Internal Controls Manager

Cleo; Greater London; On-site; GBP 90,000 - 150,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity

Health insurance

Pension

Learning and development platform

Paid sabbatical after four years

Location-specific leave entitlements

Job summary

Cleo is seeking a founding member for its Internal Controls team to design and embed a robust controls environment as the company scales. Reporting to the Financial Reporting & Tax Lead, you’ll drive controls across finance and the wider business, ensuring readiness for growth and regulatory expectations.

You’ll partner with auditors and cross-functional teams to implement scalable, compliant processes, build playbooks for new products, and foster a culture of accountability and excellence in

Qualifications

• Big 4 experience—ideally in controls or internal audit.
• ACA, CIA or equivalent qualification preferred.
• Experience in Fintech or regulated Financial Services.
• Hands-on experience designing and/or testing a controls framework from scratch.
• Familiarity with SOX 404, COSO or equivalent.
• Exposure to multi-entity or multi-jurisdiction environments.
• Collaborative mindset—balance enablement and auditing.
• Strong communicator—translate complex topics to non-technical stakeholders.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and own Cleo’s internal controls framework across financial reporting, compliance, and operational processes.
• Lead control testing and self-assessment across major business processes and implement improvements.
• Partner with external auditors on controls matters and support audit processes.
• Create controls playbooks for new products and entity launches.
• Lead the journey towards a public-company-ready controls environment, including SOX 404.
• Champion a strong controls culture through training, guidance, and accountability.

Skills

Big 4 experience

SOX 404

COSO

Controls design

Stakeholder communication

Collaboration

Strong communicator

Education

ACA or CIA

Job description

Most money apps talk at you. Cleo talks back

We're not building another finance app. We're building the world's first AI financial assistant, one that actually understands your money and makes you better at it, and we're changing the world's relationship with money in the process. For everyone, whatever their background or balance.

The proof: profitable, fast-growing, a unicorn with over $300M in ARR, and millions of people who now feel differently about their money.

We love original thinkers who challenge the status quo. We move fast, tell the truth, and there's nowhere to hide from good work here. If that excites you more than it scares you, you'll fit right in.

Meet The Team

Hello I’m Kyle, VP Finance at Cleo. I’m excited to be growing our Finance team as Cleo enters its next stage of scale.

Finance at Cleo is about much more than reporting the numbers. We help the business understand its economics, make better decisions, allocate capital, and build the financial infrastructure needed to scale.

Today, our team of ~25 spans Controllership, Financial Operations, Treasury, FP&A, Strategic Finance, Capital Markets, and Investor Relations, supported by a dedicated Data Science team working across all areas.

We work closely with teams across Cleo, and we expect our people to understand the business, take real ownership, and master their craft.

It’s an exciting time to join: the company is growing quickly, the problems are getting more interesting, and there is a huge amount still to build.

About The Role

We're hiring our founding Internal Controls team member to help Cleo scale confidently as we grow across products, processes, and geographies. Reporting to the Financial Reporting & Tax Lead, you’ll build on strong foundations to design and embed a robust controls environment across Finance and the wider business. Key responsibilities for this role include:

• Design, build, and own Cleo’s internal controls framework across financial reporting, compliance, and operational processes.

• Lead control testing and self-assessment across major business processes, turning findings into practical improvements.

• Partner with external auditors on controls matters and support a smooth, scalable audit process.

• Create controls playbooks for new products and entity launches, ensuring controls keep pace with growth.

• Lead Cleo’s journey towards a public-company-ready controls environment, including SOX 404 or equivalent.

• Champion a strong controls culture through training, guidance, and clear accountability across the business.

What We're Looking For

• Big 4 experience - ideally in the controls or internal audit team, but if you’ve been working in external audit, we’d still love to hear from you.

• ACA, CIA or equivalent qualification preferred

• Experience (either in-house or from a client perspective) in Fintech or regulated Financial Services companies is highly beneficial.

• Hands-on experience designing and/or testing a controls framework from scratch.

• Familiarity with SOX 404, COSO or equivalent.

• Hands-on experience designing and/or testing a controls framework from scratch.

• Exposure to multi-entity or multi-jurisdiction environments

• Collaborative mindset - striking the balance between enablement and auditing

• Strong communicator - able to translate complex technical topics to non-technical stakeholders

What we offer

We offer benefits package built to support you in and out of work. Benefits vary by country and include meaningful equity, comprehensive health, dental and vision insurance, mental health support, a paid one-month sabbatical after four years, a learning and development platform, pension or retirement contributions, and location-specific leave entitlements. For the full breakdown on what's available in your location, visit our Candidate Hub

What Matters

Cleo's mission is to change the world's relationship with money. We can't do that without building a brilliant, genuinely diverse team - and making sure our hiring process gives everyone a fair shot, running a fair and transparent recruitment process in which every candidate is considered on their metris.

We're glad to make reasonable adjustments at any stage of the process. If there's anything we can do to support you in showing us your best, please let your recruiter or one of the team know.

We may use AI-assisted tools during the recruitment process to take support the team in different ways like taking notes or referring back to conversations. They do not replace the team and all applications are reviewed by a Cleo employee thoroughly!