Finance Director - FinTech Strategy & Governance, IPO-Ready

Zilch is a payment tech company on a mission to create the most empowering way to pay for anything, anywhere. Combining the best of debit, credit and savings, we give our customers the option to earn instant cashback or spread the cost of pricier purchases, completely interest free and with no late fees. We started in 2018 with a small team and a big dream - to make credit accessible to all. Since then, we’ve achieved double unicorn status and taken on more than 5 million customers. There are some exciting projects coming up and we’ve got big growth plans.

About the role.

Zilch is seeking an experienced Finance Director to operate as a senior leader within the Finance function, working closely and reporting into the VP of Finance to ensure the integrity, accuracy and timeliness of financial information across the business. The role combines strategic oversight with hands-on ownership of complex technical, audit and treasury matters, ensuring both strong governance and practical execution. It ensures that financial outputs are aligned, decision-useful and supported by robust governance, with particular focus on the quality, clarity and control of information presented to senior leadership and the Board.

The Finance Director operates at a broad level of senior accountability - acting as the senior integrator and principal escalation point across reporting and treasury, supporting the VP of Finance in maintaining oversight and control - while remaining appropriately close to operational detail in a scaling FinTech environment.

Day to day responsibilities.

• Act as a senior finance partner to ExCo, working closely with the VP of Finance to ensure aligned messaging, clear financial ownership and high-quality decision support, ensuring financial information is accurate, delivered at pace and framed appropriately for decision-making.
• Provide leadership and coherence across Internal Reporting, External Reporting and Treasury, ensuring clear accountability and alignment across specialist teams.
• Serve as the senior escalation point for complex financial, technical and stakeholder matters.
• Support the VP of Finance in maintaining high standards of governance, control and financial discipline.
• Lead finance preparation and execution support for major corporate transactions, including capital raises, acquisitions and potential IPO processes.
• Ensure appropriate financial controls, documentation, reconciliations, policies and governance frameworks are in place and continuously strengthened to meet transaction and public market standards.
• Act as senior finance lead during due diligence processes, coordinating across reporting, treasury and operational finance teams.
• Embed a culture of audit readiness and control discipline across the Finance function, strengthening sustainable control and documentation standards that enhance the business irrespective of transaction timing.

Internal reporting oversight.

• Provide senior review and challenge over monthly management accounts, MI and Board reporting produced by the Internal Reporting team and Financial Controller.
• Ensure reporting is accurate, timely and decision-useful, with clear linkage between performance metrics and financial outcomes.
• Elevate the clarity and consistency of financial narratives presented to senior stakeholders.
• Ensure alignment between internal performance reporting and external disclosures.

External reporting & audit.

• Act as the senior finance lead for statutory accounts and the annual report, providing oversight and final review of outputs prepared by the External Reporting function.
• Play a key role in onboarding and working with the new external auditor, ensuring a smooth transition and strengthening audit processes and documentation standards.
• Lead senior engagement with external auditors and advisors, supporting key technical judgements and ensuring smooth, efficient audit processes.
• Provide technical insight into complex accounting areas (including IFRS 9, IFRS 2 and other material judgements), ensuring robust documentation and governance.
• Hold the pen on internal technical accounting notes (IFRS), providing guidance on complex accounting matters.
• Drive continuous improvement in audit readiness and external reporting quality.

Treasury & capital management.

• Provide senior oversight, governance and strategic direction across treasury activities, working closely with the Treasury lead.
• Provide senior financial oversight and challenge in relation to capital management, liquidity risk and funding discussions, ensuring alignment with broader financial reporting, control and governance priorities.
• Provide senior oversight and challenge in respect of treasury controls, processes and reporting frameworks, supporting their robustness, scalability and alignment with regulatory and governance requirements.
• Support optimisation of balance sheet efficiency and funding structures, ensuring clear integration between treasury, reporting and audit requirements.
• Maintain strong financial control frameworks across reporting and treasury, aligned with FCA expectations and best practice.
• Oversee development and maintenance of accounting policies and financial governance standards.
• Ensure key processes (including audit and annual reporting) run smoothly, with clear ownership and disciplined execution.
• Ensure that financial processes deliver both accuracy and speed, enabling high-quality decision-making without compromising control.
• Identify and mitigate financial and operational risks, escalating appropriately to the VP of Finance and Board where required.

Systems & Finance Transformation.

• Provide senior sponsorship and oversight of finance systems architecture, ensuring reporting, control and treasury systems are scalable and transaction-ready.
• Champion automation and process improvements to enhance the speed, accuracy and resilience of financial reporting.
• Ensure documentation, reconciliations and control frameworks are effectively embedded within systems to support audit and governance standards.
• Support ERP optimisation and continuous improvement of the month-end close process.

What we’re looking for...

• Fully qualified Chartered Accountant (ACA [ICAEW or equivalent body] / ACCA).
• Strong technical accounting knowledge (IFRS essential; US GAAP advantageous).
• Significant post-qualification experience in senior finance leadership or controllership roles.
• Strong experience across external reporting, audit and treasury within a regulated environment.
• Demonstrable experience supporting or leading finance workstreams for corporate transactions (e.g. M&A, fundraising or IPO readiness).
• Proven ability to influence and challenge senior stakeholders, operating effectively at senior leadership and Board level.
• Strong understanding of finance systems, data architecture and reporting pipelines, with experience working effectively alongside data and engineering teams to improve automation and reporting integrity.
• Experience working effectively with and across specialist finance functions, providing senior oversight, integration and judgement rather than duplicating operational delivery.
• Background in FinTech, Financial Services or regulated lending products strongly preferred.
• Comfortable operating in a fast-paced, scaling environment with evolving requirements.

Benefits.

• Income Protection.
• Permanent employees enjoy access to our Share Options Scheme.
• 5% back on in-app purchases.
• £200 for WFH Setup.
• Private Medical Insurance including GP consultations (video, telephone or face-to-face), prescribed medication, in-patient, day-patient and out-pient care, mental health support, physiotherapy, advanced cancer cover.
• Employee Assistance Programme including unlimited mental health sessions, 24/7 remote GP & physiotherapy, 24/7 helpline for emotional & practical support, savings & discounts on everyday shopping, 1:1 personalised well-being consultations.
• Enhanced maternity, paternity, adoption and shared parental leave.
• Professional Qualifications and Memberships.
• Learning Suite for e-courses and Internal Training Programmes.
• FCA & Regulatory training.
• Hybrid Working with a casual dress code and workplace socials.