Head of Finance
Reports to: COO
London (Hybrid)
Competive Basic + Bonus
The role:
The execution and control layer of Wave's finance function. Owns financial control, statutory compliance, management accounting, FP&A support, revenue assurance across four income streams, working capital management, and finance systems leadership across Wave Talent, WaveWorks, WaveMind, and expanding UK, UAE, and US entities.
If you are available for an interim only position, we are also open to an interim for two to four months
Wave's Head of Finance owns the execution and control layer of the finance function while the Finance Director owns the strategic layer. That means month-end close, management accounts, FP&A modelling and forecasting, statutory compliance, R&D claims, revenue assurance across four income streams, working capital, and the Xero to Mothership integration brief. The role manages the Finance Operations Associate and works across UK, UAE, and US entities.
This is a hands-on, qualified accountant seat with material commercial weight: the financial infrastructure needs to run cleanly now - AI tools (Claude, Wave Chat, Mothership) are the working standard, freeing time for judgement, advisor relationships, and commercial interpretation of the numbers.
We are looking for someone who can grow the company with a route to finance director and possible CFO in future
Our OS stack: Google Workspace, Slack, Notion, Granola, Xero, Dext, Timesheet Portal, Claude, ChatGPT, Wave Chat (Mothership).
Who we are looking for:
* Qualified accountant (ACA, ACCA, or CIMA) with post-qualification experience in a scaling business
* Experience in working for a recruitment or talent solutions business
* Hands-on finance leader comfortable running the close process themselves, building the forecast model themselves, and writing the management accounts commentary themselves, not just reviewing others' work
* Strong FP&A skillset: rolling forecasts, scenario modelling, variance analysis, and the commercial judgement to make the numbers tell a useful story
* Strong systems instinct; interested in how finance data flows and how to make reporting and FP&A faster and more reliable through better infrastructure
* AI-literate and willing to restructure how they work around AI tools. Not optional at Wave; it is the working standard
* Experience across multi-entity or multi-jurisdiction finance preferred
* SaaS revenue recognition and ARR forecasting experience a significant advantage given WaveMind
* Comfortable working directly with engineers on data and systems requirements; able to translate financial needs into technical briefs
* Comfortable operating with full ownership of the control and management reporting layer
What you own and what success looks like:
Management accounts and month-end
Own the month-end close process across all Wave entities: P&L, balance sheet, and cash flow. Produce the monthly management accounts pack for SLT covering divisional P&Ls (Wave Talent perm, Wave Talent contract, WaveWorks, WaveMind), consolidated group view, balance sheet, cash flow, and KPI dashboard (NFI, gross margin, revenue per head, EBITDA, working capital). Write the commercial commentary alongside the numbers. Maintain the month-end checklist in Notion and partner with division leads so they understand and can defend their P&L.
FP&A, budgeting and forecasting
* Own the rolling 13-week cash flow forecast and the rolling 12-month P&L forecast across all entities. Build and maintain the annual budget model: bottom-up by division with clear assumptions on headcount, revenue per head, billable utilisation, gross margin, and operating cost base.
* Build the FP&A models that support commercial decisions: pricing analysis for WaveWorks SoW deals, unit economics for WaveMind, headcount planning, scenario modelling for new entity launches (UAE, US), and ROI analysis.
* Surface commercially significant variances clearly; support the Finance Director on board pack preparation.
Statutory compliance and R&D tax credits:
* Own all statutory obligations across UK entities: Corporation Tax, VAT, payroll filings, and Companies House submissions. Build and maintain the statutory compliance calendar.
* Lead Wave's R&D tax credit claims for Mothership and WaveMind development activity. Manage the relationship with external accountants and tax advisors.
Revenue assurance across four streams:
* Own revenue recognition across Wave Talent (perm and contract), WaveWorks (milestone billing), and WaveMind (subscription).
* Maintain the revenue reconciliation between Bullhorn, Timesheet Portal, and Xero. Own the brief for automating this reconciliation once the Xero to Mothership integration is live. Build and maintain the bottom-up revenue forecast model.
* Own the deferred revenue position for WaveMind subscriptions and WaveWorks milestone billing.
Xero to Mothership integration ownership
* Own the requirements brief for the Xero to Mothership data integration. The single highest-impact finance systems build Wave will do in the next six months and the foundation for genuinely real-time FP&A.
* Work directly with Labs on the data model. Once live, own the ongoing data integrity between Xero and Mothership.
Working capital and cash management
* Own Wave's cash flow forecasting: inflows expected, outflows committed, risk items, and recommended actions. Manage the AR function through a tiered chaser sequence that runs systematically.
* Maintain a live view of cash position, aged debtors, and upcoming payroll commitments, surfacing to the Finance Director on a defined cadence.
Multi-entity and international finance
* Own the finance setup and ongoing compliance for UAE and US entities as they come online.
* Build and maintain country-specific finance briefings: entity structure, VAT and tax treatment, payroll requirements, banking, and intercompany accounting framework.
* Manage the intercompany relationships between Wave Group entities: transfer pricing, management fees, and intercompany loan documentation.
Direct report leadership
* Lead the Finance Operations Associate: a combined finance operations, delivery operations, and AI implementation role. Own their development plan, delegation framework, and day-to-day direction. As Wave scales, the Associate's remit will grow; the job is to develop them at pace with that growth.
Why work at Wave:
* Shoreditch HQ with hybrid working (3 days in),
* 30+ days annual leave including birthday off and Christmas closure
* Private healthcare with AXA,
* Enhanced parental leave (6 weeks full pay for both parents)
* Performance-related bonus
* Annual company trips for high achievers (past trips: Mexico, Vegas, Mykonos, Dubai),
* Apple equipment, and EMI share options tied to group growth.
Full details: https://wave-group.io/