Harmonic Finance™ | Certified B Corp
Head of Finance | VC-Backed Energy Technology Platform | London, Hybrid
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Head of Finance | VC-Backed Energy Technology Platform | London, Hybrid
The Client
Harmonic is delighted to be retained by a VC-backed technology business in the energy sector, working with the industrial and commercial companies for whom power has moved from a procurement line to a board-level cost. Electricity has become the constraint on growth: AI and the compute behind it, electrification and the reindustrialisation of the West are all pulling on the same grid at the same time. The market that serves large energy users was not built for that. It is slow, opaque, heavily intermediated and short on trust, and this business is rebuilding it as a technology company rather than an energy one.
Their revenue is on track to grow more than twentyfold this year, targeting another tenfold increase in 2027, which would take it from a 0 to £100m in revenue inside two years, followed by international expansion. It has done that on remarkably little capital: the most recent round was pre-empted and oversubscribed with multiple term sheets, raised from a position of not needing to.
You'll work alongside an exceptional founding team, where the CEO has previously taken a business from tens of employees to several thousand and to several hundred million in revenue, and is doing it again in a sector he believes is at exactly the right moment.
This is an ideal opportunity for someone who is looking to work within a lean, high-performance, AI native start-up that are not only massively revenue generating but also mission led.
The Role
This is the first finance hire, reporting directly to the CEO & Co Founder, and it carries the commercial engine of the business. Tens of millions of pounds already move across a wide set of counterparties, heading into the hundreds of millions within the next twelve months. How well that is understood, forecast and controlled is a direct input into how fast the company can grow. You will own cash, the reporting the founders and investors run the business from, the close, the controls and infrastructure that do not exist yet, and the forward view: working capital, forecasting and funding plans. There is a realistic path to Finance Director inside around eighteen months, at which point the role broadens into the equity story, capital structure and funding routes alongside the founder.
What makes the job hard, and what makes it worth doing, is that you will be the only person who can see the whole cash picture. Money arrives from customers and goes back out across a long chain of suppliers, intermediaries and market counterparties, with complex payment terms, with commodity price exposure sitting underneath all of it. You will build the rolling forecast, the collections and payments engine and the reporting rhythm that turn that into a view the founders can actually rely on, and you will be the person they ask before they commit to anything.
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There is a trading desk and a risk function who own hedging decisions, so your job is to understand the exposure they are carrying and make sure it is reflected in the cash position rather than to take those calls yourself.
This is a build-from-scratch mandate inside one of the fastest growing technology businesses in the UK. The finance stack today is a business bank account and an accounting ledger run by an outsourced firm, so there is no function to inherit, no legacy system to work around and no established way of doing things to defend. You set the standard from day one, and you get to do it with automation and AI at the centre rather than with headcount. The trade is that you are the function to begin with, so alongside the building you will stay close to the detail until the systems you put in take it off your desk. For the right ambitious person the scope keeps opening up: a team underneath you, then progressively more of the forward-looking and strategic side of the business as it scales.
Key Responsibilities
- Own cash: a rolling forecast, long-term runway visibility, working capital, banking and payment operations, and the collateral and margin requirements that come with trading counterparties.
- Own the money flows across the full counterparty chain, from what comes in from customers through to what goes out to suppliers, intermediaries and market counterparties, and the payment terms that govern both sides.
- Design the revenue collection and payment engine: credit control policy, invoicing accuracy, terms, aged debtor reporting and escalation, built to scale and automated so it largely runs itself.
- Own broker and third-party commission accounting: calculate, accrue and reconcile against statements, and resolve discrepancies fast.
- Design and own month-end close and get the business to a faster, tighter reporting rhythm, producing the management accounts and the board and investor pack.
- FP&A duties including lead budgeting, reforecasting and planning directly with the founders, grounded in the unit economics and the real drivers of the business.
- Own statutory accounts, audit, payroll and tax compliance, and build proportionate internal controls: payment approvals, delegation of authority, segregation of duties.
- Partner with the trading desk so that market exposure, cashflow and P&L forecasts line up, and own customer credit risk end to end.
- Build the finance systems stack from scratch with AI and automation at its core, alongside engineering and ops, so the function scales without headcount scaling with it.
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Essential Experience
- Experience inside a startup or high-growth business. This is not an environment with the structure to absorb someone learning how a young company works at the same time as learning the sector.
- Experience of complex, multi-party operational businesses rather than pure SaaS. Energy or commodities is the obvious home, but marketplaces, two-sided partnership models, consumer fintech built on partnership or credit structures, and healthcare and health-tech all carry comparable complexity.
- Direct experience of complex cashflow environments: many counterparties, differing payment terms and timelines, and multiple cost and revenue streams.
- A track record of building or significantly improving finance processes, controls and systems, rather than running a machine somebody else built.
- Exceptional numerical ability, diligence and thoroughness.
- A first-principles problem solver who can take a problem, break it down logically, reach a clear conclusion and explain it simply.
- Open to building the function a new way rather than reinstalling the one you have run before.
Desirable Experience
- Qualified accountant (ACA / ACCA / CIMA or equivalent).
- Experience in an energy business, trading house, commodities business or fintech.
- Experience as an early finance hire building a function from scratch.
- Already AI-native in how you work, using AI and automation in your finance work today.
Salary
Candidate dependent, benchmarked at £100,000 to £150,000 + equity
Location
London, office first culture with ideally four days a week in the office with the founders and team, plus ten remote-working days a year
Start Date
ASAP. The client would ideally have someone in seat before the end of the year, with flexibility for the ideal candidate.
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.
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