Head of Finance & Operations

Kernel; London; On-site; GBP 80,000 - 100,000; Full time

Job summary

Kernel is seeking a Finance & Operations lead to manage financial operations and drive the company's growth as it transitions from Series A. This role involves integrating financial systems, strategic planning, and leading budgeting efforts, offering an opportunity to work closely with the founding team in a fast-paced, VC-backed startup environment.

Benefits

Working directly with the founding team.

24 days holidays plus bank holidays.

Free dinner when working past 6 pm.

Employee-friendly equity terms.

Flexibility to work abroad for 2 weeks a year.

Qualifications

• 4-7 years of high-stakes generalist experience.
• Strong analytical and technical skills (including SQL).
• Expert in Excel (Sheets) and comfort with modern Business Operations & Automation tools.

Responsibilities

• Build and own finance function from spreadsheets to in-house finance stack.
• Lead budgeting, reporting, forecasting, and cash flow.
• Improve operational processes across departments.

Skills

Analytical

Organised

Detail-oriented

Creative problem solving

Job description

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About Kernel

Kernel enables revenue teams to research companies as if they had unlimited time.

We're growing extremely fast and working with many of the best revenue teams in the world like Remote.com, Navan, Zip, GoCardless, Cognism, and many more.

Previously, revenue teams relied on manual research to understand if a company had the problem they solved: Do job descriptions indicate doing what you automate? Who do they sell to? Is non-public financial data estimated to the right size? And what does this data tell me about their corporate card spend? Their travel expenses?

Our customers use Kernel to find this for every relevant company in the world to get complete overviews of ideal customers and pursue the right companies.

We're a team of second-time founders and have raised $5mm+ from top VCs and revenue leaders at Open AI, Slack, Snowflake, and MongoDB.

The Role

We're looking for our first Finance & Operations lead to join the team. You'll be the force behind everything from managing our financial engine to building the internal systems that help us scale. This is a unique opportunity to help shape the future of a VC-backed startup as we grow from Series A to beyond.

Important to Know:

• Hours - This will be an exciting but intense job. Kernel is growing extremely fast and hours can often be long. Many of our customers are on the West Coast, and meetings can be held late in the evening.
• Working location - Minimum 4 days a week in the London office (most people do 5).

Responsibilities

• Build and own our finance function: You'll take us from spreadsheets and contractors to an in-house, automated, and scalable finance stack. Own everything from day-to-day bookkeeping to long-term financial planning
• Budgeting, forecasting & reporting: Work with our CEO to lead budgeting, reporting, forecasting, and cash flow. Set targets and ensure we're making informed, financially sound decisions
• Be the operational backbone: Work cross-functionally to improve how we run. Whether it's streamlining customer billing, setting up new offices, thinking through our People strategies or legal affairs - you'll make the machine run smoother.
• Support our go-to-market and product teams: Help our teams stay ahead of customer contracts, onboarding & renewals

Your Traits

• All-in: You're not afraid to roll up your sleeves and handle whatever needs doing - from chasing down invoices to building financial models. You have no problems 'taking out the trash'
• Entrepreneurial: You're a creative, resourceful generalist. You like solving problems, figuring things out fast, and working with limited structure or playbooks
• Analytical: You're organised, detail-obsessed, and care deeply about doing things the right way. Whether it's cleaning up messy data or triple-checking payroll

Essential Qualifications:

• ~4-7 years of high-stakes generalist experience
• A heavy (strategic) finance angle to your work. You will need to be an Excel (Sheets) expert. Often, we also find that having spent some time in Banking, Consulting or PE lends itself well to roles like these
• Proven ability to just GSD. Directly, and via influence / leadership
• Exceptional attention to detail and a master of written communications
• Comfortable with a broad range of modern Business Operations & Automation tools
• Strong analytical and technical skills (SQL + an excel wizard). You unblock yourself
• Ability to manage external partners (e.g. accountants, legal counsel, HR/payroll providers)

Nice-To-Have:

• Ideally, some of your time has been spent in a fast-paced startup environment. But this isn't a hard requirement if you really want to make this transition
• Experience owning or supporting one or more core business functions such as Finance, Ops, People, or Legal

What we offer:

• Working directly with the founding team.
• A phenomenal platform for accelerated career growth.
• Dinner: Free when working past 6 pm.
• Holidays: 24 days plus bank holidays.
• Salary: £80-£100k
• Equity: Option grant on employee-friendly terms.
• Flexibility: Ability to work abroad for 2-weeks a year + flexibility during the working week for appointments (or anything else)