Chief Financial Officer | High-Growth Fintech | London (Hybrid)
The Client:
Harmonic are delighted to be retained on an exclusive basis by a fast-growing, consumer-facing business that has reached genuine scale and is now entering a defining phase of its growth. Backed by institutional investors, the company has built a large and loyal customer base, a differentiated proposition and a strong position in its market, with significant momentum and a clear runway ahead.
The business has grown quickly and now operates with the complexity that comes with scale - multiple products, multiple entities and an increasingly sophisticated set of commercial and financial demands. Having proven the model and established real scale, the priority now is to convert that into durable, profitable growth: deepening revenue per customer, tightening unit economics, sharpening capital allocation and financing the next stage of expansion.
The Role:
Reporting directly to the Founder & CEO, the CFO will be a genuine player-coach - equally comfortable building the model, running a fundraise and standing in front of the Board. This is not a figurehead role sitting above a large machine, nor a purely technical one; it calls for a commercially fluent finance leader who will act as the CEO's closest sounding board and challenger.
The successful candidate will own the full financial agenda: capital raising across both equity and debt, capital allocation and unit economics, financial control and regulatory finance, and M&A activity. They will inherit an established finance team - including a strong number two who owns day-to-day control, reporting and statutory delivery - which frees the CFO to operate forward and outward rather than being consumed by the close.
Above all, this is a role about converting scale into profitable growth, financing the next stage of expansion, and building a finance function with the credibility to support a business of real scale and regulatory complexity.
Key Responsibilities:
- Own the funding strategy and lead capital raising end to end across both equity and debt - narrative, model, data room, process and negotiation - building and maintaining investor relationships ahead of need.
- Structure and secure debt facilities appropriate to the balance sheet, including growth/venture debt and working capital, and manage covenant compliance, lender reporting and refinancing risk.
- Establish a disciplined capital allocation framework across products, geographies and acquisition channels, with clear hurdle rates and honest post-investment review.
- Own the unit economics - CAC, payback, LTV, cohort retention and contribution margin by product and channel - and make them the shared language of the leadership team.
- Bring rigour to the marketing spend decision, the most consequential capital allocation call in a high-volume consumer business, and drive the path to sustainable profitability without starving growth.
- Act as the CEO's closest commercial partner: pressure-test strategy, model the alternatives, and translate ambition into a credible plan with numbers attached.
- Own the financial narrative to the Board and shareholder base - reporting, forecasting and KPI packs - and build individual credibility across the investor base.
- Ensure a robust, timely and well-controlled reporting environment, bringing statutory filing discipline fully up to date.
- Own the group's regulatory financial obligations, including safeguarding, capital and liquidity adequacy, and regulatory reporting, and act as a credible finance voice in the regulatory relationship.
- Optimise the revenue model enabled by the enlarged balance sheet, including treasury management and interest income, and ensure group structure, tax and multi-entity reporting are fit for purpose.
- Drive the financial dimension of post-acquisition integration - synergy delivery, cost-base rationalisation and a single source of truth across entities - and assess future M&A where it accelerates strategy.
- Lead, develop and, where necessary, reshape the finance function, operating as a full member of the executive team with influence well beyond finance.
What We Need to See:
- Qualified accountant (ACA / ACCA / CIMA) or equivalent analytical grounding.
- A finance leadership background in a high-volume, low-ARPU consumer business - consumer subscription, consumer platform or consumer fintech.
- Credible experience operating at scale and comfortable with the step-change towards £100m+ revenue: still hands-on, but with real institutional and regulatory expectations.
- A demonstrable, personally led track record of capital raising across both equity and debt, able to talk through processes run first-hand, including the difficult ones.
- Evidence of having owned growth investment and capital allocation decisions and changed the trajectory of a business through them.
- Recent experience as a player-coach in a lean, high-ownership environment - comfortable in the detail of a model and in front of a Board in the same afternoon.
- A track record of building and retaining high-performing finance teams and of influence across an executive team.
- Exceptional commercial judgement and the intellectual honesty to tell the CEO and Board what the numbers actually say.
What We Would Like to See:
- Regulated financial services experience (payments, e-money, consumer credit or similar) and familiarity with the associated reporting cadence.
- Experience within a private equity or growth-equity backed business.
- International finance experience, including multi-entity, multi-country and multi-currency operations.
- A strong grasp of consumer unit economics and subscription metrics and their application in strategic decision-making.
- A commercially curious, high-agency and pragmatic style, motivated by a business whose commercial success depends on serving a large, underserved customer base.
Salary: £200k–£250k + Bonus + Equity
Location: London (Hybrid - 3 days per week in office)
Start Date: ASAP (can accommodate notice period)
Please get in touch with Dan at daniel.walker@harmonicexecutive.com for more information.
Please feel free to circulate with any friends or contacts that may be interested.
Follow us on Twitter: @HarmonicGroupHQ
At Harmonic, we are dedicated to fostering an inclusive and equitable workplace. We actively welcome applications from individuals of all backgrounds and assure you that every candidate will be thoughtfully considered for the roles we represent, without regard to race, religion, gender expression, disability, or sexual orientation.
