VP Finance (First Finance Hire) | Series A Capital Markets Technology Firm | Clerkenwell, London
The Client
Harmonic is delighted to be retained by one of the most exciting technology businesses in the UK capital markets space. Built by engineers, it develops world-class software in the UK and runs it at serious scale, and it has grown into a full-stack capital markets technology platform with several revenue streams: its own proprietary activity alongside a fast-growing client-facing business spanning managed services, market data and agency products.
Fresh off a Series A led by leading UK venture investors, it is investing hard behind that ambition, with serious commercial traction and expansion into new products and geographies already underway. The team is small, flat and non-hierarchical, with a culture built on competence, honesty, low ego and real agency.
The Role
This is the company’s first senior finance hire and a foundational one, reporting directly to the founders. You will not inherit a finished function; you will build one. You will own the financial model, forecasting and the wider FP&A agenda, build investor reporting from the ground up, put in place the robust financial controls and processes the business currently lacks, get properly close to the balance sheet and cash flow, and bring order to a reconciliation environment made genuinely demanding by high transaction volumes across multiple revenue streams.
It is a role for someone who is both a builder and a strategist: hands-on and close to the detail, while owning the commercial and strategic finance agenda from day one. Day-to-day bookkeeping can be supported separately so it never becomes the focus. It comes with a clear and credible pathway to CFO over the next 18 months to two years for someone with the ambition and breadth to grow into it.
Key Responsibilities
- Own the financial model, forecasting and FP&A, and turn them into the insight leadership needs to make decisions.
- Build and continually improve reporting to investors and other stakeholders, partnering with the founders on performance updates and planning.
- Design and build a finance function fit for a scaling business, deciding what sits in-house versus contract, outsourced or tooled.
- Put in place a monthly reporting cadence and design month end processes.
- Put in place robust financial controls, processes and governance, and strengthen them as the business scales.
- Take ownership of the balance sheet and cash flow, working closely with the external accountants.
- Fix and strengthen the reconciliation environment created by high transaction volumes across multiple revenue streams.
- Work closely with the Founders on Investor Reporting, and future fundraising activity.
- Support decisions on the financial and tax implications of growth moves, across both proprietary trading and contract and subscription client revenue.
- Bring a practical willingness to work with systems and data, including a bit of Python or database work where it makes finance faster and sharper.
- A track record in high-growth startup, scale-up, ideally in fintech, trading or crypto finance, either as a strong number two ready to lead or a number one stepping up.
- Genuine strength in financial modelling, forecasting and investor-facing reporting.
- Capital markets exposure, including a working understanding of derivatives and mark-to-market accounting. You do not need to price options in your head, but you do need to be at home in a markets context.
- Strong accounting fundamentals and real comfort owning the balance sheet and cash flow.
- Experience in lean businesses where breadth matters, roles are not siloed, and you do not need a large team behind you to be effective.
- Enough technical confidence to operate around high-volume transactions and complex reconciliation, and to reach for the right tool when it helps.
- Already operating just below CFO level and ready to step up, or clearly on that trajectory.
- Direct experience of a prop trading firm, a trading-adjacent fintech or a serious crypto business.
- Comfortable using AI well without leaning on it as a crutch: sound finance judgement plus the good sense to automate the boring parts.
Salary: £150,000 to £180,000, depending on experience + meaningful equity and variable bonus
Location: Clerkenwell, London, primarily office-based with pragmatic flexibility
Start Date: Looking for someone in seat by early to mid-autumn, with sensible flexibility for the right 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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