Chief Financial Officer

Reporting to: CEO

Location: Catalyst (formerly Northern Ireland Science Park), Titanic Quarter, Belfast

Note: This position is now closed.

This is an opportunity to play a leading role in one of the fastest growing and important technology companies in Ireland. You will be joining at a time when the company's sales and reach are increasing rapidly.

The Company

Established in 2005, IRP Commerce is one of the leading technology companies in Northern Ireland and one of the UK’s foremost ecommerce platform providers. The company has won the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 award multiple times.

The company’s platform and approach has allowed mid-market businesses based in the UK and Ireland to transact more than £1 billion GBP and has powered the largest sites in a number of markets. Clients include retail, manufacturing and distribution businesses in both the B2C and B2B sectors.

The company has had a heavy R&D focus producing some of the most exciting software in the ecommerce industry. It has also had good commercial traction and is committed to expanding its commercial reach across the UK, Ireland and beyond.

The company’s commercial model involves supporting multiple specialist ecommerce agencies whilst also building strong relationships with direct customers and technical partners.

To help the company achieve their goals, the company is now seeking an experienced and highly-motivated Chief Financial Officer (CFO).

This role represents a huge opportunity for a talented commercial individual to play a key part in the development of one of Northern Ireland’s leading technology companies.

Position Overview

Reporting to the CEO, the CFO will lead the strategic financial and accounting functions within IRP Commerce. Having a deep understanding of all aspects of the business, s/he supports and collaborates with the CEO, the Chief Operations Officer, and broader leadership team in the formulation, communication and execution of strategic plans to deliver strong financial performance, while ensuring appropriate governance and risk management are in place. S/he will bring strategic and financial insights to operational decision making. As a forward-thinking leader, the CFO will focus on both the internal and external, financial and non-financial elements of the business.

Responsibilities

Strategy and Leadership

• Influences and challenges senior colleagues to maximize the business's performance
• Communicates clearly the strategy and financial performance of the company
• Develops the right performance measures for the business
• Identifies risks and opportunities that will affect financial and organisational performance and collaborates with other members of the leadership team on business plans
• Finds new ways to reduce the costs of the company
• Works with the members of the leadership team to develop motivating incentive schemes that reward desired behaviour
• Works throughout the company to manage internal and external stakeholders

Finance and Operational

• Manages the day-to-day financial functions and operations, including monthly management accounts, bookkeeping, credit control & HMRC compliance, ensuring the business has the correct processes, procedures, analytics and information needed to understand the past, manage the present and predict the future
• Leads budgeting and forecasting
• Leads the risk-management processes of the company
• Ensures appropriate financial and other controls are in place
• Makes sure all parts of the business have appropriate procurement processes and contracts in place with vendors.
• Ensures accurate and timely management accounts are produced
• Prepare, manage and coordinate Invest NI and other government grants
• Conduct Cost Benefit Analyses, monitoring business costs and maximizing profit
• Leadership and management of the Human Resources function, including staff incentives and share schemes
• Play a pivotal role in the pricing and construction of commercial strategy by analysing complex data to improve the commercial model
• Oversight of the contractual side of the commercial model
• Input into the financial incentivisation of the IRP Ecosystem participants

Day-to-Day Tasks

Due to the nature of the nature of a scaling business - the role will cover a wide scope. This will over time be augmented by additional resource chosen by the CFO within the department for the more simple functions. The successful candidate will be expected to fulfil or oversee the following functions:

(a) Manage accounts systems:

• Maintain and review the company’s accounts on an ongoing basis (currently Xero)
• Ensure clear reporting into the IRP Commerce and Agency cost centres

(b) Prepare Monthly Management Report:

• Prepare the Monthly Management Report within 10 working days of the month end
• Include a clear executive summary highlighting the key salient points of note from that month’s results and performance against budget

(c) Oversight / organise bookkeeping duties:

