Head of Finance

About the Role

As Head of Finance, you will be a key member of Petalite’s senior leadership team and responsible for overseeing all aspects of financial management and strategy. You will be responsible for building a high performing finance function that will support and guide Petalite through its upcoming period of rapid growth. This role will report into Petalite’s part-time Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and full-time Chief Commercial Officer (CCO).

Key responsibilities over the next 2-3 years are expected to include:

1. Team Building: Build out a lean and high performing finance team. Ensure clear responsibilities and accountability across the team. Collaborate with outsourced providers and advisors where necessary.
2. Financial Strategy & Planning: Lead all Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A) activities, including forecasting, budgeting, and strategic financial planning.
3. Financial Operations: Implement and maintain a robust financial control framework, including the implementation of an ERP system and all necessary accounting, cash management and other financial control procedures. Bring in-house various finance activities that are currently outsourced (e.g. bookkeeping).
4. Business Reporting: Establish comprehensive business reporting processes, including period-end procedures, monthly operational reporting, and quarterly board reporting. Collaborate with our IT team and other departments to develop advanced BI capabilities and dashboards.
5. Business Control: Establish key business control procedures such as departmental spending reviews, pricing committees, new contract committees and other key project support.
6. Funding & Risk Management: Assist in fundraising activities including equity and debt financing to support Petalite’s expansion plans. Implement a robust treasury and risk management function.

Key Requirements

1. Proven experience as a Head of Finance or similar role, ideally in a rapid growth environment.
2. Relevant professional qualification such as ACA, ACCA, or CIMA.
3. Strong technical foundation with a deep accounting and financial knowledge.
4. Strategic thinker with a clear understanding of the “bigger picture”.
5. Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
6. Strong leadership and interpersonal skills, with the ability to collaborate effectively across departments.
7. Ideally industry experience within a relevant sector such as automotive, consumer-tech or industrial products.
8. Ideally experience implementing new accounting systems, ERP systems and general ledger migration.