Chief Financial Officer (CFO)

Through proprietary software and AI, along with a focus on customer delight, Sleek makes the back-office easy for micro SMEs.

We give Entrepreneurs time back to focus on what they love doing - growing their business and being with customers. With a surging number of Entrepreneurs globally, we are innovating in a highly lucrative space.

We operate 3 business segments:

1. Corporate Secretary: Automating the company incorporation, secretarial, filing, Nominee Director, mailroom and immigration processes via custom online robots and SleekSign.  We are the market leaders in Singapore with ~5% market share of all new business incorporations
2. Accounting & Bookkeeping: Redefining what it means to do Accounting, Bookkeeping, Tax and Payroll thanks to our proprietary SleekBooks ledger, AI tools and exceptional customer service
3. FinTech payments: Overcoming a key challenge for Entrepreneurs by offering digital banking services to new businesses

Sleek launched in 2017 and now has around 15,000 customers across our offices in Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia and the UK.  We have around 500 staff with an intact startup mindset. 

We have recently raised Series B financing off the back of >70% compound annual growth in Revenue over the last 5 years.  Sleek has been recognised by The Financial Times, The Straits Times, Forbes and LinkedIn as one of the fastest growing companies in Asia.  

Backed by world-class investors, we are on track to be one of the few cash flow positive, tech-enabled unicorns based out of Singapore.

Requirements

We are looking for a Chief Financial Officer that is excited about the below Mission and Outcomes.

Mission: Lead Sleek’s global finance function, providing strategic financial leadership to the Board, investors, and lenders. Ensure Sleek’s financial preparedness for a potential IPO.

Outcomes: 

Strategic Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A): 

• Develop and implement a robust strategic financial planning process that supports long-term growth and IPO readiness. 
• This includes enhancing forecasting methodologies, scenario planning, and capital expenditure analysis to inform both strategic operating decisions and Board-level decisions.

Capital Allocation & Fundraising: 

• Optimize the company's capital structure and develop strategies for efficient capital allocation. 
• Successfully lead any required fundraising rounds, including pre-IPO financing, engaging effectively with potential investors and lenders.

Risk Management & Compliance: 

• Oversee the development and implementation of comprehensive financial risk management frameworks, including currency, interest rate, and operational risks. 
• Ensure strict adherence to all financial regulations, corporate governance standards, and internal controls in anticipation of public company requirements.

Global Financial Operations & Scalability: 

• Further enhance and automate global financial systems to support international expansion and increased operational complexity, ensuring compliance across all jurisdictions.
• Identify and address any internal control gaps, implementing scalable and efficient new processes, and creating a centrally accessible, easy-to-understand repository of all core Finance systems, decisions, and workflows.

Tax Strategy & Optimization: 

• Develop and execute a global tax strategy that minimizes liabilities while ensuring compliance, particularly in the context of international growth and future public company obligations.

Leadership & Team Development: 

• Provide strong leadership to the entire finance organization, fostering a culture of strategic partnership, continuous improvement, and professional development to build a world-class finance team capable of supporting a public company.

To do this, you will have: 

1. At least 15 years experience in finance roles, with at least 5 years in a CFO or equivalent senior financial leadership position
2. Experience in a high growth SaaS or tech-enabled business
3. Extensive experience interacting with Boards, institutional investors, and lenders
4. Experience in preparing a company for an IPO or similar capital market transactions
5. Outstanding verbal and written communication skills, with the ability to articulate complex financial concepts clearly to diverse stakeholders
6. CPA or CFA or equivalent qualification

Behavioural fit is also important at Sleek, and we will be looking for candidates that have a proven track record of embodying the below attributes in their recent roles:

Ownership: This shows reliability and helps build trust within the team. We move fast and need to know that everyone will see things through to completion and proactively help to get things back on track when challenges arise. Accountability is really important to us.

