Interim Financial Controller | AI & Hardware Deep Tech Business | Hybrid

The Client

Harmonic is partnering with a venture-backed deep tech business that pairs proprietary AI software with its own sensing hardware, already in use with UK government customers. Having recently closed a significant funding round and grown from under ten people to more than thirty in a year, the business is moving from R&D into production, with its first batch of units in build and large contracts in sight. Finance needs to be ready before those orders land.

The Role

This is a hands-on interim of around six months, working alongside the Chief of Staff and closely with the COO. You will take a finance function that has grown faster than its processes, get the ledger right, deliver the December year-end and leave clean foundations and processes. It is primarily a fixer's role rather than a management one, with real scope to shape how finance works. You will also coach a part-qualified accounts assistant.

Key Responsibilities

• Review and correct nominal coding across the ledger, clearing out catch-all codes.
• Put inventory, cost of sales and fixed asset accounting on a proper footing, including stock, paid and unpaid customer trials, and demonstration units.
• Lead the December year-end and audit preparation, with the accounts turned round within four months.
• Build a rolling cash flow forecast, linking committed purchase orders to cash.
• Produce clear quarterly management accounts for the founder and board, written in plain English.
• Tighten purchase-to-pay controls in a newly implemented PO system: PO detail, supplier terms, payment status and moving suppliers onto account.
• Support R&D tax credit claims, lease accounting for new premises, and the set-up of invoicing and support-package billing ahead of larger contracts.
• Work alongside the external accountants, challenging their output where needed.

Essential Experience

• Qualified accountant (ACA / CIMA / ACCA).
• Financial control experience in a hardware, manufacturing or physical product business, with strong grounding in inventory, cost of sales and fixed assets.
• Strong, current technical accounting, including delivering a year-end and audit.
• A genuinely hands-on approach: comfortable working from incomplete records and fixing problems at source.
• Able to explain finance clearly to non-finance founders and to develop junior team members.

Desirable Experience

• Experience in a scaling, venture-backed or engineering-led business; sector movers are welcome.
• R&D tax credit claims.
• Sage 50 and purchasing or inventory systems.

Day rate: £450-600 per day (Outside IR35)

Contract: 6 months

Location: Hybrid; 1-2 days per week in Cambridge.

Start Date: ASAP

For more information, get in touch with Ewan Fenley ().

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At Harmonic, we are dedicated to fostering an inclusive and equitable workplace. We actively welcome applications from individuals of all backgrounds and assure you that every candidate will be thoughtfully considered for the roles we represent, without regard to race, religion, gender expression, disability, or sexual orientation.