

HR, PAYROLL AND DOCUMENT RENEWALS - 35%

We use an outsourced PRO, so you are not standing in queues all day. You send him the documents and tell him what we need - new visas, renewals, cancellations - and you make sure nothing is left late.

You track leave, days off, absences, air tickets and attendance. Each month you prepare and verify the payroll and present it to management for approval. When someone leaves, you calculate the final settlement yourself - gratuity, accrued leave, notice, any deductions - correctly and in line with UAE Labour Law. You own the renewal calendar for visas, licenses and company documents, and you go to a government office in person when something needs a face rather than a portal.

FACILITIES AND ADMIN - 25%

You own the upkeep of the workshop - breakages, signage, painting, plumbing, electrical - and you bring in and supervise the contractors. You keep workshop equipment on its service schedule. Municipality inspections, the annual tenancy and Land Department rent, staff accommodation renewal, utilities, and every company license and document.

You also negotiate. Contractor quotes, supplier terms, the annual staff accommodation renewal, service contracts. You get three prices rather than accepting the first, you push back when a quote looks high, and you hold suppliers to what they agreed. Over a year this is real money.

WHAT WE NEED

- At least 2 to 3 years in the UAE in office administration, accounts or office management, ideally somewhere you wore several hats. We need someone who already knows how things work here - there is a short handover window.

- Solid bookkeeping basics. You do not need to be a qualified accountant, the accounting is outsourced, but you need to be accurate to the decimal.

- Experience preparing monthly payroll, and calculating end of service settlements yourself - gratuity, accrued leave and notice under UAE Labour Law. Not passing the figures to someone else to work out.

- You have worked with a PRO before and know what UAE visa and labour paperwork involves, even if someone else submitted it

- Working knowledge of Zoho. You will use Zoho Books daily and a custom workshop system built on Zoho Creator. There is no formal training here - you will pick up our specific setup as you go, so you need to arrive already comfortable with Zoho and confident finding your way around unfamiliar software.

- Excel or Google Sheets

- You are organised about deadlines. Renewal dates are the part of this job that costs money when missed.

- You negotiate well. Much of what we spend goes through contractors, suppliers and service providers, and we need someone who compares quotes, pushes back on price and holds people to their agreements - comfortably and without falling out with them.

- You use AI tools in your actual work. ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot or similar, for drafting correspondence, summarizing documents and cutting time off routine admin. We want someone who looks for the faster way.

- Valid UAE driving license

- Fluent English

- Genuinely trustworthy. This role handles payroll, customer payments and company documents.

NICE TO HAVE

- Automotive workshop or dealership experience

- A degree or diploma in commerce, accounting or business administration

- Arabic for government dealings

- Experience negotiating and managing contractors or service providers

- Experience feeding an outsourced accounting firm

- Hands-on Zoho Creator experience

WHO DOES WELL HERE

Self-directed - nobody hands you a daily task list. Organized under variety - you can go from a payroll deadline to a broken sign to a supplier query in one morning without dropping anything. Commercially minded - you notice when a price has crept up and you do something about it. Calm with staff, contractors, officials and customers alike, including when you are the one saying no. And someone who documents things, so the next person can pick them up.

WHAT YOU GET

- AED 7,000 per month

- Employment visa, medical insurance, annual leave and air ticket per UAE Labour Law

- Several weeks working alongside the colleague who has run this for nine years, plus his written procedures and renewal calendar to keep

- Real autonomy and direct access to senior management

- Room to take on more as you establish yourself

- A stable workshop with a long-standing team

- Working week is Monday to Saturday, on site

We want to fill this quickly, so the handover happens properly. Tell us in your application how soon you could start - the sooner you join, the more time you get with him.

Please answer every screening question. Incomplete applications will not be reviewed.