Finance Controller

AI Acquisition; South Africa; Remote; ZAR 900,000 - 1,500,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Fully remote

Autonomy and ownership

Founder-led environment

Job summary

AI Acquisition is seeking a Finance Operations Controller to stabilize, systematize, and automate finance functions across a multi-entity structure. You will own cash flow, oversee high-volume currency movements, and implement scalable processes while reporting to the Director of Finance.

The role requires hands-on leadership, a systems-first mindset, and experience with Xero, Wise, Whop, and card platforms. This remote role offers ownership and strategic impact across global entities.

Qualifications

• 5+ years in finance operations, treasury, or senior finance execution role.
• Direct experience in high-volume, high-transaction-count environments.
• Systems-first approach to problem solving: builds repeatable processes and automation.
• Experience leading finance operations teams, external partners, or cross-functional processes.
• Hands-on managing high-volume, multi-currency cash flows (USD, GBP, AED).
• Proven track record building and implementing SOPs in finance operations.
• Experience managing external bookkeeping or accounting firms to standards.
• Strong working knowledge of Xero, Wise, Whop, and corporate card platforms (Pleo, Qashio or similar).
• Built systems, not reports, and executes proactively.

Responsibilities

• Own the daily cash cycle across multiple entities.
• Oversee and manage high-volume USD revenue flows from Whop into UAE bank accounts.
• Ensure funding of GBP/AED corporate cards for Meta ad spend.
• Build a live cash visibility system for the founding team to see position at a glance.

Skills

Systems thinking

Operational leadership

Cross-functional collaboration

Multi-currency cash flows

SOP development

Tools

Xero

Wise

Whop

Pleo

Qashio

Job description

Overview

FINANCE OPERATIONS CONTROLLER

We're not hiring a CFO. We're not hiring a spreadsheet builder. We're not hiring someone who needs a team of five to do the work of one.

We need a Finance Operator. Someone who walks into organised chaos, rolls up their sleeves, oversees the right people and processes, and doesn't leave until it's a machine.

ABOUT AI ACQUISITION

AI Acquisition is the global category leader in AI service-provider enablement. We connect AI agencies with enterprise opportunities at scale through a hybrid PaaS and AI marketplace model. We operate across multiple entities, currencies, and geographies. We move fast, we spend big on ads, and our financial infrastructure needs to match the pace of the business.

We are not a 9-to-5 business. We are building something that matters and we need people who build with us.

THE ROLE

This is a hands-on leadership role. You will report directly to and support our Director of Finance, freeing them from the operational grind so they can focus on strategy and growth.

You will inherit a multi-entity structure with real operational complexity: live cash flow pressure, a payment infrastructure in transition, manual processes that need to be automated, and financial data that needs to be turned into clean, actionable systems.

Your mandate is simple: stabilize, systematize, and automate. You will oversee the people and processes that execute this work, and where needed, you will get into the detail yourself.

This role also demands genuine scale experience. We are looking for someone who has operated finance functions with high transaction volume and real operational complexity — not a controlled, low-volume environment — and who naturally approaches problems by building repeatable systems rather than one-off fixes.

Requirements

THIS IS NOT FOR YOU IF

• You can only work independently and struggle to lead or direct others
• You prefer building models over building systems
• You manage from a distance rather than having genuine operational grip
• You treat SOPs as someone else's job
• You wait for direction instead of creating clarity
• You call something "done" when it's documented but not implemented
• You've only worked in low-volume, low-complexity finance environments

WHAT YOU'LL OWN
Cash Flow & Treasury Oversight & Execution

• Own the daily cash cycle across multiple entities.
• Oversee and manage high-volume USD revenue flows from Whop into UAE bank accounts
• Ensure seamless daily funding of GBP/AED corporate cards for Meta ad spend — ad accounts do not pause on your watch
• Build a live cash visibility system so the Founding team sees the position at a glance, not after a request

WHAT SUCCESS LOOKS LIKE

• Ad accounts never pause because of cash flow
• Payment infrastructure is fully transitioned and running without manual intervention
• Every financial process has an SOP. Every SOP is being followed
• The Director of Finance has more time to think because you handle the execution and oversight
• Xero is clean, current, and trusted across all entities
• Weekly reporting takes minutes to produce because the systems are built
• Manual work is replaced by automated, tracked data — not spreadsheets, real systems

WHO YOU ARE

You've been in both the operational and leadership seat inside a fast-growing digital, e-commerce, or performance marketing business, ideally one with significant scale — high transaction volume, high daily cash movement, multiple currencies and entities running in parallel. You understand how cash actually moves, not theoretically, but operationally. You default to systems thinking: when something breaks, your instinct is to diagnose the root cause and build a process or automation that prevents it from recurring, not to patch it manually. You know how to build the systems and lead the people that keep them running. You know what it feels like when an ad account pauses at 2am because a card wasn't topped up, and you've built the infrastructure to make sure that never happens.

Requirements

• 5+ years in a finance operations, treasury, or senior finance execution role — not advisory, not modelling, not investment banking
• Direct experience operating in a high-volume, high-transaction-count environment — comfortable with real operational scale, not just a well-organized small-entity setup
• A demonstrated systems-first approach to problem solving: builds repeatable processes and automations rather than one-off manual fixes
• Experience leading or overseeing finance operations teams, external partners, or cross-functional processes
• Direct hands-on experience managing high-volume, multi-currency cash flows (USD, GBP, AED)
• Proven track record building and implementing SOPs in finance operations
• Experience managing external bookkeeping or accounting firms and holding them to a standard
• Strong working knowledge of Xero, Wise, Whop, and corporate card platforms (Pleo, Qashio or similar)
• Someone who builds systems, not reports, and executes before being asked twice

Highly Desirable:

• Experience with UAE corporate structures, specifically DMCC entities
• Background in performance marketing businesses with high daily ad spend
• Experience managing entity wind-downs or cross-border entity restructuring
• Familiarity with Series A / early-scale finance environments — you know how to bring structure without bureaucracy

Benefits

OUR CULTURE — READ THIS BEFORE YOU APPLY

We are a high-performance, remote-first team operating in one of the fastest-moving sectors in the world. We do not have time for:

• Vague updates and no ownership
• Problems that get buried instead of surfaced
• People who wait to be told what to do
• Complexity that exists to impress rather than to solve

We do have time for:

• People who see a mess and immediately start building the solution
• Direct, clear communication even when it's uncomfortable
• Operators who take ownership and don't need hand-holding
• Anyone who can simplify the complex, lead others effectively, and automate the repetitive

You will work closely with the Director of Finance and have direct visibility into the executive layer. The people at the top of this company are operators. They expect the same from everyone around them.

WHY THIS ROLE, WHY NOW

We are scaling aggressively. Our ad spend is significant, our entity structure is multi-layered, and our financial operations need to match the ambition of the business. The Director of Finance needs a true operator and leader by their side, not a subordinate waiting for tasks, but someone who identifies what needs to be done, directs the right people, and gets it done.

If you are the person who walks into complexity and leaves behind systems and a team that runs them, this is your role.

If you need structure handed to you, this isn't for you.

Benefits

Why Join Us

• Operate at the front line of AI-powered business building
• Work directly with ambitious founders globally
• Apply real-world experience, not theory or scripts
• Fully remote, senior-level role with autonomy and ownership
• Founder-led environment that values judgment over bureaucracy