Humility: There is so much we don’t know. Humility allows for open-mindedness to feedback and a willingness to learn from others. It paves the way for collaboration and creates a positive work environment. It is a key ingredient of self awareness and emotional intelligence.

Structured Thinking: Our business is complex with many layers (many services, many countries, many cultures). Regardless of whether you’re more analytical or creative in nature, being able to show sound judgement is important to us. It ensures solutions are pragmatic and balance the needs of the organisation, team and customers.

Data driven: We are a data rich business with ~15,000 small customers.  Each decision we make can impact many more people than we realise - so it’s critical that we use sound data to support our strategies and review the success of our initiatives.

Can have tough conversations in a positive way: It’s not a matter of if, but when difficult interpersonal situations arise.  Disagreement, conflict and disappointment are a given in a fast moving business where people care about their work.  People that proactively have tough conversations with kindness build empathy, trust and great working relationships. 

The interview process

The successful candidate will participate in the below interview stages. We anticipate the process to last no more than 3 weeks from start to finish.

Whether the interviews are held over video call or in person will depend on your location and the role. 

Career deep dive 

A ~60 minute chat with the Hiring Manager. They’ll discuss your last 1-2 roles to understand your experience in more detail.  

Case study

A ~60-90 minute chat with a member of the Leadership Team, where they will give you some real-life challenges that this role faces, and will ask for your approach to solving them.

Behavioural fit assessment

A ~60 minute chat with the CEO or a member of the leadership team, where they will dive into some of your recent work situations to understand how you think and work.

Reference interviews

2x ~15 minute calls with previous work colleagues, led by HR or your Hiring Manager.

Offer

+++++

Requirement for background screening

Please be aware that Sleek is a regulated entity and as such is required to perform different levels of background checks on staff depending on their role. 

This may include using external vendors to verify the below:

• Your education
• Any criminal history
• Any political exposure
• Any bankruptcy or adverse credit history

We will ask for your consent before conducting these checks.  Depending on your role at Sleek, an adverse result on one of these checks may prohibit you from passing probation.

By submitting a job application, you confirm that you have read and agree to our Data Privacy Statement for Candidates, found at sleek.com.

Benefits

Some other great things about working at Sleek…

Humility and kindness: Humility is a core attribute we hire for, which means we have a culture of not taking ourselves too seriously and being able to laugh. Kindness is also incredibly important. We are committed to creating and nurturing a diverse and inclusive environment. 

Flexibility: You’ll be able to work from home 2-3 days per week. If you need to start early or start late to cater to your family or other needs, we don’t mind, so long as you get your work done and proactively communicate. You can also work fully remote from anywhere in the world for 1 month each year

Financial benefits: We pay competitive market salaries and provide staff with generous paid time off and holiday schedules. Additionally, you’ll be able to access our S$1,200/HKD$7,000/A$1,200 pa flexi benefits scheme for home office equipment or health and fitness expenditure.  Certain staff at Sleek are also eligible for our employee share ownership plan and can share in the upside of our stellar growth trajectory as we work toward listing on a prominent stock exchange in the Asia Pacific region.

Personal growth: You’ll get a lot of responsibility and autonomy at Sleek - we move at a fast pace so you’ll be making decisions, making mistakes and learning. There’s also a range of internal and external facing training programmes we run. We’re also at the forefront of utilising AI in our space and are developing a regional centre of AI excellence. It is our intention that if you leave Sleek, you leave as a more well-rounded person and professional.

Sleek is also a proudly certified B Corp.  Since we started our journey in 2017, we’ve been committed to building Sleek as a force for good. In just over 5 years, we’ve joined a community of industry leaders like Patagonia, Ben & Jerry's, and P&G who are building an inclusive, equitable, and a regenerative economy. We have planted over 29,271 trees to reforest our ecosystem and saved 7 tons of paper from landfills by processing over 1.4M pages through SleekSign. We aim to be Carbon Neutral by 2030.