Head of Finance Operations & Automation

Oliva is the employee mental wellbeing platform for companies who want to properly care for their people, and help them grow.

By combining proper therapy courses, coaching (the good kind), dedicated support for managers, and mental fitness classes—all led by a curated team of top professionals—Oliva helps employees respond to whatever hurdles life throws at them: big or small, at work and beyond.

We’ve raised funding from three of Europe’s best venture capital firms and various top-notch angels. And now, we’re looking for a top notch Head of Finance Operations & Automation to embark on this journey with us.

This isn’t just any job. We want to make a meaningful impact on an industry that changes people’s lives. The ideal candidate is not only an experienced Head of Finance Operations & Automation, but also someone who’s passionate about joining a movement to reimagine modern mental healthcare.

The role:

You’ll be joining as our very first ever hire dedicated to Finance within our Operations team, meaning it’s all to play for. We need someone to supercharge and own our end-to-end accounting and cash operations. This role will be responsible for revolutionising our operational functions by leveraging AI, automation, and technology solutions.

While overseeing the company’s financial operations will be your initial priority, you will also play a key role in building lean and efficient processes across various operational areas. By utilising your experience and passion for technology-driven solutions, you will optimise financial processes, ensure compliance, deliver insightful management information, and build forecasts. Your strategic mindset and leadership will enable us to operate with a lean team while achieving exceptional outcomes.

This role is a unique opportunity to help us build the foundations of what is a highly critical part of our business

You’ll make an impact in the following areas:

• Develop and execute the company’s operational strategy, focusing initially on financial operations, including legally required financial statements, tax filings, month-end close, management reporting, and financial controls.
• Utilise AI, automation, and technology solutions to optimise financial processes, minimise manual intervention, and enhance scalability.
• Oversee the completion of accurate and timely financial statements, tax filings, and month-end close activities, ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements.
• Deliver insightful management information, including financial reports, analysis, and forecasts, to drive data-driven decision-making and support business leaders.
• Implement and maintain robust financial controls to safeguard assets, mitigate risk, and ensure compliance with internal policies and external regulations.
• Collaborate with business leaders to build accurate and comprehensive financial forecasts, providing guidance and analysis to drive strategic decision-making.
• Identify opportunities to leverage AI and automation in operational areas beyond finance, streamlining processes and enhancing efficiency.
• Stay updated on the latest advancements in AI, automation, and related technologies, proactively seeking opportunities to enhance operational functions.
• Provide leadership and guidance to the operational team, fostering a culture of continuous improvement, innovation, and data-driven decision-making.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to align operational goals with business objectives, ensuring seamless coordination and communication.
• Monitor and report on key operational metrics and performance indicators to senior management, highlighting areas of success and opportunities for improvement.

You are a visionary finance leader who is passionate about mental health technology. With experience working with early stage startups before, you will enjoy building from scratch and will not be afraid of rolling your sleeves up. Having to get stuck into day to day finance at first will not put you off because you know you will soon be revolutionising the finance function at Oliva through AI and automation. You are seeking an opportunity to make a real impact.

You’ll be successful if you:

• Are a qualified accountant, qualified in the UK (ACA, ACCA, or CIMA)
• Bachelor’s degree in finance, accounting, or a related field (advanced degree preferred)
• Proven experience as a senior finance leader within hyper-growth tech companies
• Deep understanding of financial operations, including financial statements, tax filings, month-end close, management reporting, financial controls, and forecasting
• Extensive experience in leveraging AI, automation, and technology solutions to optimise financial processes and achieve operational excellence
• Strong strategic mindset with the ability to align financial objectives with business goals and execute against a long-term vision
• Excellent analytical skills and data-driven decision-making capabilities, with a passion for leveraging insights to drive continuous improvement
• Exceptional leadership and communication skills, with the ability to inspire and align cross-functional teams towards a common vision
• Proven experience in building and managing high-performing finance teams and fostering a collaborative work environment
• Familiarity with the latest trends and advancements in AI, automation, and related technologies, with a genuine passion for their application in financial operations
• Happy to travel up to four times a year as well as local travel for team sessions
• Based in the UK or EU

We come to work each day knowing that we’re contributing to a truly meaningful mission: to improve the mental health of millions of people worldwide.

On top of this, you get:

• A healthy salary and early-employee stock options in a rapidly growing startup
• Plenty of paid time off to relax and recharge your batteries
• Extensive private medical insurance or a healthcare allowance
• Free therapy —and encouragement to take advantage of it
• Well-being allowance to look after yourself
• Remote working allowance or a co-working membership
• Flexible hours
• Professional learning & development opportunities to help you grow
• An autonomous, vibrant, and flexible work environment
• Travel once per quarter to a team event

Diversity & inclusion

We know the tech industry has a diversity problem. Without proactively addressing this, we could easily end up hiring a lot of very similar people. So we’re enthusiastically encouraging applications from underrepresented groups in our industry. We hire with fairness and awareness—and we mean it.

Whoever you may be: regardless of age, ethnic origin, sexual orientation, gender, religion, disability, background, or identity, we’d love to hear from you. If you need any adjustments during the interview process, let us know and we’ll accommodate.

Who we are

Oliva is a tight-knit, experienced, and passionate team of engineers, designers, marketers, and psychologists. We’ve all been through our own battles with burnout, anxiety, low self-esteem, and depression. And while we’ve all had both positive and less positive experiences with mental healthcare, we know first-hand that talking through your problems makes a massive difference once you find the right person.

Our co-founders, Javier Suarez and Sançar Sahin, have both experienced the emotional highs and lows of scaling successful tech startups and lived to tell the tale. Javier co-founded the business travel startup TravelPerk—which went on to serve thousands of businesses and employ hundreds of people—and previously led innovation at Booking.com. Sançar has led marketing teams at Typeform, Hotjar, and GetApp.

If you’ve ever felt like you needed mental health support but had no idea where to start, you’re in good company. Our goal is to stop people feeling like that.

We are fully remote but you will need to be based in the UK or EU for our positions and be willing to travel twice a year for up to 3 nights.