Senior Finance Manager

Ryft; Manchester; Hybrid; GBP 70,000 - 110,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid working

Equity options

25 days holiday

Flexible hours

Team socials

Autonomy

Job summary

Ryft is seeking a hands-on Senior Finance Manager to lead a small finance team in Manchester. You will own the monthly close, balance sheet integrity and provide insightful management reporting as the business scales.

You will design and implement scalable financial processes, automate where possible, and coach a pair of accountants. The role reports to the Financial Controller with potential broader scope into technical accounting and VAT work.

Qualifications

• Fully qualified ACA, ACCA or CIMA with strong technical accounting foundation.
• Owns month-end close and management accounts pack in own right.
• Experience in high-volume transactional environment with large data sets.

Responsibilities

• Own the month-end close timetable end to end and ensure accuracy.
• Prepare and review monthly management accounts and journals.
• Maintain balance sheet integrity with reconciliations and review controls.
• Collaborate with client funds and reconciliations team to reflect positions in ledger.
• Line manage a Management Accountant and an Assistant Management Accountant.
• Coach and develop the team and support professional study.

Skills

ACA/ACCA/CIMA

Month-end close ownership

Balance sheet discipline

Line management

High-volume transactions

Excel skills

Cloud accounting systems

Process-minded

Education

ACA/ACCA/CIMA

Tools

Excel

Cloud accounting systems

Job description

This is a hands-on Senior Finance Manager role within a fast-growing finance team at

an FCA-regulated payments business. Reporting to the Financial Controller and leading

a team of two, you will own the monthly close and the integrity of the balance sheet and

take day-to-day responsibility for how the finance team runs.

A significant part of this role is being involved in building the processes that do not exist

yet and automating the ones that still rely on manual effort.

This suits a fully qualified accountant who has already owned a month-end close in their

own right and wants to step up into genuine team leadership - someone comfortable in

the detail, working at pace, in a business whose volumes and complexity are growing

quickly.

Key responsibilities

Month-end close and management reporting

• Own the month-end timetable end to end, maintaining a disciplined and efficient close as transaction volumes and complexity grow
• Prepare and review the monthly management accounts pack, ready for review by the Financial Controller and Finance Director
• Review the journals, accruals, prepayments and reconciliations prepared by the team, taking responsibility for the accuracy of what is issued
• Take full ownership of balance sheet integrity, ensuring accounts are reconciled monthly, reconciling items are resolved promptly and appropriate review controls are maintained
• Work closely with our client funds and reconciliations team, ensuring the positions they produce are reflected correctly and promptly in the ledger

Process build, systems and controls

• Take ownership of finance processes across the transactional cycle - purchase ledger, sales ledger, expenses and payroll journals - ensuring controls are documented and consistently applied
• Design and implement new processes for activities the business has not had to account for before, getting them right at the point of introduction rather than retrofitting them later
• Identify and remove manual effort, making the case for change where a process works today but will not scale
• Embed scalable financial controls as the business grows, ensuring key processes are appropriately documented, evidenced and reviewable

Supporting the wider finance function

• Support the Financial Controller on VAT, year-end and audit by providing accurate, reconciled figures and supporting schedules to deadline
• As you establish yourself in the role, we expect the remit to broaden, with increasing ownership of areas such as VAT, year-end, audit and other technical accounting matters
• Contribute actuals, cost driver insight and practical input to budgeting and forecasting
• Escalate technical and judgement-based issues promptly, with a clear recommendation rather than an open question

Team leadership and development

• Line manage a Management Accountant and an Assistant Management Accountant, review their output, set the standard for quality, and act as the first point of technical escalation before matters reach the Financial Controller
• Coach and develop the team, supporting professional study and creating opportunities for them to take on more

Skills - must haves

• Fully qualified accountant (ACA, ACCA or CIMA) with a strong technical accounting foundation
• Demonstrable ownership of a month-end close and a management accounts pack in their own right, not solely preparing components of someone else's
• Strong balance sheet discipline, with real experience owning reconciliations and driving breaks to resolution
• Line management experience, or clear readiness for it - able to review others work
• Experience in a high-volume transactional environment, comfortable working with large data sets and reconciling between systems
• Strong Excel skills and confidence with cloud accounting systems
• Process-minded and hands-on - comfortable getting into the detail, identifying processes that will not scale, and implementing practical solutions rather than simply highlighting problems

Skills - nice to have

• Payments, fintech or other FCA-regulated financial services experience
• Hands-on involvement in systems implementation and change

What We Offer

• A genuinely developmental Senior Finance Manager role - you'll take ownership of the day-to-day finance operation from the outset, with the opportunity to broaden your remit into technical accounting and other areas as the business scales
• A chance to shape the future of payments at a high-growth fintech
• Hybrid working from our Manchester office and flexible hours
• Meaningful equity options
• 25 days holiday + bank holidays
• Regular team socials and offsites
• A fast-paced working environment with genuine responsibility and autonomy