Interim Financial Controller | VC-Backed Manufacturing Scale-Up

About the company

The Client Harmonic is partnering with a well-funded, VC-backed hardware technology business that combines its own software with a fast-growing physical manufacturing operation, making high-value components for demanding engineering customers. Two years after founding, and having raised significant capital, it has grown into an international group with entities across the UK, US and Europe.

The business has scaled faster than its accounting. A Finance Director has recently joined to professionalise the function, a permanent Financial Controller is being recruited for early 2027, and in the meantime the accounts need putting right now.

Your tasks

Reporting to the Finance Director, the Interim Financial Controller will start immediately on a full-time basis to stabilise and rebuild the group's accounts ahead of the permanent hire. Day-to-day bookkeeping is outsourced, so the job is to review and correct what the external accountants have produced, redesign the chart of accounts, put balances in the right places and set the guardrails so the group reports correctly and is ready for its first Big Four audit next year.

This is a narrow, technical and hands-on remit. There is no structure to inherit and no team to delegate to: you will know the standards and do the work yourself, across manufacturing, inventory, capex, debt financing, franchise arrangements and four entities. It is messy and it is demanding, but the impact is high: the work will give the business a clear view of where its costs come from and how it is performing.

• Redesign and implement the chart of accounts in Xero for a multi-entity manufacturing group, so costs and performance can be reported properly by entity, site and activity.
• Review the outsourced accountants' work, correct misposted and incorrectly processed transactions, and clean up historical balances.
• Set up WIP and inventory accounting across raw materials, work in progress and finished goods, including valuation, production costing and overhead allocation.
• Build the fixed asset register and depreciation policies for machinery, tooling and site fit-outs, and account correctly for capital expenditure.
• Implement lease accounting for property and financed equipment, and account correctly for the group's debt financing.
• Bring the monthly management accounts to a reliable, accurate standard across all four entities, including intercompany balances.
• Set the accounting policies and guardrails the external accountants work to, and coach them on best practice.
• Lay the foundations for a Big Four audit and hand over a clean set of accounts and policies to the permanent Financial Controller.

What This Role Is Not

• Not a transactional role; bookkeeping sits with the external accountants, and you fix their output and hold them to the standard.
• Not a systems, automation or process-design role; technical accounting depth is what matters here.
• Not a team leadership role; there is no team to direct, and the work is yours to do.

Requirements

• Qualified accountant (ACA preferred, ACCA or equivalent), ideally Big Four audit trained.
• Post-qualification experience in manufacturing, aerospace, defence, engineering, automotive or another capex-heavy business carrying significant inventory and fixed assets.
• Strong technical command of IFRS and UK accounting standards, including inventory, fixed asset and lease accounting.
• Hands-on experience of WIP, inventory valuation, CAPEX, and production costing.
• A doer: comfortable getting into the detail yourself, without a team, in a business with little existing structure.
• Available immediately or at very short notice.

Desirable Experience

• Redesigning a chart of accounts or cleaning up accounts ahead of an audit.
• Multi-entity reporting and international consolidation, including US and European entities.
• Working knowledge of Xero.

How to apply

*Start Date: Immediate** Please feel free to get in touch with Ewan Fenley for more information ().

Other

Interim Financial Controller | VC-Backed Hardware Manufacturing Scale-Up | London / Hybrid

*Day Rate:£450-600 per day (dependent on experience) Location:** London, hybrid. In the office for the first week to get up to speed, then 1 to 2 days a week in the office with the rest remote

Duration: 3 months initially, potential to extend.

At Harmonic, we are dedicated to fostering an inclusive and equitable workplace. We actively welcome applications from individuals of all backgrounds and assure you that every candidate will be thoughtfully considered for the roles we represent, without regard to race, religion, gender expression, disability, or sexual orientation.