Finance Manager

ABOUT NOUS Nous is an AI agent that takes some of the load of life; making good decisions and acting for our users in areas where they’re not the experts or aren’t paying enough attention. We've started with optimising bills, where we're already saving households thousands, and are now expanding into new categories. Similar to how Amazon picked books as its first category and grew from there. We’re growing fast, and it's working. 20x YoY growth makes us one of the fastest scaling startups in the UK. And NPS of +70 (higher than Apple) shows that our users love it. We've just launched two more novel new products (on top of our existing bill optimisation). Insurance: we're the first to get the regulatory approval and build the tech to actually do the full insurance discovery and purchase journey as an agent for the user (not just give them a link to the best deal). Subscription management: lots of companies use Open Banking to draw pretty graphs – we're the first to use it to actively save people money starting by cancelling unwanted subscriptions for them. It would be easy to look at this and think we've got it all figured out. But we've only scratched the surface; our ambitions are SO much higher. We’re building a new category of product which is hard, so we’ve stacked the deck in our favour: an experienced founding team with multiple exits, and investors including the founders of Monzo, Wise, Booking.com http://Booking.com, lastminute.com http://lastminute.com, Onfido, Funding Circle, Tide, Habito and more. Still - the problems we’re solving are hard. ‘Talk is cheap’ applies to agents too. To have REAL impact, agents need to break out of the sandbox and take action in the real world where there are consequences. This means solving all the hard, thorny, interesting, frustrating problems the real world has to offer. ABOUT THE ROLE This is a rare opportunity for exceptional mid-career talent to learn under an outstanding Head of Finance inside one of the UK's fastest-growing consumer-tech businesses. It's deliberately hands-on and technical. You'll own the day-to-day engine room of finance, from high-volume reconciliations through to month-end, while helping to design the controls, systems and automation that let Nous scale with near-zero defects. This is not a routine finance role. Because of the innovative nature of our business model, many of the problems you'll face require confident first-principles thinking rather than a ready-made playbook. It's a genuine controller-track opportunity: get this right and the path to Financial Controller and beyond is clear. KEY RESPONSIBILITIES - Own the high-volume reconciliations that sit at the heart of the business, ensuring customer, supplier and provider transactions reconcile cleanly and accurately as customers move between providers. - Manage the invoicing cycle across the supplier and provider base, keeping it accurate, timely and well controlled. - Take ownership of finance operations end to end, including customer payments, provider payouts, supplier fees and other regular payments. - Build automation into finance workflows using modern data and AI tooling, driving speed, accuracy and scale as volumes grow. - Maintain consistent, up-to-date and accurate financial records — being the go-to person on the historical financial source of truth, enabling clear visibility into performance. - Lead the month-end close and prepare timely, accurate management accounts the leadership team can rely on. - Design and embed financial controls across payments, approvals and vendor management, building a robust control environment from the ground up. - Prepare the business for, and help lead it through, its first external audit. - Partner with engineering, product and go-to-market teams to design low-touch, automated finance processes, particularly around reconciliation and data capture. - Provide the finance foundations that support Nous's geographic and product expansion. - Support the Head of Finance on investor reporting and the reporting infrastructure that underpins it. ABOUT YOU We expect strong candidates to come from one of two backgrounds: - Practice first-movers. Exceptional talent making a first move from practice — ideally Big 4 (Audit, CFO Advisory or equivalent), or experience from another firm auditing high-growth tech businesses — who want to move into a high-calibre, hands-on industry role. - Industry high-performers. High-calibre candidates already in industry who want a controller-track role in a rapidly growing company. Whichever route you come from, you'll have around five years or more of experience and a genuine track record of high performance. You're likely to have a STEM or otherwise analytical background or degree. Above all, you genuinely love accounting — not as a means to an end, but as a craft you find satisfying and want to master. You're high-agency and thrive in a fast-moving, high-bar, technical environment. You're comfortable in the detail, energised by problems that don't yet have a playbook, take pride in building well-run processes, and motivated by our mission to make life fairer for households. You're tech-savvy — the sort of person already curious about, and comfortable using, data and AI tooling in your own work. ESSENTIAL EXPERIENCE - Around 5 years or more of relevant finance experience, from practice (Big 4, audit or advisory) or a strong industry background. - A clear, demonstrable history of high performance — academic, professional or both. - A STEM or analytical background or degree, and a genuinely analytical mind. - A real love of accounting, and comfort being hands-on in the detail of reconciliations, invoicing and month-end. - High agency and first-principles problem-solving in fast-changing environments. - Qualified (ACA, ACCA or CIMA) with at least 2–3 years PQE, or equivalent. - Hands-on familiarity with databases and data tooling — for example Power BI, Looker, Omni, Amplitude or Tableau. Comfortable using modern data tooling beyond Excel and traditional accounting systems like Xero or NetSuite. DESIRABLE EXPERIENCE - Active use of AI tools in day-to-day work, for example Claude Code or similar. - Exposure to high-volume, transactional businesses such as marketplaces, fintech, energy or consumer technology. - Experience building or improving finance processes in partnership with product or engineering teams. - Exposure to a first audit, or to building controls in a scaling business. REMUNERATION AND BENEFITS - Compelling packages, including share options with life-changing upside. We’ve raised enough money to pay real salaries. We're building something great together and we all share in the upside. If we win, we win together. - An environment where you can do your best work: - 🏢 A great office set up for lots of collaborative working. We already need more whiteboards - 💻 The equipment / setup / training you need to do your best work - 🤝 A high-context environment with lots of exposure to the big decisions - be in the room when it happens (literally) - 🏡 Flexibility around remote work. If you sometimes just need to get your head down, that's fine - ☕ Very good coffee https://www.nous.co/blog/the-best-coffee-in-the-world - 🍽️ A well-stocked kitchen (featuring a wildly popular toastie maker) so you can always make yourself a breakfast or light lunch on the house - 🎉 Informal social every week, something bigger every month, plus a set-piece event in the summer and again at Christmas - we're not robots! - ✈ 33 days paid holidays (including bank holidays) - 💊 Health and dental cash plans, including an employee assistance programme - 🚴 Travel benefits, including the cycle-to-work scheme and season ticket loans Nous has an office-first culture. That means we encourage in-person working, and most people do work from the office in Farringdon most of the time. We do a lot of brainstorming, problem-solving and interaction within the team and presence makes this more effective. It also helps ensure people have good peripheral awareness and high context. But we are pragmatic not doctrinal about this, and recognise that, sometimes, certain types of work can be better done remotely. THE ENVIRONMENT Most importantly, this is a high-performance, high-agency and high-trust technical environment. Nous is intentionally lean and AI-native — not just in its product but as a company. Everyone is expected to use AI to its full potential, whether that's debugging a system, streamlining a workflow or improving how customers are served. Rather than building layers of middle management, we hire smart, high-agency people and give them real ownership. We're dedicated to fostering an inclusive and equitable workplace, and we actively welcome applications from individuals of all backgrounds. Every candidate is thoughtfully considered, without regard to race, religion, gender expression, disability or sexual orientation.