Strategic Finance / FP&A Lead

Strategic Finance / FP&A Lead

The opportunity

We're hiring someone to build and run the FP&A and strategic finance function at cargo.one - as a one-person function, with agents doing the heavy lifting.

You'll own the numbers: how the business is doing each month, the budget, the plan, and build the case for where we invest next.

The timing makes it more interesting. Every company is spending on AI right now - almost none can tell you what it's buying. We're running that experiment on ourselves and the early numbers are good. What we don't know yet - and as far as we can tell, nobody does - is how that spend turns into outcomes. If that feels like an exciting challenge, this could be a good fit.

What cargo.one does

Logistics runs the global economy, and most of the work behind it is still done by hand - in inboxes, spreadsheets and phone calls. Air freight is a good example: under 1% of world trade by volume, more than a third by value. When something has to arrive fast it flies, and someone still has to price it, book it and chase it manually.

cargo.one is the AI-powered infrastructure layer for logistics. Since 2018 we've been connecting the industry's data into one platform. Today, just about every airline in the world uses it to distribute capacity digitally, and many of the largest freight forwarders in the world use the platform to run their daily operations.

We're backed by leading investors including Index Ventures, Bessemer, Creandum, and Point 9.

What makes this role different

This is a one-person function, on purpose. There's no team to build. You'll build the systems and run the agents, so more of your time goes on the work itself, and you'll both progress and learn faster than you would managing people.

What we have today is a beta - a monthly reporting pack that runs on a partially agentic close, a P&L for every budget holder, and almost every core system connected. Your first job is to make it reliable, secure and close to hands-free, built properly. Producing numbers people trust should take up almost none of your week.

You spend the time that frees up on where the business puts its money.

The interesting part: you're the partner P&L owners bring in early, and also the person who keeps the numbers honest. Doing both well is a big part of the job.

What you'll do

Build the engine first, then spend most of your time using it. You'll know it's working when the monthly pack runs without you and P&L owners pull you in because they want your view, not because they have to.

Build the engine (first months)

• Decide what we report, how often and to whom - then automate it end to end.

• Help design our commission and bonus plans, then build the agent that tracks them, reports on them and pushes the results into payroll. No spreadsheet in the middle.

• Raise and ensure data quality.

Partner and allocate (most of the job)

• Set up and run the controlling and business-partnering rhythm with P&L owners.

• Build the benchmarks we need now that AI has changed the maths - org effectiveness, the return on AI initiatives once they're out of the incubator, what efficiency we should expect from each team - and turn them into capital allocation calls.

Events

• Drive the annual budget process alongside the CFO.

• Contribute to papers and presentations for SLT and board meetings.

What you get, and where it leads

Nothing will slow you down. You will have the tools you need to get the job done. Every system on MCP. You'll have Claude, GitLab, the skills our teams have already built, and a laptop that can keep up. Need a private finance data warehouse? Make the case and we'll build it. The access is all there. What you build with it is up to you.

You own the numbers. You'll work closely with me and the finance, legal and people team, who'll get you up to speed fast. You will be a key partner to the Senior and Extended Leadership teams.

Where it leads. Finance careers are changing fast, and the people who've actually built this way will be in demand. Head of Finance, CFO, founder, CEO - we're not going to prescribe it. We think this role gives you more options, not fewer.

Who we're looking for

Nobody ticks every box on this page. If you've got the three below and you're already building, we would love to talk to you.

What you'll need

1. You know what good looks like. 5+ years owning or scrutinising the numbers of B2B SaaS, usage based or platform businesses - as an operator, an investor or in strategic finance. You think in unit economics and profitability, and which levers to pull when.

2. You've built something with AI that someone relies on. Something real, not a demo. You've thought about architecture, repeatability, quality and security, and you can talk us through what broke and what you changed.

3. You are able to lead without authority, and your communication skills are S tier.

What sets you apart: Endless curiosity and a lot of grit. You're probably already building on the side, and hungry for more.

Everything else we can teach you.

This probably isn't the right fit if you want to build a big team, or you'd rather stay in the model than out in the business. It's built for people who'd rather work out something new than repeat what they've done before.

How we work with AI today

All of this is live, though some of it is young.

• Engineering: engineers write the specs and own the architecture, and agents do much of the implementation. Output has doubled in three months.

• Operations: we've taken 30-70% of the manual work out of key processes without dropping the quality bar.

• Finance: a big chunk of the internal close and most invoicing runs on AI tooling. You'll take it from there.

• Everyone else: a shared skills library, company-wide AI hackathons, and most teams building their own tools.

The next stage - measuring what all of this is actually worth - doesn't exist yet. That's yours.

Practicalities

• Where: remote, in a time zone +/- two hours of Berlin time.

• Reporting line: you report to the CFO.

• Package: market-benchmarked salary, plus significant equity. You get 24 vacation days on top of public holidays in your work location, two company offsites a year, and co-working access wherever you are. If you are in Berlin or Lisbon you can work from our offices there.

• We encourage the use of AI in the process but expect transparency about how and when it is used. We expect you to fully own your outputs either way.