Finance Manager - Corporate & Accounting

🎄📅 Please note that recruitment operations, including application reviews and interviews, will be suspended from Dec 23, resuming fully on Jan 5.

We're building the future of AI for analysts and scientists, based on a fundamentally new approach to reasoning and knowledge representation. Our team of 40 exceptional researchers and engineers - distributed across 16 countries - are tackling some of the hardest problems in AI. We're in our R&D phase, founder-backed, and scaling rapidly toward commercialization.

We're hiring a Finance Manager - Corporate & Accounting to elevate our financial operations as we transition from R&D to commercialization. You'll own all accounting, compliance, and corporate governance for our Swiss entity, ensuring we have audit-ready books, timely regulatory filings, and the financial foundation to support our ambitious growth. This is a hands-on role where you'll work closely with external providers (bookkeeper, tax advisors, auditors, legal counsel) while building scalable processes. You'll be a key partner to our founders and work alongside two other finance team members (FP&A Manager and Workforce Finance Manager).

Location: Remote (working hours are 09:00-18:00 CET)

Reports to: CEO / Co-Founder

Team: Finance (3 people total)

🔑 What You'll Own

Accounting & Financial Reporting

• Execute month-end processes, including posting accounting adjustments - ensuring high precision and accuracy

• Prepare monthly management accounts and financial statements (Schweizerisches Obligationenrecht)

• Oversee day-to-day bookkeeping through our external provider and automation stack (Xero, Dext, Revolut)

• Maintain chart of accounts and ensure accurate cost allocation across departments/countries

• Oversee bank reconciliations and manage cash positions

• Ensure proper accounting treatment for multi-country payroll (Deel integration)

Tax & Regulatory Compliance

• Coordinate Swiss corporate tax filings (annual and quarterly) with external tax advisors

• Manage VAT compliance and declarations

• Monitor taxable presence (PE risk) in all jurisdictions, including Sales Tax/VAT and CT obligations

• Oversee Foreign Employer setup compliance (Germany, UK)

• Stay current on tax and regulatory changes

Audit & Controls

• Lead the annual limited financial audit and prepare for a transition to full financial audits (Swiss OR/ GAAP)

• Build and maintain audit-ready processes and documentation

• Ensure strict adherence to applicable accounting standards (Swiss OR/GAAP)

• Design, implement and monitor robust internal controls

• Lead the development of the company risk register, including identifying and mitigating cross-functional risks

• Support future SOC2 certification (own finance-related controls)

Corporate Finance & Governance

• Shareholder management: Maintain share register, prepare and execute AGM, manage shareholder documentation

• Annual capital increase process: Coordinate funding rounds (legal docs, filings, share issuance)

• Corporate compliance: Ensure Swiss corporate law compliance, work with legal counsel on governance matters

• Manage the current corporate structure and own the evaluation and execution of setting up new subsidiaries as the business scales

• Board support: Prepare materials for board meetings, ensure proper documentation and filings

Vendor Management & Payments

• Maintain and optimize the AP and approval workflow, and payment execution

• Manage vendor relationships and contracts (working with legal on contract reviews)

• Ensure timely payments and maintain vendor files

Payroll Operations

• Audit and reconcile Deel payroll submissions across 16 countries monthly

• Catch errors before they reach employees

• Track allowances and reimbursements (sick leave, benefits, expenses) across jurisdictions

• Ensure payroll accounting entries are accurate

• Provide payroll data to Finance Manager for forecasting

🪜Background & Experience

Essential

• 2-4 years in high-performance environments such as Big 4 audit/tax + industry experience, OR top-tier management consulting (McKinsey, BCG, Bain) with a finance focus

• Why a high-performance environment matters to us: You've been trained in operational excellence, you work with precision under pressure, and you know what "audit-ready" / “client-ready” really means

• Strong foundation in accounting and Swiss OR, GAAP/IFRS

• Experience with full-cycle accounting (close, reporting, compliance)

• Proven track record of zero-defect work in high-stakes environments

Highly Valued

• Experience at a high-growth tech company or startup

• Exposure to multi-country operations and compliance

• Knowledge of startup-specific tax considerations

• Familiarity with Foreign Employer setups (Germany, UK)

• Prior involvement in audit or SOC2 certification

Technical Skills

Must Have

• Advanced Excel/Google Sheets (financial modeling, complex formulas)

• Experience with modern accounting software (Xero or similar)

• Comfortable with automation tools (Dext, Revolut Business, bill.com, etc.)

