How your CV stacks up
Upload your CV to see how well it fits this job role
?%
Head of Finance
London | Full-time | Office-based
About LEC
London Export Corporation was founded in 1951 and is one of the UK’s longest-established trading companies. The group has traded between the UK and China for over seventy years, with live operations and supplier relationships in both markets.
Today it is building three new businesses on that foundation, and all three are in startup mode:
- LEC Beverages — two years old. Exclusive UK distributor of Tsingtao, one of the world’s largest beer brands. Imports by container, holds duty and bonded stock, and sells into on-trade and off-trade: Chinese restaurants, hospitality groups, wholesalers, and retail.
- LEC Robotics — distributor of advanced commercial service robots and automation across the UK and Ireland, deployed into hospitality, healthcare, retail, facilities, and logistics.
- LEC AI — production AI systems running across the group and now being productised for external customers.
Alongside these, the group operates six registered UK companies in total, including holding and investment entities. Finance for all of them sits with this role.
Be clear about what this is: three young businesses moving at pace, built on the balance sheet and trading history of an established seventy-five-year-old group.
Overview
We are hiring a senior finance leader to take full ownership of finance across a multi-vertical group operating in:
- International trade and commodities
- Robotics and automation
- Food and beverage distribution
- Artificial intelligence
This role sits at the centre of the group and is responsible for:
- Financial control and compliance
- Commercial deal structuring
- Cross-border financial execution
- Operational financial flow
- Financial planning for new ventures
This is not a reporting role. This is a decision-making and execution role.
What This Role Actually Is
You will be the person the CEO goes to when asking:
- “Does this deal make sense?”
- “How should we structure this?”
- “How do we move money safely across borders?”
- “How do we set this company up properly?”
At the same time, you must ensure:
- The accounts are correct
- The cash is controlled
- The business is financially stable
Core Responsibilities
1. Full Finance Ownership — Hands-On
You own the numbers from the ledger upward, across all six entities.
- Bookkeeping, reconciliations, and month-end close for all group entities
- Management accounts, journals, accruals, and variance reporting
- VAT returns, corporation tax, and year-end accounts alongside our external accountants
- Group payroll, end to end
- Accounts payable, receivable, and credit control
- Cash flow, forecasting, and liquidity across the group
- Intercompany balances and transfers
Reasons to use Rodeo
Start with a chat, not a search bar
Grad scheme, placement, apprenticeship? Not sure what you want yet — that's fine. Your agent talks it through with you and turns "I have no idea" into a shortlist.
It searches the market for you
Every day your agent scans the market matching roles against what actually matters to you, not just keywords on a CV.
Only hits
No noise. No "maybe this fits." Just roles with a clear explanation of why they're right — and where to focus when applying.
You will have a junior finance associate reporting to you, and our internal AI team will build automation around your processes to strip out the manual work. You define how finance should run; we build the systems to run it.
2. Deal & Commercial Finance
- Review and structure commercial deals
- Understand margins, pricing, and profitability
- Support negotiations from a financial perspective
- Ensure deals are executable, not just theoretical
3. Cross-Border & Trade Finance
- Manage international payments and financial flows
- Support trade transactions, including commodities and large-scale deals
- Manage FX exposure on purchases, sales, and intercompany positions
- Handle import duty, customs, and import VAT treatment, and own the relationship with our customs and freight partners
- Where relevant, manage excise duty, duty deferment, and duty-suspended stock positions
- Understand risk, timing, and movement of funds across jurisdictions
- Work alongside legal where required, but own the financial logic
4. Company Structuring & Setup
- Advise on setting up entities in different jurisdictions (UK, China, Europe, etc.)
- Ensure correct financial structures are in place
- Understand tax implications at a practical level
- Work with advisors, but not rely on them
5. Operational Finance & Logistics Flow
- Oversee the financial side of logistics and supply chain
- Build and own landed cost models per SKU and per container, so we know true margin before we price
- Own stock valuation, stock accuracy, and the financial treatment of stock movements between warehouses
- Track freight, storage, and handling costs against budget, and flag margin erosion early
- Ensure operational flow aligns with financial reality
6. Systems & Automation
- Work with internal teams building automation and AI systems
- Ensure financial processes are structured and scalable
- Define how finance should operate, not just follow existing systems
7. New Ventures & Business Planning
- Build financial models and business plans for new ventures and group initiatives
- Stress-test commercial assumptions before capital is committed
- Support funding, investment, and partnership conversations with credible numbers
- Assess the financial viability of new products, markets, and entities
Requirements
- Fully qualified accountant (ACA / ACCA / CIMA or equivalent)
- Essential: hands-on finance experience in a physical trade, import, or distribution business — you have accounted for goods moving across borders, not just services
- Practical working knowledge of: import duty and customs, import VAT, landed cost build-up, stock and inventory valuation, freight and logistics cost accruals, and FX exposure on purchases and sales
- Advantageous: excise duty, duty deferment accounts, and bonded or duty-suspended warehousing
- Advantageous: letters of credit, documentary collections, and trade finance facilities
- Mandarin an advantage but not a requirement — we trade extensively between the UK and China, though the finance function operates in English
- Sector background in one or more of: commodities, food and beverage, FMCG distribution, industrial or technology hardware
- Proven ability to own finance end-to-end, work on commercial deals, and operate in fast-moving environments
Get help with your application
Your very own career expert that helps elevate your application to the next level.
What We Are Looking For
- Someone who understands finance properly, not just reports it
- Someone who can move between detail and big picture quickly
- Someone who can take ownership without being managed
- Someone comfortable working across multiple industries and multiple entities
- Someone with real depth from a well-run finance function who now wants to build rather than maintain
- Someone comfortable with ambiguity, incomplete data, and moving before everything is perfect
What This Is Not
- Not a role where you sit above the detail. You will be in the ledger and in a deal conversation on the same day.
- Not a corporate finance function with a team of ten to delegate to.
- Not somewhere you inherit someone else’s systems. You design them.
- Not somewhere you need everything explained to you.
Being Straight With You
Several of these businesses are young. The processes are not all built. Some of the data is messy. You will not inherit a finished finance function, because there isn’t one — you will build it.
That is the job, and it is the appeal. Six entities, real trade flows, and someone needed who is as comfortable filing a VAT return as pricing a container deal. The compliance work is real and it is yours. In exchange you get full ownership, direct access to the CEO, a junior to build out, and an AI team building automation around you rather than more process on top of you.
If you want a mature finance function with clean systems and the BAU handled elsewhere, this is not it. If you have done this properly in a structured business and now want to build your own version of it, it is.
Team Structure
- You lead finance for the group
- One junior finance associate reporting to you
- Internal AI and automation team building systems around your processes
- Direct reporting line to the CEO
Location
Fulham, London, office-based
“It took my CV and asked me questions relevant to understanding what kind of jobs to suggest for me. Suggestions were almost perfect. Jobs were exactly what I’ve been looking for.”
Jessica, London
Skills
Location