Head of Finance & Operations (m/f/d)

About us

Thousands of strong voices use Steady to publish their work and secure a reliable income. From blogs and online magazines to podcasts, newsletters, and more, Steady enables independent media to earn a sustainable income via memberships. We’re creating the future of independent media. Come join us!

Purpose of the role

As the Head of Finance & Operations, you will play a critical role in overseeing and managing all financial and operational aspects of the organisation. You will be responsible for developing and implementing strategies to ensure the effective and efficient management of resources, financial planning, and budgeting processes. In addition, you will also manage the Finance and Support Team, its people and processes. You will provide leadership and guidance, ensuring alignment with the overall organisational goals and objectives. This role will report directly to the CEO and will be an active part of the Steady Management Team.

What the role involves:

Finance

Strategic

• Running organisational budget and forecasting
• Running multi scenario business plans to discuss with CEO and factor into long term planning
• Providing financial guidance to senior leadership and input to decision making process
• Being the finance contact point to investors, providing monthly information and reports and ad hoc requests as required

Operational

• Managing, guiding and supporting the finance team (team of 3)
• Being responsible for year end reporting and working with third party tax advisors to ensure VAT and year end tax reports filed on time
• Ensuring VAT compliance across multi territories and working with locally based tax advisers where necessary
• Ensuring VAT guidance for creators are up to date and fully communicated and explained within the organisation
• Managing processes across finance and support team to ensure creator payouts are run and sent out on time
• Providing troubleshooting and guidance regarding payout and VAT creator and Steady team questions regarding the payout process

Support

• Managing, guiding and supporting the Support Team (team of 4)
• Managing and guiding the Creator Success Manager (1 person)
• Guiding on more complex member and creator issues, where there are implications for the product, business model, tax or legal issues
• Continuously reviewing processes for fraud detection and prevention and working swiftly when potential fraud cases detected
• Keeping updated with business changes and priorities in order to prepare for creator queries
• Improving efficiencies and response times
• Working with support team to ensure FAQs are accurately reflecting creator and member needs

Operations

• Legal advice, guidance and liaison with third party advisers on behalf of the organisation where necessary
• Working with product team to maintain product related infrastructure with regards to payments - currencies, payment gateways, payment methods and system (Chargebee)

Team leadership and development

• Providing leadership, guidance and mentorship to the Finance & Operations team, including 4-5 direct reports
• Providing continuous and challenging feedback, motivating and coaching the team
• Developing and supporting the team’s career growth and learning opportunities

Ideally you have:

• A proven experience in a senior finance and operations role, preferably in a similar industry or organisation
• Experience of working directly with senior management, providing financial analysis and insight at strategic level
• Strong financial acumen and understanding of accounting principles, financial planning, and analysis
• Demonstrated experience in developing and implementing financial and operational strategies
• Proficient in financial management systems, budgeting software, and advanced MS Excel skills
• An open and considerate communication and collaboration style, with an ability to influence and mentor others
• An excellent understanding of the importance of feedback, and a willingness to seek, give and act on thoughtful feedback
• Excellent analytical and problem solving abilities, with a results oriented mindset
• An interest in seeing publishers getting paid for excellent creative content
• Above all, you are motivated by the desire to play a key role in the development of the Steady product and to join a small team committed to making that happen.

Benefits of working at Steady

• Be part of a mission that sustainably supports creators and publishers and helps guarantee an independent media landscape.
• Bring your own ideas to the table: we are still a small team and encourage you to experiment and dare to think differently.
• Choose your own benefits: whether it’s a HIIT class or a supermarket voucher, you choose the benefit that’s right for you.
• 27 days of annual leave plus 2 company mental health days per year
• Work from anywhere in Europe - we are happy to figure out the legal hurdles together with you.
• Be part of our passionate team: enjoy regular social events - virtually and twice a year at our Berlin office.
• 500 EUR per annum individual training budget.

The annual salary range for this role is between 90,000 and 95,000 EUR gross.

Hiring Journey

As the first step in our process, we ask some simple screening questions which are separated from your name and marked blind, in order to reduce potential unconscious bias. Look out for the questions as the first step of the application. Later on, we’ll want to get to know you and your experience better as part of the interview process and will give you time to meet people from our team.

Apply Now!

Steady is committed to equality, diversity and inclusion and is building a team accordingly. It’s also really important to us to find the very best people we possibly can for our team, regardless of their background, and to be transparent so our recruitment process is a little different.

Even if you’re not sure you have the right experience, you can always get in touch and have a chat with one of us. We’d love to hear from you.