Business Controller

Capalo AI Oy; Helsinki; Hybrid; EUR 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

Capalo AI, a Helsinki-based software company powering energy markets, seeks a Business Controller to own planning, the financial model, revenue integrity and finance systems.

You will lead monthly forecasting, cash flow, unit economics, and multi-country treasury, while driving AI adoption in Finance and automation to scale as the business grows.

Qualifications

• Strong financial modelling spanning P&L, balance sheet and cash flow.
• Background in controlling, FP&A or similar top-down finance role in scaling SaaS/energy businesses.
• Hands-on with SQL/Python or low-code automation, BI tools and AI assistants.
• Ability to move between detail (settlement reconciliation) and the big picture (unit economics).
• Ownership mindset: first finance builder in a growing company.

Responsibilities

• Plan the monthly cost centre budgeting and rolling-forecast cycle, and own targets and variance follow-up.
• Monthly actual vs budget reporting with KPIs and leadership commentary.
• Own the cash-flow forecast and working-capital management.
• Build and maintain unit-economics view by MW/MWh, market and contract model.
• Model collateral, guarantee and prepayment requirements for market participation.
• Drive AI adoption and finance automation across month-end close, reconciliations and reporting.

Skills

Financial modelling

Controlling / FP&A

SQL / Python

Low-code automation

BI tools

AI assistants

Detail to big picture

Ownership mindset

Tools

SQL

Python

Low-code automation

Job description

About Capalo AI

Capalo AI builds the software behind the energy transition. Our Zeus VPP platform turns fleets of batteries into a single, coordinated virtual power plant, optimizing storage and trading electricity across European markets automatically, around the clock. We're a Helsinki-based company growing quickly across Finland, the Baltics, Romania, Bulgaria, Greece, Poland, and beyond.

The role

Capalo's revenue comes from trading battery storage across several European electricity markets. Every euro passes through market results, settlement data, collateral requirements and customer revenue-share contracts before it reaches the books. As our Business Controller, you'll own that whole picture: planning, the company financial model, revenue integrity and the finance systems behind them. The goal is a finance function that tells leadership what's really happening in the business, and that keeps up as we add customers, markets and countries without increasing manual work.

What you'll do

Planning and forecasting

• Set up and run the monthly cost centre budgeting and rolling-forecast cycle, and own the resulting targets and variance follow-up

• Monthly actual vs budget reporting. KPIs and commentary that tell leadership and the board what is actually happening in the business

• Own the cash-flow forecast and working-capital management

• Build and maintain the unit-economics view of the business: revenue and margin per MW/MWh under optimisation, per customer, per market and per contract model

• Track and challenge cost development

Financial modelling and structuring

• Build, own and continuously refine the company financial model as the single engine behind planning, pricing and capital decisions, with operational drivers linked directly to P&L, cash and balance sheet

• Model collateral, guarantee and prepayment requirements arising from market participation, balance responsibility and customer contracts, and the funding and liquidity needed to support them as the fleet grows

• Quantify market, price and counterparty risk in the portfolio and propose hedging, contractual or capital-structure responses

Revenue and settlement integrity

• Own the end-to-end flow from market results and settlement data to customer revenue-share calculations, invoicing and revenue recognition

• Ensure every Euro earned is correctly attributed, settled, invoiced and reconciled across customers, counterparties and countries

• Define the process-level controls in the revenue flow - reconciliation points on a more detailed level

AI adoption and finance automation

• Be the driver and hands-on example of AI use in Finance: identify where AI agents and copilots add real value (close, reconciliations, variance analysis, forecasting, contract and invoice review) and put them into production

• Automate the recurring finance processes - month-end close, reconciliations, intercompany, VAT and statutory reporting, model and report data feeds - so that adding entities, customers or markets doesn’t add manual work

• Own the finance systems roadmap: accounting, invoicing, expense and payment tools, BI and planning tools, and the integrations between them and the Zeus platform

• Build the data foundations that make AI and automation useful: clean, well-structured financial and operational data with clear definitions and ownership

• Set the guardrails for AI in Finance: which decisions AI can make, where a human reviews, and how accuracy and auditability are ensured

Governance, compliance and treasury

• Manage the relationship with the accounting partner and auditors, and own the quality of statutory financials

• Ensure compliance with tax, VAT and regulatory requirements in each market Capalo operates in, including the specifics of energy market participation

• Design finance operations for multi-country, multi-currency, global operations from the start so expansion is a configuration change rather than a rebuild

What you'll bring

Must-haves

• Strong financial modelling skills: you're fluent in P&L, balance sheet and cash flow, and comfortable building driver-based models and scenarios for liquidity, collateral and cash

• Solid background in controlling, FP&A or a similar top-down finance role, for example from a fund, VC, Big Four, M&A or management consulting, or a scaling SaaS, energy or asset-based business

• Hands-on with modern tooling: comfortable in SQL/Python or low-code automation, BI tools and AI assistants, and eager to build rather than wait for IT

• Ability to move between detail (a settlement reconciliation) and the big picture (what the unit economics say about strategy)

• Ownership mindset: comfortable being the first finance builder in a company that is still defining its processes

Nice-to-haves

• Financial controlling background, highly appreciated

• Understanding of electricity markets, energy trading or battery storage

• Experience setting up finance processes or systems in a multi-country, multi-currency company

Why Capalo

• Work on technology that is accelerating the transition to renewable energy.

• Join a fast-growing company at the intersection of AI and energy markets.

• Work with a highly collaborative and mission-driven team.

• Have real ownership from day one: shape the processes, tools and financial model that influence how the company plans and decides.

What to expect

Location: Helsinki, Finland

Working mode: Hybrid, from our Helsinki office

Recruitment process: First interview - Case assignment - Technical interview - Meet the CEO