FinOps Associate in London

Valarian Technologies is a dual-use technology company building critical tools to safeguard the future in an era of evolving global security challenges. We're rethinking security beyond traditional military domains, addressing asymmetric threats that impact our technological advantage, economic strength, and democratic institutions.

At our core, we're driven by a shared mission and a belief in making a tangible impact on our world. Whether you join our London HQ or the wider global organisation, you’ll be a part of collaborative, high-performing teams, creating cutting-edge software, platforms, and infrastructure.

The Role

We are looking for a hands-on Assistant Accountant to join our growing finance team as our second finance hire. This is a broad, high-ownership role in an early-stage business where the finance function is still being built. You will support the day-to-day running of finance while helping introduce better controls, clearer processes, stronger accountability, and more reliable reporting. This role is ideal for someone who enjoys operating in a fast-moving environment, is comfortable with ambiguity, and wants to help build the finance foundations of a scaling company. This is not a narrow transactional finance role. You will be expected to roll up your sleeves, keep the basics running, spot issues, improve processes, and help create discipline across the business.

What you’ll do

• Finance operations
• Own day-to-day accounts payable, including supplier onboarding, invoice processing, coding, approval tracking, payment runs, and supplier queries.
• Support accounts receivable, including customer invoicing, payment tracking, reconciliations, and debt follow-up where needed.
• Manage employee expenses and company card processes, ensuring spend is correctly coded, approved, and supported by receipts.
• Maintain accurate finance records in the accounting system and ensure transactions are posted on a timely basis.
• Perform regular bank reconciliations and investigate unreconciled or unusual items.
• Help maintain clean supplier, customer, and general ledger data.
• Month-end and reporting
• Support the month-end close process, including journals, accruals, prepayments, fixed assets, deferred revenue, and balance sheet reconciliations.
• Help prepare monthly finance packs, management reports, and variance analysis.
• Track spend by department, vendor, and budget owner, highlighting unusual movements or missing approvals.
• Support cash flow tracking, burn analysis, and runway reporting.
• Help improve the accuracy, consistency, and timeliness of financial reporting.
• Controls, processes, and accountability
• Help design and embed basic finance controls across purchasing, approvals, payments, expenses, billing, and reconciliations.
• Create and maintain simple, practical finance processes, checklists, and documentation.
• Follow up with budget owners and employees to ensure finance deadlines, approvals, and policies are met.
• Identify process gaps, control weaknesses, duplicated work, and recurring errors, then help fix them.
• Support the implementation or improvement of finance tools, workflows, and reporting processes.
• Help establish a culture where financial ownership, documentation, and accountability are taken seriously.
• Compliance and admin
• Support VAT, tax, payroll, audit, and statutory reporting processes as required.
• Assist with preparation for investor reporting, board packs, R&D claims, or other external reporting where relevant.
• Maintain organised finance records and supporting documentation.
• Work with external accountants, auditors, payroll providers, and tax advisers as needed.

What you’ll bring

• 2–4 years of experience in finance, accounting, bookkeeping, or finance operations.
• Experience in a startup, scale-up, or fast-moving environment is highly desirable.
• A good understanding of accounting principles and a willingness to develop knowledge across areas such as accounts payable, accounts receivable, reconciliations, month-end, and financial reporting.
• Part-qualified ACCA, CIMA, ACA, or equivalent experience preferred.
• Comfortable working in an environment where processes are not yet perfect and where you will need to help build them.
• Strong attention to detail and a high level of personal accountability.
• Confident following up with people across the business to get approvals, receipts, explanations, and actions completed.
• Able to prioritise competing tasks and keep finance operations moving without constant supervision.
• Good Excel / Google Sheets skills.
• Experience with accounting systems such as Xero or similar.
• Experience with tools such as Pleo, Spendesk, Dext, HubSpot, or similar is a plus.

The kind of person who will succeed here

You are organised, reliable, and proactive. You do not wait for perfect instructions before getting started. You are comfortable asking questions, chasing people, and bringing order to messy situations. You care about accuracy, but you are also pragmatic and understand that growing businesses require pace, judgement, and continuous improvement. You will enjoy this role if you like fixing broken processes, making finance run more smoothly, and seeing the direct impact of your work on how the company operates.

What success looks like in the first 6 months

• Supplier invoices, expenses, payments, and reconciliations are processed accurately and on time.
• Month-end close is more structured, better documented, and completed faster.
• Core balance sheet reconciliations are reliable and regularly reviewed.
• Spend approvals, expense policies, and payment controls are clearer and better followed.
• Finance data is cleaner, easier to trust, and easier to report from.
• Budget owners understand what finance needs from them and are held accountable to deadlines.
• Recurring manual work, control gaps, and process failures have been identified and improved.
• The operational finance engine is running more reliably, allowing for strategic finance, reporting, planning, and supporting the wider business.

Why join us

This is an opportunity to join an ambitious, growing business and play a key role in building the finance function. You will get broad exposure, real responsibility, ongoing development, and the chance to grow your career while helping shape how finance supports the wider business.

Benefits

Our benefits are designed to ensure our employees feel taken care of and are proud to be a part of the Valarian team. We are committed to consistently enhancing our benefit package, taking into account the overall well-being and needs of our teammates. Here are the key benefits accessible to all employees at Valarian Technologies:

• Equity – because you have the right to own what you’re building
• A competitive salary – because we value your unique skills
• Employer pension contributions – because you deserve a secure future
• Hybrid work setup – because everyone has different needs
• Rewarding company retreats and meetups that respect your work/life balance – because we love getting to know each other!

Life at Valarian

Our culture is built on inclusivity, compassion and flexibility – we want everyone to be empowered to achieve their goals at Valarian. The world is changing, and so is our way of working. If you want to join us in the London office – it’s quite nice! – you’re welcome to; and if you’d prefer to work remotely, that’s fine too. And as we build elegant solutions to simplify the complexities of business collaboration, we also simplify work life: contribute wherever and whenever allows you to be your best self. We trust each other to consistently raise the bar, and we challenge each other to continually reach new heights.

Valarian Technologies Limited is an equal opportunity employer and welcomes applications from individuals regardless of race, colour, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender, identity or expression, national origin, age, disability, genetic information, marital status, veteran, amnesty, or any other legally protected characteristic. We are committed to ensuring a fair and inclusive recruitment process and providing employment opportunities to all applicants. Decision recruitment, hiring, and employment are based solely on qualifications, skills, and experience relevant to the job requirements.