Senior Manager Finance

Mitti Labs has grown quickly, and our finance operations need to keep pace. Today we rely on external providers in India and the US, plus a mix of tools and manual processes. We now want to bring finance in-house and build a function that can support the next stage of the business, so our founders and leadership team can spend their time running it.

We're looking for a Senior Manager, Finance to build our in-house finance function from 0 to 1. The role sits between accounting and FP&A, and suits someone who enjoys running things as much as analysing them.

Day to day, you'll run payroll, payments, expenses, the monthly close and the tax and regulatory calendar for our US and Indian entities. You'll set up scalable financial processes, controls and company cards, so the founders no longer sign off every transaction. You'll also give the CEO office clean, well-tagged actuals and support in our forecast, variance analysis and unit economics. Over time, there's scope to take on more ownership of the forecast and our strategic modelling.

At first you'll be doing most of the work yourself. Once the basics are in place, you'll hire and manage a Finance Assistant. Where necessary, we'll keep external chartered accountants and auditors in each jurisdiction for statutory audit and tax sign-off, and you'll manage that relationship.

Role responsibilities

- Payroll and payments. Run US and India payroll, working with our HR manager on joiners, leavers and changes. Own payments to the tens of thousands of farmers in our programmes, with accurate records, reconciled payouts and an audit trail that stands up to carbon standards and auditors. Invoice customers and track collections, manage third-party invoices and payment runs with the founders, and track and report on grant funding. You’ll also own our banking relationships and bank portals.
- Books, close and audit. Reconcile and close the monthly books for our US and Indian entities, bringing this work in-house from our external finance providers. Prepare for and manage annual statutory audits, and coordinate the external chartered accountants and auditors who sign off in each jurisdiction.
- Forecasting and strategic FP&A support. Our forecast model sits with the CEO office today. You will make sure it runs on reliable data: map transactions to cost categories each month for variance analysis, and tag spend to farming seasons so we can track unit economics by credit vintage. Over time, you will take on more ownership of the model and support the Chief of Staff and CEO office with cash and runway planning, modelling new strategic plays, and ad-hoc board and investor reporting.
- Tax and regulatory filings. Deliver the US and India tax and regulatory calendar, including GST, TDS and RBI/FEMA filings, with external tax specialists where needed.
- Spend, systems and controls. Own our finance and payroll platforms, and work with our HR manager to run financial controls through them, from approvals and access to spend limits. Review expenses and reimbursements for US and Indian staff, roll out company cards with limits by level, and periodically review our reimbursement policy and software spend. Move manual processes into systems wherever you can.
- Intercompany and multi-country setup. Manage intercompany reconciliation, transfer pricing and treasury between our US and Indian entities. Set up the books and finance processes for new entities in the Philippines and wider South East Asia as we expand.

Requirements

Background and requirements

Essential

- 7 to 10+ years in finance operations, controllership or accounting, including time running the finance function at a startup or scale-up.
- Hands-on experience running payroll, monthly close and statutory filings in India, including GST, TDS and RBI/FEMA compliance.
- Experience with a US entity: US payroll, US book closure and working with US tax advisors.
- A working grasp of intercompany accounting and transfer pricing between a US parent and an Indian subsidiary.
- A track record of managing external accountants, auditors and tax advisors to deliver on time.
- Strong instinct for what looks normal in a set of accounts, and what doesn't.
- Confident with accounting and payroll software (Zoho Books or similar) and advanced Excel or Google Sheets.
- Fluent English.

Strongly preferred

- A professional accounting qualification: CA, CPA, ACCA or equivalent.
- Experience setting up finance operations for new entities in South East Asia.
- Exposure to FP&A: forecast models, variance analysis or unit economics.
- Experience rolling out company cards, expense tools or payroll systems.
- Experience in agriculture, climate, carbon markets or businesses with large volumes of small payments to individuals.
- Experience building and managing a small finance team.

Personal attributes

- Operator first. You would rather fix a broken process than work around it and you can clearly communicate the problem and propose a clear solution to senior management.
- Meticulous. You’re obsessed with reconciliations, deadlines and filings, and nothing slips through.
- Sound judgement and communication. You know when an expense needs a second look and when to escalate. You’re able to clearly communicate issues to leaderships and triage them appropriately.
- Hands-on. You're happy doing the work yourself now, and building a team around you later.
- Systems-minded. You automate what can be automated and document what can't.
- Trustworthy. You handle payroll, bank access and sensitive data with complete discretion.
- Collaborative. You work well with our HR, commercial, science and field teams across time zones.
- Mission-driven. You care about climate and smallholder livelihoods, and want your work to help a solution scale.