Head of Finance

This position is listed on behalf of a partner company, who manages all applications and next steps. Our partner is looking for a Head of Finance based in Italy. This is a senior leadership opportunity to build and lead a modern Finance function within a fast-growing international payments environment. You will own management reporting, financial control, budgeting, settlements, cash-flow planning, and financial process optimization. The role combines strategic leadership with hands-on ownership of financial models, reporting logic, reconciliations, and operational controls. You will partner closely with Data, Development, Treasury, and executive leadership to turn complex financial information into actionable business insights. A key focus will be replacing manual processes with reliable, automated reporting and scalable financial workflows. You will also oversee financial operations across multiple legal entities, currencies, products, merchants, and payment methods. This role is ideal for an experienced finance leader who thrives on ownership, transformation, and working in a data-driven, international environment. Own end-to-end management reporting, including P&L, Cash Flow Statement, Balance Sheet, plan-vs-actual analysis, and profitability reporting across products, merchants, payment methods, and legal entities. Build and maintain the budgeting and forecasting cycle, including operating budgets, payment calendars, cash-flow forecasts, gap analysis, scenario planning, and obligation tracking. Design and operate a robust financial control framework covering regular reconciliations, discrepancy classification, resolution SLAs, approval workflows, audit trails, and manual adjustment controls. Manage merchant settlements, including settlement calculations, provider fees, minimum fees, surcharges, refunds, chargebacks, FX conversions, and balance transfers. Oversee finance across multiple legal entities, currencies, and intercompany transactions, including consolidated reporting and preparation of information for statutory accounting and external audits. Serve as the business owner for financial automation by defining financial logic, KPIs, formulas, data sources, requirements, and acceptance criteria for dashboards and reports. Collaborate with Data Analysts, Data Engineers, and Development teams to validate financial outputs, identify discrepancies, and prioritize automation initiatives based on business impact. Lead, structure, and develop the Finance team by defining responsibilities, hiring where needed, establishing accountability, and driving continuous process improvement. Report financial performance, risks, forecasts, and business insights to the CEO, founders, and senior leadership in clear, commercially focused language. Establish clear operating boundaries between Finance, Treasury, and Data while maintaining effective collaboration across these functions. Develop a scalable Finance function capable of supporting growth across multiple markets, entities, currencies, and transaction volumes. Requirements 8+ years of experience in Finance, including at least 3 years managing a finance team or function. Professional background in fintech, payments/PSP, acquiring, EMI, banking, crypto payments, or another high-volume transactional business. Proven experience building or transforming financial processes, particularly moving from manual Excel-based reporting toward automated data pipelines and reporting. Strong experience managing multiple legal entities, currencies, and intercompany operations. Hands-on ownership of P&L, Cash Flow, Balance Sheet, plan-vs-actual reporting, and financial forecasting. Ability to define financial metrics, establish standardized calculation methodologies, and develop unit economics and profitability analysis by product, customer, channel, or business line. Strong understanding of payment flows, including settlement cycles, provider fees, processing and clearing costs, refunds, chargebacks