Financial Controller

Spectrum Life; Ireland; Hybrid; EUR 110,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

Spectrum.Life is seeking a Financial Controller to lead the finance operations team in Ireland, overseeing core processes and driving adoption of AI-enabled workflows. The role suits a qualified accountant who thrives in a collaborative, fast-paced environment and can scale finance operations during a period of change.

Based in Ireland, this hybrid role involves working with cross-functional teams, managing month-end close, financial reporting, statutory compliance, payroll, VAT, intercompany

Qualifications

• Qualified accountant with extensive Irish finance experience.
• Experience leading finance teams in dynamic, fast-paced environments.
• Proven ability to drive process improvements and scale finance ops.

Responsibilities

• Lead and develop the finance operations team across payables, payroll, and reporting.
• Coordinate month-end close and produce timely, accurate financial statements.
• Maintain robust financial controls, balance sheet reconciliations and audits.
• Drive cost and margin analysis, budgeting and forecasting with cross-functional partners.
• Champion AI-enabled workflows and digital transformation in finance.

Skills

Team Leadership

Financial reporting

Variance analysis

Payroll

VAT returns

Intercompany accounting

Budgeting & forecasting

Education

Qualified Accountant (CA/ACCA/CPA)

Tools

ERP systems

Excel

Job description

About us

Spectrum.Life is a whole-of-health digital partner that guides organisations and their people to thrive, delivering clinically backed digital health, mental health and wellbeing solutions. Our HealthTech delivers digital transformation for Insurers, Educators and Employers through Co-creation or seamlessly integrated out-of-the-box solutions, that decrease digital fragmentation and engage, empower, and transform their people’s lives. Established in 2018 by Stuart McGoldrick and Stephen Costello, Spectrum.Life provides services internationally to over 7.2m insurance members, 3,000 corporate clients, 60 universities and 650,000 university students. Spectrum.Life currently employs over 450 people. Our vision is to change and save as many lives as possible.

Role Brief

Operating within a dynamic and fast-evolving environment, the Financial Controller will lead and develop a finance operations team, oversee core finance processes and drive the team's adoption of AI-enabled and agentic ways of working. This is an excellent opportunity for a qualified accountant who enjoys working in a collaborative, fast-paced setting and who is motivated to help build scalable finance processes, lead a team through a period of change, and shape how the function adopts new technology within a growing organisation.

Schedule

Full-time role. Hybrid, with on average 1-2 in-office days per week for team collaboration and continuous learning on business operations.

Responsibilities

Team Leadership

• Directly manage and develop a team covering payables, billing, collections, payroll etc.
• Own workload prioritisation, performance management and development plans across the team.
• Provide a stable management layer ensuring continuity of service across all finance operations.

Financial Control and Reporting

• Coordinate the month-end close timetable with the finance team to ensure timely and accurate reporting.
• Prepare monthly financial reporting, including variance analysis against budget and prior periods.
• Support the preparation of board reporting packs and cash management reporting.
• Support the maintenance of strong financial controls, ensuring the integrity and accuracy of financial records.
• Prepare and review balance sheet reconciliations, investigating and resolving variances.
• Assist with cash flow reporting and monitoring of working capital.
• Support the preparation of annual statutory financial statements and audit process, acting as a key contact for auditors and coordinating supporting documentation.
• Manage indirect tax compliance, including preparation and submission of VAT returns and related filings.
• Own the monthly payroll process end to end and the relationship with any external support and the People team, with direct accountability for payroll accuracy and compliance.
• Review payroll reports and ensure payroll journals and reconciliations are accurately recorded as part of the month-end close.
• Support and increasingly own intercompany accounting and group reporting processes across multiple entities and jurisdictions (currently Ireland, UK, Australia).
• Document and enhance financial policies, procedures and internal controls.
• Take ownership of designated Finance SOPs as part of the team's SOP library, including maintenance of current SOPs.

Cost and Margin Analysis

• Own gross margin reporting, ensuring accurate cost allocation within the monthly financials.
• Perform detailed variance analysis of operational costs and cost of sales, identifying key drivers and trends.
• Partner with People and functional leaders to ensure accurate classification of company resources by business line.
• Manage accruals and prepayments relating to operational and overhead costs.
• Partner with commercial teams to analyse partner commissions and delivery costs.
• Assist departments in identifying cost optimisation opportunities and operational efficiencies.
• Contribute to budgeting and forecasting processes, through partnership with commercial finance.

Process Improvements and Digital Transformation

• Lead the identification and rollout of AI-enabled and agentic tools and workflows across the finance function, working closely with the CFO and technology stakeholders.
• Take ownership of finance systems currently in transition - including completion of the in-house billing platform rollout and the procure-to-pay systems implementation - before leading the next phase of process automation for the team.
• Work with the wider finance team to improve the quality and usability of financial data, enabling better management reporting and decision-making.
• Act as the finance team's primary point of contact for evaluating new finance technology and agentic AI tooling, balancing efficiency gains with data governance and control requirements.

Business Partnership

• Build …