VP of Finance

Are you interested in changing the landscape of Ed Tech, working on products which can benefit anyone, anywhere?

Sololearn is on a mission to build the most fun, accessible and effective technical learning experience worldwide. We aim to help anyone, anywhere bridge the technical skills gap to future life-changing careers. We’re changing the way people learn how to code by building a habit-forming experience for people to learn at their own pace, with bite-sized lessons and unique ways to practice. Joining Sololearn is an opportunity to build products which benefit the millions of current learners in our community, the enterprise sector across multiple industries and the billions of learners who will want or need to reskill over the next decade.

We change lives by teaching people how to code. Want to join us?

The role:

Sololearn is seeking a VP of Finance. In this role, you'll have the opportunity to build an exceptional finance function from its early days.  You'll lead our core finance activities, building rigor and operational excellence into how we approach financial leadership, accounting, reporting, financial operations, and planning. 

What you’ll do:

Financial Leadership, Management, Strategy, and Planning

• Act as primary financial strategist and strategic partner to the senior executive leadership team, with accountability and consistently excellent performance.
• Define and deliver on all objectives and targets set for the business, with excellence and effectiveness.
• Assess and evaluate financial performance including long-term operational goals, setting pricing goals and targets, evaluate entry opportunities for new markets, and oversee all budgeting and forecasting activities.
• Manage and lead within the business with a sense of urgency, focus, and reliability.
• Lead, recruit, interview and hire finance, treasury, accounting and payroll staff as required

Specific areas of responsibility:

• Control: oversee accounting functions, ensure the company has accurate financial metrics (e.g., revenue, expenses, cash flow/burn); Advance visibility and alignment on business objectives and KPIs.  
• Financial Planning: manage the budgeting and planning processes; create and establish yearly financial objectives that align with the company’s plan for growth and market penetration, while driving performance management and enabling team members to do so as well.
• Risk: demonstrate a proficiency for evaluating the return-on-investment, cost variable, and other dimensions of the financial opportunities or risks in proposed new projects.
• Business Insights: provide insight and recommendations to both short-term and long-term growth plans; work with talented teams across multiple geographies and time zones and be able to clearly communicate financial insights to key stakeholders.
• Investor Relations: partner with CEO and COO to manage relationships with our Board of Directors, including preparing quarterly updates.
• Capital Markets: work with the leadership team on fundraising activities; optimize the mix of capital between equity and debt where relevant.
• Treasury: manage the cash in the business intelligently; mitigate risks (e.g. illiquidity, currency) to the extent possible.
• Tax: Measure sure the company is compliant with various tax authorities; optimize tax obligations within the bounds of compliance.

Who you are:

• You have a Master’s Degree in Accounting or Finance preferred. BS degree is required.
• You have 3 years minimum experience as a VP of Finance or equivalent in a mid-sized private sector startup, and 10 years total accounting or finance experience.
• You have deep experience leading and scaling finance organizations in high growth settings.
• You have demonstrated leadership ability, confidence and executive presence and an ability to motivate staff.
• You have excellent analytical, reasoning and problem-solving skills.
• You have significant experience working with external auditors, internal controls and compliance-related issues.
• You have experience and success leading and managing in an international business context.
• You are a self-starter who is comfortable working in a dynamic, fast paced, start-up environment.
• You love data and have an analytical approach to creating plans. You’re relentless with utilizing data and metrics to back up your assumptions and recommendations.
• You have excellent written and verbal communications skills with a distinct ability to lead and align a cross-functioning team working towards a common objective.

Pluses

• Outstanding knowledge and understanding of GAAP, IFRS, SOX compliance and SEC reporting.
• Led analytics teams on deep funnel analysis.
• Experience with mobile freemium products.
• Ed-tech experience, and passionate about education and learning.

We enjoy what we do and we believe in our mission. We love learning and we love helping others learn. We cultivate a culture where everyone can bring their authentic selves to work, feel valued and find value every day. Every day we learn at Sololearn, we hope to exemplify our mission statement and have a fun, inclusive and effective learning experience. If you would like to join us, please apply!

Sololearn is an equal opportunity employer. We are committed to upholding equal opportunity practices and maintaining a culture that is not only non-discriminatory but actively strives to represent the diversity of the communities we serve. All recruitment and employment decisions are made on the basis of merit, business need and objective criteria. This commitment is core to our values.