Chief Financial Officer

💼 Chief Financial Officer (Payroll & Operations Focus)

Remote – UK£110,000 – £150,000 base + bonus (DOE)Fully Remote | SME / Scale-Up Environment

We’re working with a group of high-growth, operationally complex businesses to appoint a hands-on CFO with direct responsibility for payroll, cashflow, and financial operations.

This role is suited to a CFO who doesn’t just report numbers — but owns the mechanics of paying people accurately, on time, and at scale.

The opportunity

Our clients operate in sectors where payroll is high-volume, time-critical, and operationally complex, including:

• Telecoms & Utilities
• Retail / E-commerce
• Education & Training
• Property & Real Estate
• Recruitment & Staffing Services
• Energy
• Automotive / Used Car Leasing
• Transport & Logistics

As CFO, you’ll be responsible for ensuring payroll runs cleanly, predictably, and without drama, while maintaining strong controls over spend and cashflow.

Key responsibilities

• Direct ownership of payroll oversight (monthly / weekly / multi-entity)
• Managing payroll funding, approvals, and cashflow timing
• Oversight of finance operations, payments, and controls
• Working closely with People / Ops teams on payroll changes
• Ensuring accuracy, compliance, and audit-ready processes
• Improving systems and workflows around payroll and outgoing payments
• Providing leadership with clear visibility on payroll-related spend

This is a commercial CFO role, not a pure reporting position.

Who we’re looking for

We’re keen to speak with CFOs or Finance Directors who:

• Have directly overseen payroll (not delegated entirely)
• Have worked in operationally intensive sectors
• Are comfortable in SME / scale-up environments
• Understand payroll funding, not just payroll processing
• Have experience managing cashflow under time pressure
• Enjoy improving systems, controls, and efficiency

This role suits someone who has:

• Run payroll for 50–500+ employees
• Managed contractors, variable pay, or multi-entity payrolls
• Worked closely with Ops and People teams
• Implemented or improved payroll and finance systems

What’s on offer

• £110,000 – £150,000 base salary
• Performance-related bonus
• Fully remote (UK)
• High autonomy and trust
• Direct influence on operational and financial strategy
• Opportunity to shape scalable finance and payroll infrastructure
• Long-term progression within a growing business

Why this role is different

Payroll is treated here as a core operational risk, not an afterthought.

Our clients care deeply about:

• Payroll certainty
• Cashflow predictability
• Clean approvals and controls
• Reducing system complexity
• Avoiding payroll-day fire drills

If you take pride in payroll that just works, this role will resonate.