Head of Finance

HEAD OF FINANCE | PART-TIME | 3-4 DAYS PER WEEK £80-100k pro rata | London We are working with a fast-growing, founder-led design and consumer products business to appoint its first senior in-house finance hire. The business has established a strong international presence across direct-to-consumer, trade/wholesale and retail channels, with further growth expected over the next few years. Finance has historically been shared between the founders, senior management and external accountants. The next stage of growth requires a dedicated finance leader to bring greater commercial insight, forecasting discipline, cash visibility and financial control into the business. This is a genuinely hands-on senior role, with significant scope to shape both the finance function and the wider commercial direction of the business. The role Reporting to the COO and working closely with the Founder, you will own the financial model, forecasting, commercial analysis, cash and working capital, controls and finance systems. You will work closely with the external accountants, who prepare the monthly management accounts and handle statutory reporting and tax. Your role will be to turn that information into clear analysis, decisions and actions. Key responsibilities will include:

• Owning and developing the financial model and monthly rolling forecast
• Annual budgeting, reforecasting and scenario analysis
• Providing commercial analysis around range, pricing, headcount, retail and stock investment
• Building meaningful gross-margin reporting by product, channel and customer
• Understanding fully loaded product costs, including fulfilment, returns, discounting, payment processing and landed costs
• Owning cash-flow forecasting and working-capital management
• Managing a stock-heavy and seasonal cash cycle, including production commitments
• Credit control across trade accounts
• Developing appropriate financial controls and approval processes
• Owning the month-end relationship with external accountants
• Improving the integration between e-commerce, inventory and accounting systems
• Overseeing payroll, pensions, insurance and relevant finance compliance
• Acting as the day-to-day finance counterpart to external advisers on tax, VAT, statutory reporting and employee share schemes
• Supporting relevant ESG / B Corp reporting requirements About you We are looking for a commercially minded qualified accountant, or someone qualified through substantial equivalent experience, who has already operated at this level within a product-led business carrying its own inventory. You will need:
• Experience in consumer, lifestyle, homewares, retail or a closely related product business
• Strong understanding of inventory and cost accounting, including landed cost, foreign currency purchasing, duty, import VAT, provisioning and stock turn
• Demonstrable ownership of a financial model and rolling forecasting process
• Strong multi-channel margin analysis experience across DTC, wholesale/trade and/or retail
• Advanced Excel and the ability to build transparent, robust and auditable models
• Experience with Xero and an understanding of how e-commerce data feeds into the ledger
• Commercial judgement and the confidence to challenge assumptions
• The ability to operate effectively in an entrepreneurial environment where not everything is already documented or systemised
• Experience of a business growing from approximately £5m to £15m turnover would be advantageous.
• Experience with Shopify, A2X, inventory systems, US sales and duty models, retail POS, or B Corp reporting would also be useful. The opportunity: This is an unusual opportunity for someone who wants genuine ownership rather than simply inheriting an established finance function. The successful candidate will have the opportunity to build the finance function around a growing, ambitious consumer brand and become a key commercial partner to the founder and senior leadership team. The initial commitment is three days per week, with flexibility around which days are worked and a minimum of two days per week expected in the company's London studio. There is potential for the role to develop to four days per week as the business grows.