Financial Controller / Finance Manager

Financial Controller / Finance Manager (Audit Experience essential)

Competitive salary depending on experience

Central London location

ACA or ACCA

Did you love science at school? Are you passionate about the importance of Science subjects in Education and beyond? If so, read on!

Based in London and Saint-Petersburg, and shipped to 42 countries, MEL Science improves Science education with an innovative combination of VR (virtual reality) and hands-on experiments. Our products garnered attention from the Royal Society of Chemistry, Science magazine, and the Wall Street Journal, among others.

We are growing exponentially - our turnover is likely to grow by over 200% this year, and as such we are now looking for a super-smart energetic qualified Audit practice individual to join us as Financial Controller to support our CFO and our international growth. This hands-on role encompasses both Financial and Management Accounting and the tasks are hugely varied, including the preparation of Management Accounts, budgeting, consolidations and general accounting duties. Please note this is not a role managing a team, however, that may change in the future, depending on our growth. 

This Financial Controller / Finance Manager role will suit you if you’ve recently spent some time in Audit, that's essential, and you’re a qualified Accountant. You’ll have audited or worked for smaller fast-growing businesses in ecommerce, retail, subscription businesses or manufacturing - and you’ll have international exposure. It is likely that you will still be within practice wishing for your first in industry. 

You’ll be looking for a role to gain exposure to all areas of Accounting and develop your career.  You’ll have some interest in Science and Technology in Education and ideally a degree in a Scientific subject. You’ll have a strong academic history, you’ll be driven and self-motivated. You MUST understand what it means to work in a small, fast-growing business.

You’ll have experience of consolidations (currently 7 entities, but this will grow), some exposure to the preparation of management accounts (even to TB level) and strong analytical skills.

About The Financial Controller / Finance Manager Role:

On a day to day basis, you will:

• Perform general management and financial accounting duties and oversee payments and our outsourced accounting function, (transactional) to ensure the information they produce is accurate and timely.
• Prepare monthly cash and management accounts for our UK, China and US companies.
• Prepare consolidated management accounts for up to 7 legal entities and manage the month end process.
• Compile management reporting and analytical work for sales, inventory and overhead reconciliations.
• Prepare budgets and cash flow forecasts. You’ll analyse actual against budget for the UK, US and china.
• Assist in the implementation of a new accounting system for the UK.
• Support the CFO in ad hoc financial projects including financial analysis and other business partnering activities.

 About You:

As well your current Audit role, requirements listed above, a Science degree or a STRONG interest in Science, our Financial Controller / Finance Manager will also have:

• Experience in auditing ecommerce, tech, retail or manufacturing businesses.
• Ideally some startup/scaling company experience (gained within Audit)
• Excellent MS Office, Powerpoint and advanced Excel - pivot tables, vlookups etc.
• Experience in some intercompany accounting, multicurrency & consolidating international management accounts.
• Some experience in preparing accurate management information in a timely manner and you will, of course, be highly numerate. We will look at candidates who’ve come straight from Audit though.

Your Approach:

• You’ll love the thought of working in a startup that’s trying to change the face of Science education.
• You’ll be highly proactive, keen to analyse, investigate and understand what’s happening behind the numbers.
• A roll the sleeves up attitude! You’ll be flexible, committed and able to see the bigger picture as well as delve into the details.
• A high level of accuracy and superb attention to detail.
• A consummate team player, you’ll be happy to communicate with internal and external stakeholders in order to explain, translate and provide required management information.

If this Financial Controller / Finance Manager sounds like you, we’d love to hear from you! We are committed to internal staff progression and looking for people to join us for a long-term journey. Please note that we have a direct hiring policy in place, at this stage, we're not interested in hearing from recruitment agencies. Thanks!

You may also work as Audit Senior, Audit Manager, Audit Assistant or Assistant Auditor.