Head of Finance - Remote, one day travel to London per week

Job Description

Swoon was founded in 2012 to create distinctive designs that owners will want to keep forever and a lofty goal to spark home obsession everywhere.

We design original pieces in-house, and our innovative NPD process quickly discovers the next trend. Our testing platform ensures designs sell online at their intended price, and our data-led approach grows sales within families exponentially. Our business model cuts out expensive overheads like shops and overstocked warehouses, making our prices affordable. 

Our distinctive look unlocks collaborations with leading retailers like John Lewis and many more. This diversified growth strategy is powering our brand to a significant market share. And we’re just getting started…

The Head of Finance oversees the entire finance function, from strategic FP&A and long-term planning to day-to-day management accounting, treasury, and reporting. As the financial conscience of the business, you will act as a key gatekeeper for capital allocation and a trusted senior partner to the co-founders and leadership team.

Leading a capable finance team, you will provide robust control and constructive challenge to operational leads. You will set the budgets within which they operate, approve capital expenditures, and validate the commercial logic of key business decisions to ensure strong financial governance as Swoon continues to scale.

What you'll own

Financial Planning, Forecasting and Reporting

• Strategy & Planning: Own the annual budget, quarterly reforecasts, and three-year strategic plan. Build robust, ground-up models that connect commercial drivers to financial outcomes.
• Reporting: Manage the monthly management accounts, board packs, investor reporting and FP&A reporting.
• Trading Cadence: Oversee the weekly trading rhythm with marketing and merchandising; challenge plans and ensure every promotional or marketing spend has a clear business case.
• Cash Flow: Maintain weekly direct/operational cash flow forecasts and three-way model. Galvanise the internal team to execute the cash roadmap.
• BI & Insights: Develop an FP&A reporting suite within Sigma to ensure the business stays on track against targets.

Operational Finance, Treasury and Day-to-Day

• Financial Integrity: Oversee the monthly close, balance sheet reconciliations, and the integrity of all board-level data.
• Treasury: Run payment run, manage banking relationships, debt facilities, covenant reporting, and lender communication.
• Compliance: Oversee VAT, payroll, and statutory filings; manage the year-end and external audit processes.
• Operations & HR: Oversee business insurance and annual renewals. Bring financial rigor to people-related decisions, including payroll, compensation, and benefits.
• Leadership: Lead, coach, and prioritise the finance team, building capabilities to scale alongside the business.
• Payment stack: own statutory reporting and relationship with payment providers

Strategic Finance and Business Partnering

• Commercial Advisor: Serve as a strategic partner to the co-founders, providing analysis and guidance on major commercial decisions, partnerships, new ventures, and CAPEX investments.
• Merchandising Controls: Uphold guardrails for inventory management, including budgets, stock investment, intake margin, clearance pricing, and markdown strategies.
• Working Capital: Set and enforce rules-based working capital frameworks, including CM3 floors, discontinuation thresholds, and cash recovery targets.
• Margin: partner with the B&M and operations teams to drive continuous improvements in the "Margin Stack" from factory to front door.
• Funding: Lead funding discussions with existing and prospective lenders.
• CAPEX Governance: Evaluate all tech CAPEX projects against projected ROI and rigorously review the tech roadmap budget.

Controls, Governance and Risk

• Control Environment: Continuously evolve the financial control environment, including payment authorisation, segregation of duties, and procurement controls.
• Planning Cycle: Support the co-founders with the quarterly OKR-based planning cycle to ensure cross-functional alignment with profitability and cash targets.
• Risk Mitigation: Proactively identify, model, and mitigate financial risks, such as supply chain disruption, pricing pressure, partner concentration, FX volatility, and working capital seasonality.

Requirements

Essential

• Qualifications: Qualified accountant (ACA, ACCA, CIMA, or equivalent) with 7+ years of experience.
• Breadth: Proven track record leading or working within the full finance function, encompassing FP&A, management accounting, treasury, and statutory reporting.
• Commercial Acumen: Strong instincts developed in a consumer-facing, high-growth environment (e-commerce, retail, hospitality, or DTC).
• Controls & Governance: Demonstrable experience in designing, implementing, and managing robust financial controls.
• Business Partnering: Ability to build credibility with non-finance functions and challenge leadership constructively.
• Technical Proficiency: Advanced financial modelling and forecasting skills; comfortable building complex models from scratch and comfortable with 3 way financial modelling.
• Hands-on Leadership: A strategic thinker who is unafraid to "roll up their sleeves" during month-end; comfortable working directly with the numbers.

Strongly preferred

• Experience in a multi-channel business (Direct-to-Consumer + Wholesale).
• Familiarity with retail / merchandising finance, including stock investment economics and markdown management.
• Proficiency with modern BI tools (e.g., Sigma).
• Experience working with or reporting to a strategic board—specifically understanding the standard required by institutional partners.
• Prior experience in the furniture, homeware, or interiors sectors.

Benefits

Compensation & Benefits

• Competitive salary
• Share options programme
• Profit share scheme
• Wellbeing allowance
• Pension scheme
• Private medical cover for you and your family

Holidays, working environment and other perks

• 27 days holiday rising to 30 with tenure
• 4 months of summer hours finishing at 1 PM on a Friday (we’re currently trialling rolling this out permanently!)
• Free furniture on each anniversary of employment 
• Friends & family discount of 20%
• Remote working 4x days per week