Operations & Finance Manager

We are an AI-first creative and immersive technology studio in Bristol. We make virtual experiences, real-time environments, AI tools and films for clients including Pfizer, Takeda and McDonald's.

Everyone works across everything, there are no silos and nowhere to hide, which is either the best or the worst thing about us depending on the week.

Why this role exists

Right now our finance and operations run through the COO, alongside client work, product ownership and everything else. It works, but only just, and it means the finance cycle competes for attention with a pitch.

So we are hiring someone to own it properly. This is the person who makes sure invoices go out on time, cash comes in, people get paid correctly, and the studio runs without anyone having to ask twice.

If you like the idea of being the one person who genuinely knows how the business runs, this is that job.

Finance — the core of the role

• The monthly cycle end to end: sales invoicing, purchase ledger, payment runs, bank reconciliation, month-end close

• Credit control — chasing receivables, which in our world means navigating enterprise procurement and PO-driven billing at large pharma clients, not sending polite reminders to small businesses

• Payroll preparation and checking with our bureau, including pension, salary sacrifice and the monthly HMRC position

• Expenses, company cards, supplier contracts and subscription spend

• VAT returns and being the day-to-day contact for our accountant

• Project and budget tracking alongside the Project Director, so we know where a job stands commercially before it finishes, not after

• A clear, honest monthly finance pack for the COO and CEO — cash, debtors, revenue against plan

People and HR administration

• Onboarding and offboarding: contracts, right-to-work checks, equipment, accounts, first-day logistics

• Holiday, sickness and absence records

• Keeping policies, handbook and templates current and actually used

• Supporting the COO on recruitment administration and reviews

Studio and team support

• Travel and accommodation for client work and conferences

• Organising onsite client meetings and workshops, including rooms, kit and catering

• Socials, offsites and the things that make a small studio feel like a good place to work

• General studio administration: suppliers, insurance renewals, facilities, IT admin liaison

• Booking complex multi-party meetings where it saves real time

Resourcing — light touch

• Maintaining the resourcing view and flagging conflicts early

• The judgement calls on who does what stay with the COO and Project Director

This is a wide role in a small number of days, so we want to be straight about the order of things.

The finance cycle is non-negotiable. Month-end, payroll, invoicing and credit control happen on time, every time. Travel, events and studio admin flex around them. If a week arrives where both cannot happen, finance wins.

We are an AI studio, and we use it on ourselves. A lot of the mechanical work in this role — reconciliation, chasing, drafting, reporting — is already partly automated, and we will keep going. You are not here to do data entry.

You are here to own the judgement: whether a number is right, whether a client is drifting, whether we can afford something, whether a process should exist at all. The judgement is the job. The typing is not.

You do not need to have used AI tools before. You do need to be genuinely interested in working that way. Someone who bristles at it will not enjoy it here.

Essential

• Proven experience running finance for a small business — SME, agency, studio or similar. Qualified, part-qualified or qualified by experience; we care about capability, not letters

• Confident in Xero, or confident you will be within a fortnight

• Strong credit control instincts, especially with large corporate clients and procurement portals

• Comfortable working unsupervised. You will not be managed day to day, and nobody will check your workings

• Able to switch between a structured monthly cycle and a same-day request without either one falling over

• Discreet. You will see salaries, margins and difficult conversations

• Direct. If something is wrong, we want to hear it early and plainly

Nice to have

• Experience in a creative, agency or production environment where projects are the unit of profitability

• HR administration experience, or an appetite to take it on

• Exposure to R&D tax credits, project-based revenue recognition or grant funding

• Familiarity with enterprise clients in pharma or FMCG

Month one

You have taken the payment run, the invoicing cycle and the HR administration. Nothing that belongs to this role is landing on the COO's desk.

Month three

Month-end runs to a rhythm without anyone chasing it. Debtor days are moving in the right direction. You have told us at least one thing about our own numbers that we did not know.

Month six

You own the finance function outright. The monthly pack is trusted. When someone in the studio has an operational question, they come to you first — and that feels normal rather than new.

This is a permanent part-time position. Pension, 25 days holiday plus bank holidays pro rata, and the flexibility that comes with a small team that trusts people to manage their own time. We will talk about salary openly at the first conversation.

Apply with a CV and a short note using the contact details on this advert. The note matters more than the CV — tell us about a finance or operations mess you inherited and what you did with it.

First conversation is an informal chat with our COO. Second stage is a working session where we walk through our actual numbers and how the studio runs, so you can decide whether you want the job as much as we decide whether we want you. A confidentiality agreement is signed before that stage.