READING - 3 DAYS OFFICE / 2 DAYS FROM HOME - PERMANENT - THE FIRST DEDICATED FINANCE HIRE, REPORTING TO THE OWNER
Are you a qualified accountant who has run a finance function hands-on and wants to own the operations side too? Do you thrive in an open, low-ego business where your first instinct with any repetitive task is to see whether AI can do it?
We Do Group are hiring a Head of Finance & Operations for an established, founder-owned B2B subscription business in the technology sector, based in Reading. This is the first dedicated, full-time finance hire, reporting directly to the Executive Chair and sitting on the operating committee. Alongside the core finance you’ll own the operational infrastructure of the business too, so it’s a deliberately broad role and not a pure numbers job.
The finance itself is fairly straightforward, as most revenue comes from annual subscriptions billed in advance and the business is self-funded with no outside investors. What’s missing is the infrastructure around it. Board reporting needs to be clearer and more useful, the retention metrics a subscription business lives by need defining and tracking properly, and a lot of the policy and compliance groundwork needs putting in place for the first time. You’ll sit out with the commercial and customer teams, not tucked away in a back office, with an experienced finance adviser and an external People adviser on hand when you need them.
It suits someone who has already run a finance function in an entrepreneurial business and still enjoys being hands-on. The business is deliberately not hiring an established Finance Director today, but the role is expected to grow into one over the next two to three years as junior support is added underneath it. You don’t need to be a technical expert in AI, but you do need an automation-first mindset, where you reach for AI before anyone reaches for more headcount.
WISH LIST
- Experience running a finance department hands-on in an entrepreneurial SME or scale-up, including preparing information for a board or owners
- Comfortable taking on the wider operational side - policies, insurance, suppliers, people admin and the office - and building it properly for the first time
- An automation-first, low-ego mindset, just as happy fixing a mundane office problem as contributing to a board discussion the same day
THE ROLE
- Take day-to-day ownership of the finance function, including monthly management accounts with commentary the leadership team can act on
- Run annual budgeting, rolling forecasts and cash-flow forecasting
- Own revenue and ARR reporting, including deferred income on annual-in-advance subscriptions, renewal rates and net revenue retention
- Run payroll in-house, including auto-enrolment and HMRC submissions
- VAT returns
- Own billing, credit control and working capital, working with the renewals team who raise most subscription invoices
- Rebuild board and leadership reporting so it’s clear, readable and actually used
- Own the three-year financial plan, alongside scenario modelling and business cases for new investment
- Partner with sales, customer success and consulting on pricing, customer profitability and capacity planning
- Coordinate statutory accounts, audit, tax and the annual R&D tax credit claim with external advisers
- Put core policies in place for the first time, including the staff handbook, HR, data protection and cyber security (at policy level, working with the CTO), and choose and implement an HR system
- Look after the office, insurance, key suppliers, joiners and leavers, and company secretarial work including statutory filings and share and option administration
YOUR PROFILE
- Good working knowledge of MS Excel
- Practical knowledge of payroll, VAT and the core compliance a UK company needs to get right
- Subscription, software or information services experience, and cloud accounting software, advantageous, not essential
SALARY & BENEFITS
- 10% discretionary bonus
- Reading: 3 days in the office (Monday, Tuesday and Thursday), 2 from home, with the flexibility to come in on Wednesdays and Fridays when needed
- Parking paid for in nearby carpark. Short walk from Reading station
- 25 days holiday, rising by a day a year from year 3 up to 30
- Healthcare and life cover
- Weekly team breakfast, monthly team lunch, regular socials and an annual company trip
- Open-book culture, with financials shared across the business at regular town halls
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Head of Finance in Reading employer: We Do Group
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