Finance Lead and Client Engagement Manager

Somewhere; Johannesburg; On-site; ZAR 650,000 - 900,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading finance services firm in Johannesburg is seeking a Finance Lead to oversee client engagements, manage financial resources, and deliver insights. The ideal candidate should have 5-10 years of experience in finance roles, strong financial modeling skills, and a proactive approach. This is a full-time position that offers dynamic involvement with clients and team leadership opportunities.

Qualifications

• 5-10 years in finance roles, preferably in SMB/startup environments.
• Experience leading projects and interfacing with executives.
• Experience managing or mentoring junior team members.

Responsibilities

• Lead client engagements as the primary point of contact.
• Produce and review financial deliverables like forecasts and models.
• Manage internal workflows and improve client delivery processes.

Skills

Strong financial modeling

Budgeting and forecasting

Excellent data analytical skills

Client-facing experience

Proactive and reliable

Tools

Excel

NetSuite

Microsoft Dynamics

QuickBooks

Job description

The Role

Were hiring a Finance Lead acting as a senior generalist to lead client engagements, oversee the delivery of finance workstreams and manage financial and accounting resources. This person will serve as the primary driver of end-to-end finance support for clients - balancing client management, financial expertise and team leadership. Youll be both a player and a coach: able to roll up your sleeves to produce deliverables while increasingly stepping into a leadership role across clients and analysts.

Client Operations & Account Ownership

• Act as the day-to-day lead for 2-5 client engagements (startups and SMBs) and serve as the main point of contact for clients (e.g. Founders CEOs COOs).
• Manage communication across internal client stakeholders, respond to inbound requests clearly, professionally and proactively, and help run meetings, prep agendas, and track action items.
• Own delivery timelines, scope management, resource utilization and overall client satisfaction.
• Partner with Founder & CEO on client strategy; handle execution.

Finance Deliverables

• Produce or review / polish key deliverables: forecasts, models, dashboards, reporting databases, cash flow management, variance analysis, board decks, etc.
• Translate business and operational complexity into clear actionable financial insights for clients.
• Provide simple day one answers, mock-ups and quick solves for client needs and requests.
• Collaborate with the Founder & CEO to continually refine deliverables and templates.

Project & Team Management

• Manage the work and priorities of offshore and nearshore FP&A analysts and other finance accounts and data resources.
• Build and improve internal workflows for scalable delivery: templates, SOPs, async processes, checklists, timelines and QA processes.
• Develop new tools and processes to support overall project management and client operations using Notion or ClickUp and continually improve delivery infrastructure and client enablement model.
• Help document and institutionalize how we work across client types.

Business & Operating Model Development

• Work directly with the Founder & CEO to evolve our delivery / client enablement model from founder-led to platform-based.
• Prototype new client onboarding workflows, cross-client standardization, automation and AI strategies to create internal efficiencies.
• Build playbooks and documentation to support hiring, delegation and process scale.
• Help us mature Wildflower into a true finance-as-a-service platform.

What Were Looking For

• 5-10 years in finance roles (FP&A, strategic finance or consulting), ideally with exposure to SMB / startup environments.
• Demonstrated experience leading projects, owning timelines and interfacing with executives.
• Strong financial modeling, budgeting / forecasting and data / analytical skills (Excel / Sheets) – fluency is a must.
• Experience managing or mentoring junior team members, especially remote teams; by setting structure and QA standards.
• Client-facing experience: strong at scope, timeline and stakeholder management.
• Systems & ERP experience: NetSuite, Microsoft Dynamics and QuickBooks highly preferred.

Nice-to-Have

• Comfortable with ambiguity and experience building processes, SOPs and templates from scratch.
• Prior experience helping build internal operations or client delivery models.
• Startup or high-growth environments with dynamic need management a plus.
• Experience with S&OP and multi-location retail businesses helpful but not required.

Soft Skills

• Highly proactive, self-managing and reliable.
• Comfortable communicating concisely with executives and a structured thinker.
• Able to translate financial concepts to non-finance stakeholders and dive into both the tactical and strategic.
• Organized, efficient and calm under pressure; a true integrator.
• Growth-minded and excited to gain hands-on experience working with a Founder.

Experience & Keywords

• Required Experience: Manager
• Key Skills: Business Development, Employee Orientation, Public Health, Account Management, VersionOne, Conflict Management, Project Management, Relationship Management, Team Management, Customer relationship management, Human Resources, Public Speaking

Employment Details

• Employment Type: Full Time
• Experience: years
• Vacancy: 1