Group Financial Controller

Location: London (Hybrid, 3 days in the office) Reporting to: Finance Director Salary: £65,000–£75,000 Work.Life is a flex workspace provider for businesses who care about people. We believe that happy teams deliver measurable benefits for businesses. That’s why everything we do, from workspace design to delivering a best-in-class personal service, is designed to create happy working environments. We have shared workspaces across London, Reading and Manchester; with 8,000+ members; and an amazing team of nearly 70 Work.Lifers who share our ambition to redefine the workspace experience for the better. Make work-lives happier. At Work.Life , we're building beautiful workspaces where businesses and people can thrive. As we've grown, so has the complexity of our business. Multiple legal entities, an expanding estate, increasing automation and ambitious plans for growth mean finance has become one of the most important functions in the company. We're investing heavily in building a modern finance team. Alongside our Finance Director, we're looking for a Group Financial Controller who will own the integrity of our numbers, the quality of our financial operations and the systems that sit behind them. If you're someone who enjoys creating order, improving processes and building finance functions that people trust, this could be a brilliant opportunity. The opportunity This isn't a role where you'll simply keep the wheels turning. You'll become the operational heartbeat of finance. You'll own the financial control environment across the Group, ensuring every reconciliation, every month-end close, every statutory submission and every audit is delivered to an exceptionally high standard. Along the way, you'll continuously improve how finance operates. You'll automate repetitive work, strengthen controls, improve reporting processes and help build a finance function that is efficient, scalable and trusted across the business. What you'll be doing Owning financial control across the Group You'll be responsible for ensuring the integrity of our financial records across all Work.Life entities. That means owning technical accounting, balance sheet integrity and ensuring our financial reporting stands up to scrutiny. Leading month-end You'll own the month-end close process from start to finish. You'll coordinate the timetable, review outputs, resolve recurring issues and continually improve how quickly and accurately we close each month. Being the technical accounting expert You'll own accounting policies across the business, including areas such as revenue recognition, lease accounting, fixed assets, accruals, prepayments and provisions. You'll ensure consistency, compliance and accuracy across the Group. Owning audit and statutory reporting You'll lead our year-end audit process, statutory accounts and tax filings. You'll work closely with our external auditors and advisers while ensuring everything is delivered accurately and on time. Improving how finance works You'll constantly look for opportunities to automate manual work, simplify processes and improve efficiency. Whether that's improving systems, introducing new controls or embracing AI and automation, you'll help build a finance function fit for the future. Supporting the wider business You'll oversee short-term cash visibility and working capital reporting, support new entity and site onboarding, own intercompany accounting and ensure our regulatory obligations continue to be met. Leading quality You'll review and sign off work produced across the finance team, acting as the final quality gate before information reaches the wider business. You'll coach, support and develop colleagues while maintaining exceptionally high standards. About you You'll probably recognise yourself in most of these: You're a qualified accountant (ACA, ACCA or CIMA). You have strong technical accounting knowledge and genuinely enjoy applying it. You've owned month-end, statutory accounts and external audits. You naturally spot inconsistencies before other people do. You enjoy improving processes rather than simply following them. You're organised without becoming bureaucratic. You take pride in producing work that others can rely on. You enjoy working in fast-moving businesses where you'll have genuine ownership. You see technology and automation as opportunities rather than threats. Experience with operational real estate is a plus but not required Experience in multi-entity businesses would be helpful, but curiosity and a willingness to learn our business matter just as much. This role is for you if... You get genuine satisfaction from producing clean, accurate financial information. You like building processes that are efficient, scalable and well controlled. You enjoy solving problems at their root cause rather than applying temporary fixes. You naturally notice details that other people miss. You want ownership rather than simply responsibility. You enjoy improving systems, embracing automation and making finance better every month. You want to help build a finance function, not simply inherit one. This role is NOT for you if... You prefer working within established processes rather than improving them. You're happy accepting recurring issues as "just how things are." You dislike reviewing other people's work or holding high quality standards. You prefer producing reports to understanding whether the underlying numbers are right. You want a narrow accounting role rather than becoming one of the key operational leaders within finance. You're uncomfortable working in a growing business where priorities evolve and ownership is expected. What success looks like Within your first 6–12 months, we'd expect to see: A consistently smooth, accurate and timely month-end close. Balance sheets that are fully reconciled and trusted. Audit and statutory reporting delivered confidently and efficiently. Manual finance processes significantly reduced through automation and smarter ways of working. Strong financial controls that give the Finance Director, CEO and Board confidence in every number. A finance team that has clearer processes, higher standards and more time to focus on value-adding work. Why Work.Life ? We're building a finance function that enables the business, not one that slows it down. You'll work alongside an ambitious Finance Director, partner closely with the wider leadership team and have the opportunity to shape how finance operates as Work.Life continues to grow. If you enjoy building things properly, taking ownership and leaving every process better than you found it, we'd love to hear from you. Why you’ll love Work.Life Work happiness is our passion, and this starts with our own team. We offer a supportive working environment, plenty of training and development opportunities, competitive salary, monthly wellness package, team joy budget, quarterly socials and more, so you can work happier. At Work.Life , we’re committed to providing an inclusive environment for our team and our members, as we believe that diversity breeds a more innovative, creative, and caring culture.We’re an equal opportunity employer. Everyone who applies to Work.Life will be considered for employment without attention to race, age, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, gender, family or parental status, or disability status. Ready to join the Work.Life way? We’re excited to hear from you. Here’s our Privacy Policy – by applying for this job you accept how we will use your data.