Job Description:

Head of Finance Systems, Automation & AI.

The Opportunity:

We are looking for an exceptional Chartered Accountant who combines deep financial expertise with strong technology experience and a genuine passion for automation and Artificial Intelligence. This is not a traditional accounting role. The successful candidate will operate at the intersection of Accounting, Finance, Data, Software, Automation and AI.

The Mission:

Help us rethink how accounting and financial management are delivered. The objective is to build an AI-enabled finance operating model in which technology performs increasing amounts of routine accounting work, while finance professionals focus on judgement, control, analysis and decision-making.

Core Responsibilities:

- Finance systems leadership: Own the design and implementation of scalable financial processes, controls, reconciliations, audit trails and data integrity.

- Automation & AI: Identify processes suitable for automation and work with developers and AI engineers to design intelligent finance workflows.

- Finance-to-tech bridge: Translate accounting requirements into business rules, user stories, data requirements, acceptance criteria, workflows and test scenarios.

- Implementation ownership: Lead Discovery - Requirements - Design - Development - Testing - UAT - Financial Validation - Training - Go-Live.

- Data & integration: Work confidently with source systems, APIs, databases, data mapping, ETL/ELT, reconciliation and exception reporting.

- Client leadership: Communicate effectively with business owners, CFOs, finance teams, developers, architects and senior management.

- Testing & quality: Ensure systems produce the correct financial and business outcome - not merely that the software technically works.

AI & Automation Focus:

The successful candidate should be excited by the opportunity to transform areas such as:

- Automated bookkeeping and transaction classification.

- Bank reconciliation and exception management.

- Accounts payable / receivable automation.

- Invoice processing and automated journals.

- Month-end workflows and financial reconciliations.

- Cash-flow forecasting, budgeting and management reporting.

- AI-generated financial commentary and insights.

- Anomaly detection, intelligent controls and AI finance agents.

AI Governance & Financial Control:

AI cannot be accepted simply because an answer looks right. This role will help establish validation, confidence thresholds, human approval, exception handling, audit trails, reconciliation, access controls, materiality and escalation rules. The objective is controlled automation, not automation without accountability.

Candidate Profile:

- Qualified CA: ICAI preferred, with strong technical accounting knowledge.

- Finance systems experience: Proven implementation, transformation or ERP experience.

- Developer experience: Has worked directly with software developers and can challenge technical solutions constructively.

- AI passion: Actively follows AI, LLMs, automation and agentic systems and wants to help reinvent accounting.

- Automation mindset: Naturally questions repetitive manual processes and looks for scalable alternatives.

- Leadership: Takes ownership, sets priorities, identifies risks early and drives issues to resolution.

- Communication: Excellent written and spoken English; credible with clients and senior executives.

Highly Desirable Technology Exposure:

ERP / finance systems, Xero, Microsoft Dynamics, SAP, Oracle / NetSuite, Sage, Power BI, SQL, APIs, data warehouses, workflow automation, RPA, OCR / document processing, LLMs, generative AI, AI agents, automated bookkeeping.

The Mindset Matters:

We are prepared to consider candidates who do not yet have extensive commercial AI experience. What we will not compromise on is curiosity, ambition and genuine enthusiasm for transforming accounting through technology.

What Success Looks Like:

Within 6-12 months, this individual should become a trusted senior leader able to take a finance problem through Accounting - Process - Data - Automation - AI - Development - Testing - Implementation - Client Adoption.

Long-Term Opportunity:

For an exceptional individual, the role can evolve into broader leadership responsibility across Finance Transformation, AI & Automation, Product, Implementation and Operations.