Financial Controller / Head of Finance (Hands On, Long Term)

We are hiring an experienced, highly hands on Financial Controller / Head of Finance to take ownership of our company wide financial operations, reporting, expense management, and profitability analysis. We are a fast moving company that has scaled rapidly. Our financial reporting, expense controls, and internal systems have not developed at the same pace as the business. The right person must be comfortable entering an environment with some existing chaos, quickly understanding how money moves throughout the company, and building the systems, controls, and reporting needed to create order. This is not a role for someone who only wants to review reports prepared by others. You must be willing to work directly inside the numbers, organize the underlying systems, identify financial leakage, and help management make better financial decisions. You will work directly with the CEO and upper management. The Role You will become the primary financial operator within the company, the person leadership relies on to understand where money is being spent, where money is being lost, which areas are profitable, which expenses are producing a return, where margins can be improved, whether payroll and commissions are accurate, whether financial reporting is complete and reliable, and what changes management should make to improve profitability. Your responsibility will extend beyond bookkeeping and accounting. You will actively analyze the business, identify problems, recommend solutions, and work with leadership to implement financial improvements. Primary Responsibilities Weekly payroll and compensation management. Own and oversee the weekly payroll process, including employee and contractor payments, sales commissions, bonuses and performance incentives, payroll adjustments, payment approvals, payroll reconciliation, exception identification, and documentation and reporting. You will ensure compensation is calculated accurately, paid on time, properly documented, and aligned with company policies, and you should be able to identify weaknesses or unnecessary complexity in existing compensation and commission systems. Weekly financial reporting. Create and maintain clear weekly financial reports for the CEO and upper management covering revenue collected, revenue recognized, cash received, payroll, contractor expenses, marketing spend, department expenses, refunds and disputes, financing and processing costs, accounts payable, outstanding liabilities, gross profit, operating profit, cash flow, profit margins, budget versus actual performance, and major financial changes from the previous week. We do not need reports that merely summarize what happened. We need reporting that explains what changed, why it changed, what requires attention, and what management should do next. Company wide financial monitoring. Maintain ongoing visibility into financial activity across all departments and entities, including reviewing bank and payment platform activity, monitoring cash balances, tracking incoming and outgoing payments, reviewing recurring expenses, monitoring processor fees, reviewing refunds, chargebacks, and disputes, tracking vendor and contractor costs, identifying unusual or unauthorized spending, monitoring department budgets, reconciling financial systems, and ensuring expenses are correctly categorized. You will catch financial issues early rather than discovering them weeks or months later. Expense management and financial systems. Create organized, scalable systems for company wide expense management, including expense submission and approval processes, receipt and invoice collection, vendor management, recurring subscription tracking, contractor payment documentation, department spending controls, expense categorization, reimbursement policies, payment authorization, financial record organization, budget ownership and accountability, and month end and week end close procedures. You must be capable of evaluating what exists, determining what should be retained or replaced, and implementing a more reliable structure. Profitability and margin analysis. Continuously analyze company profitability rather than waiting for monthly or quarterly reviews. You will evaluate revenue by product, channel, department, and team, gross and net margins, customer acquisition costs, sales commissions, marketing efficiency, payment processing costs, financing costs, refund and dispute exposure, labor and contractor costs, software and vendor expenses, operational overhead, revenue leakage, and underperforming expenditures. This role requires commercial judgment. It is not enough to report that an expense increased. You must investigate why it increased, whether it is justified, and how it can be improved. Financial leakage identification. A major responsibility will be identifying where money is unnecessarily leaving the company, including incorrect payroll or commissions, duplicate or unnecessary software, poor vendor agreements, uncontrolled contractor spending, payment processing costs, refunds and disputes, missed collections, unreconciled transactions, weak approval controls, underperforming marketing spend, operational inefficiencies, errors in pricing or compensation, untracked liabilities, and department overspending. You will work directly with the CEO and department leaders to quantify this leakage, prioritize the largest issues, and implement corrective measures. Financial controls and process improvement. Develop practical financial controls that reduce errors, improve accountability, and protect company funds without unnecessarily slowing down the business, including spending approval thresholds, payment authorization procedures, payroll review processes, vendor onboarding controls, bank reconciliation procedures, expense policies, department budgets, cash flow forecasting, financial dashboards, reporting calendars, audit trails, month end close processes, and documentation standards. Leadership and management support. Work directly with the CEO and upper management to support decisions involving hiring, compensation, department budgets, marketing allocation, vendor negotiations, pricing, cost reduction, cash management, profit targets, expansion, operational investments, and financial risk. You must be comfortable presenting financial findings clearly, challenging assumptions when necessary, and providing direct recommendations. Minimum Experience Requirements You have held meaningful financial responsibility within a company generating at least 20 million dollars in annual revenue. You have experience overseeing financial operations, not only bookkeeping. You have directly managed or supervised payroll. You have created recurring management reports. You have experience analyzing profitability, margins, and expenses. You have implemented or improved expense management systems. You have identified and corrected meaningful financial leakage. You have worked directly with founders, CEOs, or senior executives. You are comfortable operating without perfectly established systems. You are willing to personally perform hands on financial work. You can create structure without requiring a large finance department beneath you. Experience in a rapidly growing company, founder led business, high volume sales organization, or operationally complex startup is strongly preferred. CPA, CA, ACCA, CMA, or equivalent credentials are valuable but not required if you have strong, directly relevant operating experience. What This Role Is Not This is not a basic bookkeeping role, a narrowly defined payroll position, a passive reporting position, a traditional corporate finance role with extensive support staff, a role where you wait for clean information to be delivered to you, a role focused only on tax filings or annual financial statements, or a CFO position focused primarily on fundraising and investor relations. We need someone who will take ownership of the day to day financial reality of the company. What Success Looks Like During the initial phase of the role, the successful candidate will gain a complete understanding of how money flows through the company, establish reliable weekly financial reporting, take control of weekly payroll and compensation reconciliation, organize expenses, vendors, subscriptions, and payment approvals, identify the company's largest sources of financial leakage, create greater visibility into profitability and margins, implement practical financial controls, improve cash flow forecasting, reduce unnecessary or underperforming expenses, and give the CEO accurate, timely information for financial decision making. The ultimate objective is to create financial clarity, accountability, and improved profitability throughout the company. Working Environment We are a fast moving startup that has scaled rapidly. Some processes are still being built, historical information may not be perfectly organized, systems may require cleanup or replacement, priorities can move quickly, and you may need to investigate issues without complete documentation. You will be expected to take initiative rather than wait for detailed instructions. Candidates who require a mature corporate finance department, perfectly documented procedures, or narrowly defined responsibilities are unlikely to be a fit. Candidates who enjoy entering a growing organization, creating order, and having a direct impact on profitability are strongly encouraged to apply. How to Apply Please include the largest company for which you held direct financial responsibility, the company's approximate annual revenue, your exact role and responsibilities, the size and structure of the finance team, your experience managing payroll and commissions, examples of weekly or monthly management reporting you created, one example of significant financial leakage you identified, the financial impact of correcting that issue, an example of an expense management or financial control system you implemented, the accounting, payroll, reporting, and financial platforms you have used, your experience working directly with a CEO or founder, and your availability and compensation expectations. Applications containing only general accounting experience without specific examples of operational ownership, financial analysis, and measurable results will not be considered.