Financial Control Lead

We’re on a mission to make real estate transactions smarter, faster, and friction-free. Real estate is the world’s largest asset class, yet the legal processes and tools behind it remain slow, manual, and underinvested. Lawyers must review dense documents line by line and piece together information across silos, all while clients demand faster, more transparent due diligence. That’s where we come in. Orbital Copilot is the AI assistant built exclusively for commercial real estate law. Developed with former practicing real estate lawyers, it accelerates complex due diligence by up to 70% while delivering legal-grade precision. We’ve just raised a $60m Series B to accelerate our UK/US expansion. We’re trusted by leading firms like Goodwin and BCLP to remove the busywork so legal teams can focus on what they do best: applying sharp legal judgment, delivering standout client service, and getting deals over the line faster.

Working at Orbital means joining a team that’s reimagining how real estate transactions get done – moving fast, working collaboratively, and giving people the ownership to make a real impact from day one.

THE ROLE

This is a hands‑on, build‑first role to establish robust financial controls and scalable processes as we scale across the UK and US following our $60m Series B. Operating within a cross‑border, high‑growth SaaS business, your primary mandate centres on group reporting, compliance, and audit cycles with focus on building scalable infrastructure rather than maintaining existing processes. You’ll achieve this by working hand in hand with the Finance Director to design and embed rigorous accounting policies, internal controls, and optimised end‑to‑end workflows. This is a London‑based, hybrid role. You’ll work closely with the core finance team and report into the Finance Director.

WHAT YOU’LL OWN

• FINANCIAL CONTROL & TECHNICAL ACCOUNTING
  • Define, document, and implement accounting policies under UK GAAP (FRS 102), including revenue and cost recognition for our SaaS contracts, across our software products and services (with secondary alignment to US GAAP for our US entity where required).
  • Design and embed a rigorous internal control environment, including cost‑accounting procedures and reconciliation workflows fit for higher transaction volumes.
  • Map, optimise, and enforce an airtight, end‑to‑end B2B order‑to‑cash and billing process, from quote through to cash collection and reconciliation.
• SYSTEMS, PROCESS & AUTOMATION
  • Work in partnership with the rest of the finance team for the configuration and enhancement of the full quote‑to‑cash lifecycle (CRM, billing, revenue recognition, collections, and reporting across HubSpot, and Rillet) to support higher‑volume data processing as we scale.
  • Play a central role in our finance system migration from Xero to Rillet (an AI‑native ERP), helping configure, embed, and get the most out of the new general ledger.
  • Deploy and manage automated, multi‑state US sales tax compliance tools (e.g. Avalara), ensuring seamless integration with core billing engines.
  • Review existing workflows to identify operational bottlenecks, designing automated solutions to eliminate manual interventions across billing and reconciliation cycles.
• GROUP REPORTING, COMPLIANCE & COMMERCIAL SUPPORT
  • Help strengthen and accelerate the month‑end close, including monthly group consolidations and variance analysis.
  • Assist with cross‑border statutory compliance, including US multi‑state sales tax, the UK R&D tax credit application process, and US corporate tax requirements.
  • Support year‑end group and regional external audit processes.
  • Partner with the People and RevOps teams to ensure the headcount, payroll, and billing data feeding finance is accurate and consistent.

WHAT YOU’LL BRING

• Qualifications: Qualified or newly qualified accountant (ACA, ACCA, or CIMA), ideally with 1 to 3 years of post‑qualification experience.
• Technical accounting expertise: Solid working knowledge of UK GAAP (FRS 102), particularly revenue and cost recognition for a SaaS based business.
• Cross‑border exposure: Familiarity with US state‑level compliance and operating across UK/US entities is a plus.
• Process improvement mindset: Some exposure to improving accounting processes, internal controls, or order‑to‑cash and month‑end workflows, with a genuine appetite to build in a scaling environment.
• Systems experience: Comfortable working with cloud finance systems (experience with Xero, Rillet, NetSuite, or similar is a plus), with an appetite for process automation.
• Industry background: An interest in (or exposure to) a high‑growth technology environment, ideally cross‑border (UK/US) SaaS.

WHY THIS MIGHT NOT BE FOR YOU

• You prefer maintaining steady‑state processes. This is a build mandate: the role is about creating infrastructure, not running BAU.
• You need detailed briefs to get started. We need someone who takes the initiative to understand priorities and act on them.
• Large, established companies are more your speed. We’re a Series B scaleup, so things change, processes are still being built, and comfort with ambiguity is essential.

WHY JOIN ORBITAL

• Real ownership from day one: this is a builder role, not a maintenance one.
• Operate at the intersection of law, AI, and high‑growth SaaS.
• Build on a modern, AI‑native finance stack (Rillet & Ramp) rather than legacy tooling.
• Genuine momentum: $60m Series B, doubling headcount, expanding across two continents.
• Build the finance infrastructure that scales the company, so your work compounds for years.
• Join a smart, collaborative, and ambitious team that values impact over hierarchy.

Security is everyone’s responsibility at Orbital. We ask all team members to follow our security policies, complete regular awareness training, and handle sensitive data with care in line with ISO 27001 standards. Spot something unusual? Reporting risks or incidents quickly helps us maintain the strong culture of security and compliance we all depend on. At Orbital, we’re committed to building a diverse and inclusive team. We especially welcome applications from people who are traditionally underrepresented in tech. Even if you don’t meet every single requirement, or if the right role isn’t listed yet, we’d still love to hear from you.