Strategic Finance Intern

Role Overview

Strategic Finance Intern at Lean Technologies. This is an internship role within the Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A) team, based at Lean Technologies' office locations.

Company Overview

Lean is the leading financial infrastructure provider in the Middle East, powering some of the region's largest companies with APIs that enable payments, account verification, financial data access, and other critical financial infrastructure. The company pioneered the region's Open Banking platform and is now a multi-product infrastructure company operating across MENA. Lean has processed billions of dollars in transactions, is trusted by 350+ clients including Tabby, Tas'heel, and Hungerstation, and is backed by General Catalyst, Sequoia, and Shorooq. The company raised $67.5M in Series B funding and is expanding into new markets, opening offices, acquiring businesses, and building capabilities.

Role Purpose

You will work on the same forecasting, budgeting, and financial analysis that leadership uses to make decisions. You will own defined pieces of that work end to end, with a senior member of the team reviewing your output. This role is designed for someone early in their finance career who wants to understand how a multi-product fintech actually makes money and who builds analytical work on their own initiative.

Key Responsibilities

Revenue Forecasting

• Maintain the inputs to the monthly rolling forecast by pulling actuals, checking them against assumptions, and flagging 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 versus 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 does not

Financial Analysis & Management Reporting

• Own the commercial deals tracker by keeping it accurate, reconciling it with Sales, and flagging 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

Qualifications & Experience

• Final-year student or graduate within the last 12 months in Finance, Accounting, Economics, Engineering, Mathematics, or another quantitative field
• Prior internship in FP&A, corporate finance, banking, consulting, or a startup (advantageous)
• Progress toward CFA or ACCA (advantageous)

Skills & Competencies

• Strong Excel or Google Sheets with ability to build a driver-based model from a blank sheet
• Evidence of having built something analytical on your own initiative: a model, an investment pitch, a case competition, or a research project
• Clear writing with ability to explain what a number means and why it moved in plain language
• Ability to close the loop without being chased
• Genuine curiosity about payments, open banking, or fintech
• SQL or Python (advantageous)

Additional Information

• Competitive salary
• Private healthcare
• Flexible office hours
• Meaningful equity stake in the business to ensure long-term alignment
• Lean is an equal opportunity workplace and affirmative action employer 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
• Personal data collected during the application process may be transferred to team members in office locations worldwide outside of your country; refer to Lean's Privacy Notice for more information