Head of Finance

Wavo SAS; Lyon; Sur place; Plein temps

Avantages offerts par ce poste

Competitive compensation

Opportunity to shape the finance function

Direct exposure to founders

Résumé du poste

A financial technology company in Lyon is seeking a Head of Finance to establish its finance function from scratch. The role involves managing relationships with funding partners, setting up robust processes, and ensuring financial reporting meets high standards. Candidates should have experience in structured finance or complex financing topics and excellent bilingual communication skills. This is an opportunity to directly influence the growth and structure of a rapidly developing company in the inventory financing space.

Qualifications

• Experience handling structured finance or complex financing topics.
• Ability to turn complex financial concepts into actionable strategies.
• Strong communication skills for building relationships.

Responsabilités

• Lead the development of Wavo's finance function from scratch.
• Establish standards, tools, and operating rhythm for finance.
• Manage relationships with funding partners adeptly.

Connaissances

Structured debt knowledge

Relationship management with funding partners

Financial modeling

Rigorous reporting

Bilingual in French and English

Description du poste

Wavo raises €3.5 million to unlock stock financing for SMEs - Read more

About Us

At Wavo , we are building the future of inventory financing.

For SMEs, inventory is both an opportunity and a constraint. It ties up cash, limits growth, and creates risk. Traditional financing solutions are often slow, rigid, and poorly aligned with the operational reality of inventory.

We take a different approach. Wavo buys and finances inventory upfront, without debt or personal guarantees. Businesses can unlock cash, improve working capital, and accelerate their growth, while buying back their products progressively as they are sold.

We raised €3.5M to accelerate our growth and expand our platform. Our ambition is to build the leading inventory financing infrastructure in Europe.

Finance will play a central role in that ambition. Our model relies on a demanding operating structure, where execution quality, financial discipline and the trust of our funding partners are critical. As Wavo grows, our ability to structure new facilities, strengthen our reporting, and make our model more robust, scalable and financeable becomes a major strategic lever.

Today, a lot still needs to be built on that front. That is precisely what makes the role so interesting.

That is why we are hiring our first Head of Finance.

About the Role

This is a build-from-scratch role.

Your mission will be to structure Wavo’s finance function with a very specific angle: making finance a lever for credibility, robustness and scale, in service of our funding relationships and our ability to open new lines.

This role goes far beyond the finance scope of a traditional startup. Of course, you will also work on corporate finance, budgeting, cash management and board reporting. But the core of the role sits elsewhere: understanding our model in depth, translating it into a clear and rigorous framework for our funding partners, building the right level of financial steering, and laying the foundations that will allow Wavo to grow with discipline.

You will work at the intersection of finance, operations and structuring. This role requires someone who is as comfortable going deep into the detail as they are taking a step back, and who can both build from scratch and maintain a high bar over time.

You will work directly with the founders on one of the company’s most strategic topics.

What You Will Do

You will lead the build-out and evolution of Wavo’s finance function, with a strong focus on our funding partners and the preparation of new facilities.

This includes structuring our financial steering, improving the quality of our reporting, putting robust tools and processes in place, and supporting the structuring work needed to enable our growth.

More specifically, you will:

• Build Wavo’s finance function from the ground up, including its standards, methods, tools and operating rhythm
• Lead relationships with our funding partners and become a credible, rigorous and trusted counterpart on these topics
• Make our model clear, robust and financeable at scale
• Prepare and support the implementation of new facilities alongside the founders
• Strengthen the quality and reliability of reporting provided to our funding partners, with a very high level of rigour
• Bring structure to cash management, budgeting, forecasting and board reporting
• Put the right governance and monitoring processes in place around our financing activity
• Connect financial challenges, operational constraints and structuring logic
• Identify weak points, design the right controls, and help the company reach a higher level of financial maturity over time
• Build a demanding, clear and durable finance foundation capable of supporting Wavo’s long-term growth

What We Are Looking For

We are open to different backgrounds, but we are looking for someone with a high level of seniority who can thrive in a demanding environment and take ownership of complex structuring topics.

More than any single background, we care about how you think and how you work.

You are likely to be a strong fit if:

• You have already worked on structured debt, facilities, or other complex financing topics
• You understand what demanding funding partners expect, and you know how to build trusted relationships with them
• You can turn a complex model into clear, credible and actionable financial steering
• You have exceptional rigour and very high standards for the quality of your work
• You enjoy both building solid foundations and solving practical problems day to day
• You know how to go deep into the detail without losing sight of the bigger picture
• You are structured, autonomous, and able to drive strategic topics forward with method
• You have excellent communication skills, both written and spoken, in French and English
• You are comfortable operating in an environment where a lot still needs to be built
• You know how to work with demanding stakeholders and maintain a consistently high bar over time
• Based in Lyon or willing to relocate, as we believe in the value of in-person collaboration (3 days per week). 🍻

Backgrounds in structured finance, private debt, fintech lending, treasury, transaction services or startup finance can all make sense, provided you bring the level of rigour, judgment and maturity the role requires.

What We Offer

• Competitive compensation: fixed salary + BSPCE
• A blank page to build: the opportunity to shape Wavo’s finance function at a key moment in the company’s development.
• Real impact: a role directly connected to our ability to grow, open new facilities and strengthen the robustness of our model.
• A rare playground: a demanding, strategic topic with a lot to build and direct exposure to the founders.
• An ambitious project: joining a fast-growing company building a new approach to inventory financing.
• A strong and committed team: a demanding but supportive environment, with plenty of autonomy and a high level of trust.

Hiring Process

We believe in transparency and efficiency, and we do our best to keep the process simple and smooth. 🚀

• Initial call (30 min) with Adrien (Marketing)
• Logic test (1h)
• In-depth interview (1h) with Julien
• Case study (3h)
• Case presentation (1h) with Julien (CEO) and Tanguy (Product)

Send us your CV or LinkedIn profile, along with a few lines on what attracts you to the role and what you would be excited to build at Wavo : [emailprotected] 🚀