Fractional Financial Controller
Location: London
Engagement: Fractional/ongoing — approx. 2–3 days per week (~16–24 hours), flexible across the week
Day rate: circa £450–£475 per day
About MarcoPolo Learning
MarcoPolo Learning is a leading provider of content, technology, and instructional support for early childhood education. Since 2013 we've reached thousands of classrooms and hundreds of thousands of families, primarily across the US, through our MarcoPolo World School app and The Polos series. We're a lean, AI-forward team operating across a multi-entity structure spanning US and UK entities, and we're entering a new phase focused on automation and efficient scaling.
The Role
We're looking for an experienced, hands-on Financial Controller to own our day-to-day finance function across our US and UK entities on a fractional basis. You'll own everything from transactional bookkeeping through to month-end close, reporting, and compliance, managing the entities as a single operation while correctly attributing activity to the right one. You'll work directly with the CEO and senior leadership, staying close to the detail while communicating clearly with stakeholders, investors, and external advisors.
What you'll do
- Own the day-to-day finance function across our US and UK entities, managing them as a single operation and correctly identifying which entity each transaction, journal, or filing relates to.
- Run bookkeeping and transactional processing in Xero — accounts payable, accounts receivable, bank reconciliations, expenses, journals, and intercompany entries.
- Own the monthly close and produce clear management accounts, plus support board and investor reporting.
- Act as a key finance point of contact — communicating clearly with senior stakeholders, investors, and external advisors, and partnering with internal teams.
- Administer the company's stock option and equity scheme, including option grants, cap-table maintenance, and related reporting, alongside external advisors.
- Manage customer billing, subscription revenue recognition, deferred revenue, and ARR/subscription reporting; calculate sales commissions.
- Run US and UK payroll through our external providers, including pensions and related filings.
- Handle UK VAT and statutory compliance, and US state and sales-tax compliance, working with external advisors.
- Own cash management and cash-flow forecasting, keeping runway tracking accurate and current.
- Support year-end accounts, audits, insurance, and specialist tax-relief claims alongside external advisors.
- Use AI and automation (Xero and AI tools) to keep reporting fast, accurate, and up to date.
What we're looking for
- An experienced, hands-on Financial Controller who has owned a finance function end to end in a small business or startup, reliably and over a sustained period.
- Genuinely hands-on across the full cycle — happy to own the transactional and bookkeeping work yourself as well as the reporting and analysis.
- A confident, clear communicator, comfortable engaging senior stakeholders, investors, and external advisors directly.
- Proven experience managing a multi-entity, multi-currency structure (ideally US and UK), including intercompany accounting.
- Experience administering stock option / equity schemes and cap-table maintenance.
- Solid UK bookkeeping, VAT, payroll, month-end, and statutory experience.
- Familiarity with US payroll and US state/sales-tax compliance.
- Experience with subscription/SaaS revenue recognition, including deferred revenue and ARR reporting.
- Strong Xero skills and comfortable using AI and automation to work efficiently.
- Discreet and professional with confidential financial information.
- London-based and able to come into the office regularly to work alongside the CEO.
- Able to commit around 2–3 days per week on an ongoing basis, with responsive availability across the week.
- Exposure to EdTech, media, or creative-sector businesses and related tax-relief claims.
- Qualified, part-qualified, or qualified by experience (AAT, ACCA, CIMA or similar) — depth of hands-on experience matters more than title.
- Prior fractional or portfolio experience across small, fast-moving businesses.
Working with us
- A fractional, flexible engagement that fits around your other clients.
- A direct working relationship with the CEO in a lean, fast-moving, AI-first team.
- A mission-driven company at the intersection of education, media, and technology.
Note: This is a UK-based engagement. You must have the right to work in the UK; visa sponsorship is not available at this time.
MarcoPolo Learning is an Equal Opportunity Employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, national origin, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, protected veteran status, disability, age, or other legally protected status.