Finance Lead UK/DACH

About Ovivio

Ovivio is a leading and innovative SaaS (Software as a Service) company focused on childcare and primary education. Our goal is to empower professionals to focus on their primary task: “the development of the new generation.” Our smart, user-friendly, and flexible software platform supports daycare centres and schools in areas like planning, personnel management, child development, and parent communication. 

We are a fast-growing international company with a social purpose. With over 200 employees, we relieve and support organizations through our smart, user-friendly, and flexible products. We now serve more than 1 million children aged 0 to 12. Our UK and DACH businesses are our key international growth markets, and this role is the finance backbone behind it. 

About the role

We are looking for a commercially minded Finance Lead to be the finance owner for Ovivio’s UK and DACH business, based in London. This is not a reporting job with a finance title on it: you own the P&L together with our Chief International Officer (CIO), who leads these businesses. That partnership is the heart of the role you build the plan, you know why every line moves, and you are in the room when the trade-offs are made. 

You will report to our Finance Director in the Netherlands, who leads FP&A and business partnering across the group, with an indirect local line to the CIO. In practice you operate as part of one finance team: shared systems, shared standards and shared reporting cycles with central Control, Accounting and FP&A, while being the finance face of the UK and DACH businesses. 

The scope is deliberately broad. Planning and forecasting and business partnering are the core, but these markets also have its own processes, systems and obligations. Group Accounting runs the heavy lifting centrally, which still leaves real month-end, accounting and tax work on your side, including working with our local accounting and tax advisors. It is not the majority of the job, but it is genuinely part of it, and it is what makes you the person who understands the numbers from the transaction all the way up to the P&L. 

That breadth is possible because of how we work. We are building an AI-supported finance function: agents that reconcile AR, automate recurring checks and take the repetitive work out of the close. You will monitor the agents that run in the UK/DACH, support the central team on group-wide ones, and help find the next process worth automating. Less time on manual processing means more time on the analysis and the decisions that is the deal, and it is the direction finance is going. 

We are looking for someone with real ambition typically one step past an analyst or advisory role who wants a step up in ownership rather than a step sideways. If you have been building the numbers for someone else to own, this is where you start owning them. 

Key Responsibilities 

1. P&L Ownership 

• Own the UK and DACH P&L together with the Chief International Officer (CIO) jointly accountable for revenue, cost and margin 

• Be the person who can explain any number in the P&L: what moved, why it moved, and what to do about it 

• Build and maintain the budget and rolling forecast, and own the variance analysis and the story behind it 

• Track and challenge cost make the case for where we should invest, and where it should stop 

2. Business Partnering & Decision Support 

• Act as the finance partner to the leadership team across commercial, customer success and operations 

• Build the business cases behind pricing, contracts, hiring and investment decisions 

• Turn analysis into a clear recommendation a view, not just a report 

• Bring the market perspective into group planning, and translate group targets into market plans people believe in 

3. Month-End, Accounting & Local Compliance 

• Run the country side of the month-end close together with central Accounting and Control safeguarding timeliness, data quality and a clean handover 

• Deliver monthly market reporting to local and group leadership, including the SaaS metrics that matter (ARR, retention, churn, gross margin) 

• Be the point of contact for our local auditors and tax advisors, and make sure obligations are met statutory accounts, VAT, corporation tax and audit support in cooperation with Group Control 

• Own the local finance processes and systems: keep them working, keep them aligned with group standards, and improve them where they are not 

4. AI & the Future of Finance 

• Monitor the AI agents that support finance AR reconciliation, recurring checks, close support and flag it when something does not look right 

• Support the central team on group-wide finance agents and automation: testing, validating output, and being the country expert on how the process actually works 

• Spot the next process worth automating, and build the case for it you know the manual work better than anyone, so you are the one who should point at it 

• Use the time this frees up where it counts: analysis, business partnering and decision support 

5. One Finance Team 

• Work as one team with central Control, Accounting and FP&A in the Netherlands shared systems, shared standards, shared reporting cycles 

• Be the country’s voice in group finance, and group finance’s voice in the markets 

• Contribute to group-wide finance projects such as system, process and reporting improvements, standardisation, automation, and integration of acquisitions 

• Use the central team as your growth engine broaden your experience across FP&A, control and accounting as you go 

What we’re looking for 

Above all, we are looking for ownership. You are the kind of person who cannot leave a number unexplained, who chases the answer rather than waiting for it, and who is comfortable saying “here is what I think we should do” to someone far more senior than you. You are early enough in your career to still be learning fast, and confident enough to be trusted with a P&L. 

You combine sharp analytical work with commercial curiosity. You like being close to the business, you can hold your own with a C-level leader, and you would rather be the single finance point of contact for a country than one specialist in a large department. You are not precious about scope either — in a role this broad, some weeks include accounting and admin work, and you would rather automate it than complain about it. A fast-moving, international, scale-up environment energises rather than unsettles you. 

Must have: 

• 4 years or more of finance experience for example in FP&A, financial analysis, audit or transaction services and ready for a step into ownership 

• A finance qualification completed or in progress (ACA, ACCA, CIMA) and/or a strong degree in finance, accounting or economics 

• Strong analytical and Excel skills able to build a model from scratch and pressure-test your own numbers 

• Practical experience with AI tooling or finance automationagents, scripting, RPA, or automating your own reporting 

• Solid understanding of the mechanics of a P&L, and enough accounting knowledge to run a month-end together with a central accounting team and to work with local advisors 

• Able to explain finance to non-finance people clearly, briefly, and with a recommendation attached 

• Comfortable with autonomy in a small local team, backed by a larger central one you organise yourself and set your own pace 

• Hands-on and pragmatic: happy to pick up the local admin, accounting and process work that comes with owning a country 

• Fluent in English 

Strong plus: 

• Experience in a SaaS or subscription business ARR, churn and retention, deferred revenue, cohort economics 

• Experience business partnering directly with senior or commercial stakeholders 

• Exposure to both FP&A and accounting/control, rather than only one side 

• ERP and BI experience, and comfort working in and improving finance systems 

• Working knowledge of UK VAT, corporation tax and statutory reporting, or experience managing external accounting or tax advisors 

Nice to have: 

• Experience in an international group with a central finance function 

• Exposure to M&A, post-acquisition integration or multi-entity reporting 

• Interest in childcare, education or purpose-driven businesses 

What do we offer

At Ovivio, we offer you the opportunity to play an important role in the future of education and childcare. You will work on innovative products used daily by millions of users. We believe in a flexible work culture, where collaboration and personal development are at the core. You will have the freedom to implement your ideas, grow in your field, and make an impact in a fast-growing SaaS environment.

• End-to-end ownership of a country P&L, shoulder to shoulder with a C-level leader, at a stage in your career where most people are still building slides for someone else; 

• A broad finance scope and direct access to a strong central finance team FP&A, control and accounting to learn from; 

• A finance function that is actually building the future of finance with AI, and a front-row seat to the agents that take the repetitive work off your desk; 

• Real visibility: your analysis reaches the leadership team, and your recommendations shape what the UK does next; 

• Focus on your personal and professional growth, with plenty of opportunities to further develop your talents; 

• A collaborative, fast-paced environment with international exposure; 

• A strong emphasis on maintaining a healthy work-life balance; 

• Plenty of responsibility and autonomy in your role; 

• Hybrid working pattern, combining our London base with working from home.