Chief Financial Officer

💼 Chief Financial Officer (Payroll & Operations Focus)

Remote – UK

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
.

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

• Telecoms & Utilities
• Retail / E‑commerce
• Education & Training
• 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.

• 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.

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

• 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

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

• Payroll certainty
• Cashflow predictability
• Clean approvals and controls

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