Job Description

About us

Focaldata is a research technology company — £9m in revenue, growing fast, and backed by clients like New Balance, Hope Not Hate, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. We use technology to deliver the kind of deep, accurate insight that traditionally took months and cost a fortune. We do it faster, and better.

We're at the stage where the foundations matter. That means bringing in finance talent that can keep pace with the business, handle complexity to bring clarity, and help leadership make better decisions. If you're a finance professional who thrives in a scale-up environment and wants real ownership — not just a reporting function — this is the role.

About the role

This role exists because we want dedicated finance ownership as we scale, reporting into the leadership team and working across every part of the business.

You'll own the finance function day-to-day: working directly with leadership and functional leads to make sure the numbers are accurate, the forecasts are useful, and finance actively supports how we grow. It's a hands-on role spanning core finance rhythms, systems improvement, and genuine commercial partnership.

What you'll do

• Finance operations: Oversee month-end close and ensure accurate, timely numbers. Oversee accounts receivable and payable. Manage external accountants and tax advisors (VAT, statutory accounts, filings). Own payroll. Improve financial controls, approval processes, and audit readiness.
• Reporting & insights: Deliver monthly management reporting with variance analysis and actionable narrative. Provide finance inputs to annual, quarterly board reporting. Support fundraising and corporate finance activity with reporting and analysis.
• Planning & forecasting: Own the annual budget, run rolling forecasts, build scenario models (hiring, pricing, capacity), and produce forecast-vs-actuals analysis with clear commentary that leadership actually uses.
• Commercial & strategic support: Provide pricing and deal support including margin and sensitivity analysis. Maintain investor-ready models and data packs. Support long-term financial strategy with structured analysis.
• Systems & automation: Partner with BizOps on the finance stack (QuickBooks, Datarails, Rippling). Drive automation of reporting and forecasting workflows. Use AI to minimise manual and repeat work across the finance function. Define what leadership needs from BI and reporting outputs.

Who you are (skills and experience)

• At least 4 years in a commercial finance or finance business partnering background, ideally in a high-growth or scale-up environment
• Month-end close management: ability to run a reliable, timely close process and ensure accurate numbers with minimal fire drills; experience managing external accountants
• A track record of building forecasting and reporting cadences that leadership trusts and uses
• Good financial modelling skills — 3-statement models, scenario planning, sensitivity analysis
• Ability to translate financial complexity into clear narrative and recommendations
• Strong stakeholder management across commercial, delivery, ops, and leadership teams
• Comfort working with imperfect data and a drive to improve it through better definitions, processes, and systems

Bonus points for:

• Experience with both services and software revenues, ideally within the same company
• Experience automating finance processes using AI and other technologies
• Familiarity with QuickBooks, Datarails, or similar FP&A tooling
• Experience supporting board reporting, investor materials, or fundraising prep

Who you are (mindset)

• You treat finance as a proactive partner to the business, not a reactive reporting function
• You're comfortable in ambiguity and know how to make progress without perfect conditions
• You care about making things simpler and more reliable over time, not just getting through the month
• You communicate clearly and confidently with non-finance stakeholders
• You're energised by a fast-moving environment and take ownership seriously

Please note: this role is required to be in-office 4 days a week

Focaldata is an equal opportunities employer. We believe in the value of a diverse and inclusive workforce for our business, team and customers. We encourage all applications regardless of age, disability, gender, marriage, pregnancy, maternity, race or nationality, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation.

We also understand that certain groups may not feel empowered to apply unless they match every single requirement. Please do apply even if you don't match 100% of every single requirement!