• Input supplier invoices to Xero on a timely basis
• Reconcile supplier statements when received
• Prepare weekly or monthly BACS run as appropriate
• Process BACS payments on HSBC online banking
• Administer DD payments from customers via GoCardless
• Bank Reconciliations (at least weekly)
• Export sales invoice from IRP Commerce to Xero when due
• Aged Receivables report — reconcile and feed back to management (monthly)
• Credit Control (by electronic means such as Chaser as required)
• Credit Control (verbal escalation if required) (+ surcharge of using 3^rd party if appropriate)

(d)Oversight of payments administration:

• Supplier payments
• HMRC payments
• Payroll & expenses

(e) Manage quarterly forecasts and budgets:

• Prepare quarterly forecasts and budgets on an ongoing basis
• Issue budget(s) to management on quarterly basis for review and sign-off
• Upload signed-off budget(s) to Xero for reporting

(f) Oversight on email and telephone support for staff on:

• Xero
• Customer invoices & statements
• Supplier invoices & statements
• Expenses and payroll
• Bank queries
• Employee contracts
• Invest NI financial queries

(g) Manage or Oversee HMRC & Companies House filings:

• Quarterly VAT Return & EC Sales Lists
• Monthly Payroll & HMRC RTI returns
• Year-end Statutory accounts — prepare and file at Companies House
• Annual Return
• Annual Corporation Tax Return — complete and file at HMRC (and liaise with any specialist tax advisors engaged by the company for tax planning and/or R&D tax credits)

(h) Manage or Oversee Invest NI and other government grants:

• Prepare & submit grant claims.
• Oversight of RnD grants

(i) Conduct Cost Benefit Analyses & KPIs:

• Constantly monitor the costs of the business in order to maximize profit
• Alert the board to potential issues with costs
• Devise strategies to reduce costs
• Create core financial metrics and KPIs

(j) HR Oversight:

• Assisting an oversight role of the HR function
• Point of contact for key HR issues to resolve or relay
• Oversight of the staff incentive schemes
• Oversight of the staff share option scheme

(k) Commercial Functions and Modelling of pricing:

• A key role in the pricing and construction of commercial strategy
• Modelling and analysing complex data to improve the commercial model
• Oversight of the contractual side of the commercial model
• Input into the financial incentivisation of the IRP Ecosystem participants

(l) Business Group Structuring & Investor Management:

• Oversight and input into any organisational changes to the company structure
• Financial control of all funding requirements and investor relations
• Manage any investor relationships
• Manage funding relationships

(m) Play a key leadership role:

• Assist with the leadership and management of the company
• Potentially assist with systems and processes
• Potentially assist with company control systems

Key Relationships

• CEO, COO, CTO
• Management team
• Existing and potential customers
• External partners, including Catalyst Inc and Invest N.I.
• Auditors
• Internal partners
• External vendors

Knowledge and Skills

Technical / Professional Skills & Competencies:

• Strong technical accounting knowledge
• Expert at financial-analysis and modelling
• Experience developing and modelling business cases
• Strong communication and interaction experience between business units and external partners is a key dimension (e.g. Grant provider relations, Financial Planning & Analysis)

Qualifications and Professional Experience:

• Must have a recognized accounting qualification
• Extensive experience in running a finance department in a fast-paced, dynamic environment, preferably experience as a CFO in a software or technology company
• Significant financial management and leadership experience at a senior level, preferably at director level
• Worked for both growth and mature businesses

Desired Skills and Experience:

• Experience running a business
• Strong operational expertise
• M&A experience

Behavioural Competencies:

• Customer focus
• Action oriented
• Strong communication skills (written and verbal)
• Effective team management
• Strategic
• Negotiation / Influencing skills
• Collaboration
• Integrity
• Trust

Education:

• MBA or equivalent degree in business, finance or related field, CPA

At IRP Commerce, we believe what we do matters. We are passionate about our work, inspired by the impact it has on our business and our customers. As a team, we believe in developing and succeeding as one - cooperating to reach shared goals, and maturing through challenging and meaningful experiences. To make this happen we count on each employee to be a catalyst for driving company performance - and their own.

How to Apply

If you feel that you have the potential to join our team and help create the future of commerce, we want to hear from you. Send your CV to: