Finance Controller at AI Acquisition

South Africa

<p></p>Overview<p>FINANCE OPERATIONS CONTROLLER</p><p>We're not hiring a CFO. We're not hiring a spreadsheet builder. We're not hiring someone who needs a team of five to do the work of one.</p><p>We need a Finance Operator. Someone who walks into organised chaos, rolls up their sleeves, oversees the right people and processes, and doesn't leave until it's a machine.</p><br />ABOUT AI ACQUISITION<p>AI Acquisition is the global category leader in AI service-provider enablement. We connect AI agencies with enterprise opportunities at scale through a hybrid PaaS and AI marketplace model. We operate across multiple entities, currencies, and geographies. We move fast, we spend big on ads, and our financial infrastructure needs to match the pace of the business.</p><p>We are not a 9-to-5 business. We are building something that matters and we need people who build with us.</p><br />THE ROLE<p>This is a hands-on leadership role. You will report directly to and support our Director of Finance, freeing them from the operational grind so they can focus on strategy and growth.</p><p>You will inherit a multi-entity structure with real operational complexity: live cash flow pressure, a payment infrastructure in transition, manual processes that need to be automated, and financial data that needs to be turned into clean, actionable systems.</p><p>Your mandate is simple: stabilize, systematize, and automate. You will oversee the people and processes that execute this work, and where needed, you will get into the detail yourself.</p><p>This role also demands genuine scale experience. We are looking for someone who has operated finance functions with high transaction volume and real operational complexity — not a controlled, low-volume environment — and who naturally approaches problems by building repeatable systems rather than one-off fixes.</p> THIS IS NOT FOR YOU IF<ul><li>You can only work independently and struggle to lead or direct others</li><li>You prefer building models over building systems</li><li>You manage from a distance rather than having genuine operational grip</li><li>You treat SOPs as someone else's job</li><li>You wait for direction instead of creating clarity</li><li>You call something "done" when it's documented but not implemented</li><li>You've only worked in low-volume, low-complexity finance environments</li></ul>WHAT YOU'LL OWN<p>Cash Flow &amp; Treasury Oversight &amp; Execution</p><ul><li>Own the daily cash cycle across all entities: DMCC, Acquisity, AI Broker, and others</li><li>Oversee and manage high-volume USD revenue flows from Whop into UAE bank accounts</li><li>Ensure seamless daily funding of GBP/AED corporate cards for Meta ad spend — ad accounts do not pause on your watch</li><li>Build a live cash visibility system so the Director of Finance sees the position at a glance, not after a request</li></ul><p>Payment Infrastructure — Lead the Transition</p><ul><li>Lead the full migration from legacy Pleo/UK-entity setup to Qashio (UAE-native)</li><li>Evaluate and implement Whop's virtual card platform for a direct, automated Meta spend link</li><li>Eliminate manual card-topping and payment bottlenecks entirely</li><li>Every payment flow you touch should end up tracked, reconciled, and automated</li></ul><p>Systems, SOPs &amp; Automation — Turn Manual Into Machine</p><ul><li>Audit every manual finance process. If a human is doing it repeatedly, it should be automated or systematized</li><li>Build and implement SOPs across cash management, reporting, payments, refunds, and reconciliation and ensure the team follows them</li><li>Work with our external bookkeeping partner (Emifast) to ensure Xero is accurate, current, and structured properly across all entities</li><li>Convert chaotic financial data into clean, trackable dashboards the Director of Finance and executive team can rely on</li><li>Approach every recurring problem as a systems problem: identify the root cause, design a repeatable process or automation, and remove reliance on manual intervention or individual judgment</li></ul><p>Entity &amp; Vendor Management</p><ul><li>Oversee financial operations across 2–3 entities, each with different products and revenue structures</li><li>Hold external bookkeeping accountable — quality, timeliness, accuracy. No exceptions</li><li>Manage the financial wind-down of the legacy UK entity once the new payment infrastructure is live</li></ul><p>Reporting — Simple, Not Sophisticated</p><ul><li>Deliver distilled, executive-ready reporting: cash position, P&amp;L by entity, key risks in five bullet points, not twenty tabs</li><li>Surface profitability issues early, particularly for Acquisity, which needs clear diagnosis and corrective action</li><li>Build reporting rhythms