Financial Controller

Financial Controller
Salary: £80,000 to £100,000 plus discretionary bonus
Location: Mayfair, London
Working arrangement: Hybrid, three days per week in the office
Job type: Permanent
MFK Recruitment is proud to be partnering with a rapidly growing energy technology business to recruit a Financial Controller.
This is an outstanding opportunity for an ambitious finance professional who is ready to become the number-one finance person within a scaling business. It is not a role for someone who simply wants to maintain an established finance function. The successful candidate will be given genuine ownership, work closely with the CEO and leadership team, and build the finance capability required to support the company's continued growth.
The company is a licensed electricity supplier with its own software platform. It supplies and trades power, manages a portfolio of embedded generation sites and develops the technology that supports its operations. Revenues are expected to exceed £300 million during the next 12 months, although much of this reflects the pass-through nature of energy trading.
The business currently benefits from the support of an external finance function. Over an initial transition period, responsibility will move across to the successful candidate, who will become fully responsible for finance and, as the company grows, recruit and develop an internal team.
The role
This will be a broad, hands-on position with significant responsibility and direct exposure to the CEO. You will take ownership of cashflow, payments, management information, budgeting, forecasting, audit coordination, statutory reporting and finance-related regulatory returns.
A major early priority will be supporting the company's transition to a modern, AI-enabled accounting platform. The company is a technology-first business, so the successful candidate must be genuinely excited by the opportunity to use AI, automation and better data to create a lean, scalable and highly effective finance function.
The role may suit a Finance Manager, Senior Finance Manager or Financial Controller who has built strong foundations across core finance and is now ready to take a significant step forward. You do not need to have spent many years operating as a Financial Controller, but you must have the technical grounding, confidence and entrepreneurial mindset to take ownership of a growing function.
Key responsibilities
* Building and maintaining detailed short and medium-term cashflow forecasts that reflect how cash moves through the energy market
* Managing working capital, liquidity, credit cover and collateral across relevant industry counterparties
* Owning the payment function and establishing appropriate controls
* Coordinating the year-end audit with the company's external auditors
* Taking responsibility for statutory reporting and finance-related regulatory returns
* Leading the annual budgeting process, rolling reforecasts and company financial model
* Supporting financial resilience assessments, stress testing and regulatory reporting
* Leading the transition to a new accounting platform capable of transaction-level reconciliation
* Introducing AI-enabled and automated workflows across payment processing, transaction categorisation, reconciliation, reporting and month-end close
* Developing a detailed understanding of the energy market and its unusual cashflow dynamics
* Recruiting, leading and developing the internal finance team as the business grows
* Growing with the company and taking on broader senior and regulatory accounting responsibilities in the future
What we are looking for
* A qualified accountant with an ACA, ACCA or CIMA qualification
* At least five years of professional finance experience
* Experience gained as a Finance Manager, Senior Finance Manager, Financial Controller or in a comparable position
* Strong knowledge of core accounting principles, financial controls and management reporting
* Experience coordinating an external audit from the company side
* Strong cashflow forecasting, budgeting and working capital management experience
* The confidence to operate as the sole and most senior finance person within the business following the initial handover period
* An entrepreneurial mindset and a desire to contribute beyond a traditional back-office finance remit
* A genuine passion for AI accounting software, automation and technology-led process improvement
* The ability to work comfortably with complex transactional data and collaborate with software engineers
* The ambition to build and lead a finance team as the company scales
* Strong communication skills and the confidence to work directly with the CEO, board, auditors and external stakeholders
Experience within energy, utilities, commodity trading or another regulated sector would be beneficial, but it is not essential. The company is open to candidates from other sectors who can demonstrate the right technical foundations, commercial curiosity and desire to become an energy-market expert.
Experience implementing or migrating an accounting system would also be advantageous. Exposure to SQL, Python, business intelligence tools or large transactional datasets would be useful, although curiosity and a genuine desire to use new technology are more important.
What the company can offer
* Hybrid working, with three days per week in the Mayfair office
* The opportunity to become the number-one finance person within a rapidly growing business
* A direct working relationship with the CEO and senior leadership team
* The freedom and support to introduce AI, automation and modern accounting technology
* The opportunity to build a finance function rather than inherit a finished one
* The chance to develop deep expertise within the fast-moving energy market
MFK Recruitment has already supported this business with four successful engineering appointments, all of whom remain with the company. We are now excited to support the next stage of its growth by identifying the person who will build and lead its finance function