• Understanding of multi-currency accounting and FX exposure

• Fluent in German (spoken and written)

Nice to Have

• Experience with Deel or similar global payroll platforms

• Knowledge of equity/ESOP administration

Operating Style

You thrive when:

✅ The bar for quality is extremely high

✅ Getting things "almost right" isn't good enough

✅ You're working with smart, demanding people

✅ There's no room for errors (audits, tax, payroll)

✅ Processes need to be built from scratch

✅ You're juggling multiple deadlines (month-end, tax, audit, AGM)

You struggle when:

❌ "Good enough" is acceptable

❌ People tolerate sloppy work

❌ There's no intellectual rigor

❌ Processes are already built and you're just maintaining

🤝 What You'll Work With

People

• Finance Manager (FP&A & Strategy) - Your partner, owns forward-looking finance, cash, strategy, compensation benchmarking

• Founders (Co-CEOs) - Direct access for critical decisions

• External providers - Accountant & bookkeeper, tax advisors, auditors, legal counsel

• Deel support - For global payroll operations

Tools & Stack

• Xero - Accounting software (well-configured, automated feeds)

• Dext - Invoice processing

• Revolut Business - Banking and payments

• Deel - Global payroll across 16 countries (employees, EORs, contractors)

• Google Sheets/Excel - Analysis and reporting

• Cap table software - TBD (Carta, Pulley, or similar)

External Support

• Swiss accountant & bookkeeper (daily transactions)

• Swiss tax advisor (corporate tax, VAT)

• Annual audit firm

• Corporate legal counsel

• Country-specific advisors as needed

🌱 Why PlantingSpace?

Highlights

• The Mission: We're not building another SaaS tool or ad-tech platform. We're working on fundamental problems in AI that could reshape how machines learn and reason. If that excites you, you'll fit right in.

• The Team: Work with researchers and engineers who are highly passionate about their work and the problems we are solving. Our intellectual bar is exceptionally high - and that extends to finance operations too.

• The Stage: Pre-revenue R&D means you're building financial operations from scratch. No legacy mess to clean up. You'll establish the foundation that scales to Series A, Series B, and beyond.

Unique organisation: startup spirit with solid foundations

Startup Spirit

• Collaborate with the best: Join a hand-picked team of intellectually curious people who are deeply passionate about their work.

• Make a real difference: Here, you aren't just a cog in a big machine; at eye-level with everyone else, your contributions directly impact the product and the team.

• Engineered for Exponential Scale: We are a deep-tech venture with a significant technological moat, aimed at solving fundamental, large-scale problems.

• Space to grow: As we are starting to scale, there is plenty of opportunity to demonstrate leadership and take responsibility, developing organically into senior roles.

Solid Foundations

• Securely funded: Fully funded by the founders, meaning we operate without run-rate anxiety. Our ability to set our strategy is not driven by VC demands, but purely by the team’s understanding of what moves us fastest closer to our goal.

• Focus on Product, not fundraising: Financial stability allows us to focus on long-term product potential, sustainable execution, and the strength of our team.

• Quality over chaos: Startups are often scrappy, but we have the stability to do things properly; we have a high level of rigor and take the time to build things in a solid and reliable way from the start.

Team Retreats

• We’re globally distributed but closely connected. Every three months, we bring the whole team together in nice locations across Europe.

• We spend one week together: planning, solving problems at the white board, having fun and bonding.