so the Director of Finance is never caught off guard</li></ul>WHAT SUCCESS LOOKS LIKE<ul><li>Ad accounts never pause because of cash flow</li><li>Payment infrastructure is fully transitioned and running without manual intervention</li><li>Every financial process has an SOP. Every SOP is being followed</li><li>The Director of Finance has more time to think because you handle the execution and oversight</li><li>Xero is clean, current, and trusted across all entities</li><li>Weekly reporting takes minutes to produce because the systems are built</li><li>Manual work is replaced by automated, tracked data — not spreadsheets, real systems</li></ul>WHO YOU ARE<p>You've been in both the operational and leadership seat inside a fast-growing digital, e-commerce, or performance marketing business, ideally one with significant scale — high transaction volume, high daily cash movement, multiple currencies and entities running in parallel. You understand how cash actually moves, not theoretically, but operationally. You default to systems thinking: when something breaks, your instinct is to diagnose the root cause and build a process or automation that prevents it from recurring, not to patch it manually. You know how to build the systems and lead the people that keep them running. You know what it feels like when an ad account pauses at 2am because a card wasn't topped up, and you've built the infrastructure to make sure that never happens.</p>Requirements<ul><li>5+ years in a finance operations, treasury, or senior finance execution role — not advisory, not modelling, not investment banking</li><li>Direct experience operating in a high-volume, high-transaction-count environment — comfortable with real operational scale, not just a well-organized small-entity setup</li><li>A demonstrated systems-first approach to problem solving: builds repeatable processes and automations rather than one-off manual fixes</li><li>Experience leading or overseeing finance operations teams, external partners, or cross-functional processes</li><li>Direct hands-on experience managing high-volume, multi-currency cash flows (USD, GBP, AED)</li><li>Proven track record building and implementing SOPs in finance operations</li><li>Experience managing external bookkeeping or accounting firms and holding them to a standard</li><li>Strong working knowledge of Xero, Wise, Whop, and corporate card platforms (Pleo, Qashio or similar)</li><li>Someone who builds systems, not reports, and executes before being asked twice</li></ul>Highly Desirable<ul><li>Experience with UAE corporate structures, specifically DMCC entities</li><li>Background in performance marketing businesses with high daily ad spend</li><li>Experience managing entity wind-downs or cross-border entity restructuring</li><li>Familiarity with Series A / early-scale finance environments — you know how to bring structure without bureaucracy</li></ul> OUR CULTURE — READ THIS BEFORE YOU APPLY<p>We are a high-performance, remote-first team operating in one of the fastest-moving sectors in the world. We do not have time for:</p><ul><li>Vague updates and no ownership</li><li>Problems that get buried instead of surfaced</li><li>People who wait to be told what to do</li><li>Complexity that exists to impress rather than to solve</li></ul><p>We do have time for:</p><ul><li>People who see a mess and immediately start building the solution</li><li>Direct, clear communication even when it's uncomfortable</li><li>Operators who take ownership and don't need hand-holding</li><li>Anyone who can simplify the complex, lead others effectively, and automate the repetitive</li></ul><p>You will work closely with the Director of Finance and have direct visibility into the executive layer. The people at the top of this company are operators. They expect the same from everyone around them.</p><br />WHY THIS ROLE, WHY NOW<p>We are scaling aggressively. Our ad spend is significant, our entity structure is multi-layered, and our financial operations need to match the ambition of the business. The Director of Finance needs a true operator and leader by their side, not a subordinate waiting for tasks, but someone who identifies what needs to be done, directs the right people, and gets it done.</p><p>If you are the person who walks into complexity and leaves behind systems and a team that runs them, this is your role.</p><p>If you need structure handed to you, this isn't for you.</p><br />Benefits<p>Why Join Us</p><ul><li>Operate at the front line of AI-powered business building</li><li>Work directly with ambitious founders globally</li><li>Apply real-world experience, not theory or scripts</li><li>Fully remote, senior-level role with autonomy and ownership</li><li>Founder-led environment that values judgment over bureaucracy</li></ul><p></p><p></p>