Finance Lead (Director)

This is with our client - They are redefining procurement intelligence. They are a leading next-generation, enterprise-grade platform that uses modular AI agents to transform how businesses manage sourcing, negotiations, onboarding, compliance, and spend — autonomously.

Job Title: Finance Lead (Director)
Experience: 10 - 18yrs
Location: Bangalore – Work From Office (WFO)
Mandatory: CA is mandatory.

This is not a traditional finance role. You are not stepping into an existing function. You are building one.
The job is to bring structure, visibility, and predictability to a finance function that needs to scale with the business. That means starting from the ground up, building systems that last, and taking full ownership of everything finance, compliance, and governance-related from day one.
If you are looking for a structured setup, a defined team, or clear boundaries from day one, this is not the role for you. If you have built something from nothing before and want to do it again at a fast-growing company across India, the Middle East, and North America, keep reading.

What You Will Own
Finance Operations. Full ownership of accounting, month-end close, cash flow management, and financial reporting across all entities. Multi-entity, multi-currency, across India, the Middle East, and North America.
AR and AP. You own the receivables and payables function. The AR/AP Manager who runs day-to-day execution under you. But the function is yours, and you stay close to collections, vendor payments, and working capital.
Compliance and Controls. Statutory compliance across all geographies with zero misses. GST, TDS, direct tax, and jurisdiction-specific obligations. The compliance calendar is yours. No surprises.
Audits. Statutory audits driven end-to-end. Not coordinated, not supported. Driven. You own the data room, the auditor relationship, and the timeline. The auditor does not drive the process. You do.
Legal and Secretarial. You oversee legal and secretarial. You are not expected to be a lawyer, but you should be able to read contracts, understand key risks, and manage legal counsel effectively. While the Legal and Secretarial Manager owns the day-to-day execution. Until then, you ensure nothing falls through the cracks.
FP&A and Business Partnering. Budgeting, forecasting, and business performance tracking. You sit in business discussions early, not after decisions are made. Finance here is not a reporting function. It is a decision-support function.
Board and Investor Relations. You prepare and present board packs. You own the financial narrative in board meetings. You communicate proactively with investors. Bad news reaches them with context and a point of view, not as a surprise.
External Partners and Advisors. You manage auditors, tax consultants, and financial
advisors. You set the terms of engagement, drive the timelines, and review the outputs. External advisors support you. You do not depend on them.
Team Building. You hire and develop the finance team. You set the talent bar. You build a team that takes ownership of their parts of the function and does not depend on you for everything.

Who We Are Looking For
At the core, you are a builder. Not someone who designs things on paper and delegates execution, but someone who gets into the work, understands it deeply, and builds it themselves first. You bring structure to environments that do not have it yet.
You take full ownership of outcomes. When something is broken, it is your problem. When something is unclear, you bring clarity. You do not wait to be told what to do and you do not drop things midway.
You are a true partner to the CEO. You challenge decisions when you believe they are wrong. You do it with logic, not opinion. You know when to keep pushing and when to align. You are not a yes person and you are not a contrarian. You are someone who makes the business think better.

What We Need
Qualification: CA is mandatory. This is non-negotiable. The technical depth this role requires across IndAS, statutory audits, and multi-jurisdiction compliance is not achievable without it
Experience: Around 10 years. The ideal candidate has been a founder or has worked directly with a founder in a high-growth startup. They have built something from scratch, not just managed what was already working.
Technical Depth: Strong working knowledge of IndAS, statutory audits, GST, TDS, direct tax, and multi-entity compliance. Comfortable with multi-currency accounting. Has independently driven audits end-to-end. Can debug numbers at the ledger level. Not dependent on external consultants for core decisions. Prior experience managing or working with Big Four audit firms is preferred.