Financial Controller (South Africa–based only) · Remote · R420,000–R700,000/year (≈ €21,400–€35,700)

This is a remote position.

"This is not a back-office accounting role — it requires someone who understands the full DTC model from purchasing through to customer lifetime value."

The financial function has been carried by a co-founder until now. That changes with this hire. Revenue is growing, the product portfolio is expanding with a major product launch in 2026, a community funding round is live, and market expansion is in planning. This role is the first dedicated finance hire — and its remit is commercial, not administrative.

An external accountant handles the statutory and compliance layer, which frees this role to focus on what actually drives the business: cash management, purchasing decisions, margin analysis, and translating performance marketing data into financial reality. The job requires both rigour and instinct — clean books and accurate forecasting on one side; actively identifying savings, challenging spend assumptions, and improving margins on the other. The path from here to CFO is direct and explicit.

You'll build the financial infrastructure that supports everything the business does next — with a direct line to the CEO and a clear path upward.

The role
What you’ll own

01
Financial Control & Reporting You own the P&L end-to-end: monthly close, management accounts, and financial reporting to the CEO. Books are maintained in Exact Online — deep proficiency is required, not assumed. Accounts payable and receivable are actively managed, not processed passively. Community funding reporting is clear, accurate, and on schedule.

02
Cash Flow & Purchasing You own a living cash flow forecast — updated continuously, not produced monthly. You understand the seasonal and campaign-driven cash patterns of a DTC brand and flag pressure points before they become problems. Purchasing decisions on stock — supplier terms, order quantities, lead times, payment schedules — are modelled with the margin implications understood before they're made.

03
Marketing Finance & Margin You support the weekly financial forecast with the marketing team — translating planned spend into revenue, margin, and cash projections, then challenging the assumptions. You track CAC, LTV, contribution margin per channel, and blended ROAS from a financial lens, and model campaign and product launch scenarios through to break-even and profitable scale.

04
Systems & AI Workflow Exact Online is the financial system of record and you manage it. The Shopify–Xcore–Exact integration is your operational backbone. Beyond that, you actively build AI projects in Claude to automate recurring reports, reconciliation, scenario modelling, and stock forecasting — and document those processes so the whole team benefits from the efficiency, not just you.

What good looks like
The measure of success,
by chapter

First 30 days
Full picture, first forecast
A complete audit of the current financial state — books, cash position, stock values, outstanding liabilities. First cash flow forecast produced and reviewed with the CEO. A clear picture of contribution margin per product line is on the table before the month is out.

First 90 days
Rhythm established, savings found
The weekly financial forecast with marketing is a regular, functioning rhythm. The stock purchasing model — lead times, reorder points, cash implications — is built and in use. At least one material saving has been identified and actioned.

Weekly KPIs
Cash, payables, burn
Cash position versus forecast, outstanding payables and receivables, and weekly burn versus plan — tracked every week without prompting. These numbers are the pulse of the business and you own them.

Requirements

Who you are
The person
we're looking for

DTC or e-commerce brand experience — the full model. You understand how purchasing decisions, logistics costs, marketing spend, and customer lifetime value interact in a product brand. This is not a corporate finance role and the candidate who excels in one won't necessarily thrive here.

Exact Online proficient. You've used it as the primary financial system of record — not as a reporting layer on top of something else. You move in it quickly and manage it independently.

Cash flow ownership with real purchasing cycles. You've owned a rolling cash flow forecast in a business where large stock orders create genuine cash timing pressure. You know what it feels like when the model matters.

Performance marketing financial literacy. CAC, LTV, contribution margin, and blended ROAS are not numbers you receive from the marketing team — they are numbers you interrogate, challenge, and use to build forward scenarios.

Hands-on and commercially offensive. You control costs rigorously and you hunt for savings actively. You present opportunities with a clear business case, not a spreadsheet left on someone's desk.

Shopify and Xcore familiarity. You understand how the e-commerce operations layer connects to the financial layer. You don't need a developer to explain what a Shopify order flow means for the books.

An active AI workflow builder. You've built automations or financial workflows using Claude or comparable AI tools — not as an experiment but as standard practice. You can walk through one that's live and working.

CFO ambition. This role has a clear path upward as the business scales. The right candidate is thinking about where they want to be in three years and sees this as the right vehicle to get there.

We review every application personally. The process takes 2–3 weeks. We move at a pace because good candidates don't wait.

Step 01
Send us your cover letter and CV.

Step 02
Do a specific assignment for the role.

Step 03
Talk to the team.