Job Description
About VavaCars
VavaCars is a digital used-car platform making it easier, simpler, and faster for customers to buy and sell cars in Turkey. We operate two channels — selling cars to consumers and to dealers. Valued at $237m at our last fundraise, we are now focused on one thing: profitability. This means unit economics, cost control, and cost depth matter more than growth at all costs.
The Role
We're hiring a Head of FP&A to own financial planning, analysis, performance reporting, and financial control across the business. This is a hands-on, high-impact role — not a team-building exercise. You'll manage one direct report and work closely with the CFO, CEO, and commercial teams. We expect you to be in the detail, not managing from a distance.
You'll be the person the business turns to for the numbers behind every major decision — whether that's evaluating a new channel, understanding margin erosion, or pressure-testing a cost line. You'll also serve as the checks and balances over accounting, ensuring the integrity of our financial data before it flows into management reporting.
The budget is the backbone of how we operate. Every team, every function, every decision is measured against it. You will own the budget process and relentlessly track performance against it — identifying variances early, holding teams accountable, and ensuring we deliver on the targets we set.
We are a lean finance team that leverages AI extensively. You should be comfortable using tools like Claude, and see AI as a way to operate at a level of depth and speed that wouldn't be possible otherwise.
Requirements
What You'll Own
- Annual budgeting, mid-year reforecasting, and rolling forecasts — you drive the process end to end
- Budget vs. actual performance tracking — this is how the company measures itself, and you are the person who keeps score, flags deviations, and drives accountability across functions
- Review and validate financial statements produced by accounting, ensuring accuracy and consistency, and translate statutory reporting into management reporting, allocation reporting, and performance analysis that drives decision-making
- Management reporting and allocation reporting — bridging IFRS and Turkish GAAP into formats that drive operational decision-making
- Oversight of accounting outputs — you are the control layer that catches errors, challenges assumptions, and ensures the books tell an accurate story
- Monthly and weekly performance reporting to the CFO and senior leadership, with clear insight and recommendations, not just numbers
- Unit economics analysis across both channels — understanding and improving margin at the transaction level
- Cost analysis and cost control — identifying inefficiencies, challenging spend, and ensuring the business operates within its means
- Business partnering with commercial, operations, and other departments — translating their activity into financial impact
- Performance analysis by business line, centre, and channel — building the reporting infrastructure that keeps leadership informed
- Supporting investor reporting requirements, working closely with the founders and Founder's Analyst to deliver board pack inputs and ad hoc data requests
- Financial modelling for business cases, investment decisions, and operational trade-offs
- Continuous improvement of FP&A processes, reporting quality, and analytical depth — including through AI tools
What We're Looking For
- Strong individual contributor who thrives in the detail — you build the models, you interrogate the data, you spot the anomaly
- Deep understanding of unit economics, cost structures, and margin analysis
- Strong technical accounting knowledge — comfortable working at the trial balance level and producing financial statements
- Good understanding of both IFRS and Turkish GAAP, with the ability to translate statutory reporting into meaningful management and allocation reporting
- Commercial finance or investment banking background, with a strong foundation in accounting and financial reporting
- Experience in a startup or high-growth environment is highly valued — you're comfortable with ambiguity, speed, and wearing multiple hats
- Collaborative and approachable — you work effectively with everyone from a junior analyst to the CEO. We're a flat organisation and don't tolerate hierarchy for hierarchy's sake
- Proficiency in NetSuite, Excel, Power BI, and AI tools
- CPA and/or MBA preferred
- Fluent in Turkish and English — written and verbal
- Profitability mindset — you instinctively think about cost depth, efficiency, and return on every lira spent
This Role Isn't For You If
- You prefer managing a large team over doing the work yourself
- You need perfect data and clean processes before you can produce an output
- You see FP&A as a back-office function that reports on what already happened
- You're looking for a structured, predictable environment with clearly defined handoffs
- You're uncomfortable challenging senior stakeholders when the numbers don't add up
- You treat the budget as a soft target rather than a commitment
- You adjust your effort or attitude based on who you're speaking to
What You Get
- Direct access to the CFO and founders — your work shapes real decisions, not slide decks that get filed away
- Exposure to board-level work
- A lean team where autonomy is the default, not a perk
- The opportunity to run the financial planning and control function at a company approaching a critical inflection point
- An environment where AI fluency is expected and rewarded
Interview Process
- Introductory call with Director of HR
- Practical exercise (2-3 hours) — a modelling or case study
- Interview with the CFO
- Final on-site in office with select members of the leadership team
We're looking to fill this role promptly and will move quickly for the right candidate.
Benefits
We offer a unique and exciting package — something never before tried in the local automotive industry — and we aim to be the very best. Alongside a competitive compensation package, we foster a culture focused on employee happiness and well-being.
- Performance bonus
- Private health insurance
- Transportation support
- Meal allowance
- A warm working environment and social events
