Job Summary
Reporting to the President, the Controller will serve as the financial architect of Nekohama’s next stage of growth. As a high growth, premium matcha company operating across multiple domestic and international jurisdictions, we need a builder — someone excited to design, implement, and scale the financial systems, tools, and processes that will power a global brand. This role is intended to evolve over time into a more strategic Director of Finance position as the company grows, making it an ideal opportunity for a finance leader who is excited to build a function from the ground up and grow with the business.
This role carries broad ownership across financial reporting, accounting operations, treasury, payroll, tax compliance, internal controls, audits, reconciliations, and management reporting. Beyond stewardship, the Controller will lead the development of a robust, scalable finance infrastructure — from optimizing our tech stack and closing processes to strengthening cross-border compliance and cash management. You will bring rigor, clarity, and forward-looking insight to support smart decision-making across the company.
We are a lean, international, remote-first team. The ideal candidate is comfortable rolling up their sleeves while thinking several steps ahead — equally capable of executing today and building for tomorrow. As a trusted partner to the executive team, you will ensure we perform against plan, allocate capital thoughtfully, and invest wisely to sustain premium growth.
Key Responsibilities
Financial Reporting & Operations:
- Own and elevate Nekohama’s financial reporting across domestic and international jurisdictions, ensuring accuracy, timeliness, and clarity.
- Oversee day-to-day accounting operations including accounts receivable, accounts payable, treasury, payroll coordination, and cash management while partnering closely with our external bookkeepers and tax advisors. This will be done in an accurate, timely, and complete manner to deliver monthly consolidated P&L, balance sheet, cash flow, KPI reporting packages to the executive team. You will provide high quality commentary and recommendations in completing variance analysis, forecasting, working capital, and operating model updates.
Financial Processes:
- Act as the architect of Nekohama’s finance function. Design, implement, and continuously improve accounting policies, workflows, and internal controls to support increasing transaction complexity, international expansion, inventory management, and multi-entity operations.
- Build scalable processes that support premium brand growth while maintaining financial discipline and operational excellence.
Systems, Tools & Automation:
- Lead the development of a best-in-class financial tech stack. Identify opportunities to automate workflows, reduce manual intervention, strengthen controls, and enhance reporting visibility.
- Oversee selection, implementation, and integration of systems across accounting, inventory, payments, and reporting platforms. Ensure systems support real-time decision-making and are built for scale — not just for today, but for the next phase of growth.
- Demonstrate fluency in leveraging modern AI tools and large language models to enhance finance operations, reporting, and decision-making. Identify practical applications for AI across forecasting, variance analysis, contract review, documentation, workflow automation, and internal knowledge management.
- Actively evaluate and implement AI-driven solutions that increase speed, accuracy, and scalability while maintaining strong data governance and control standards. Champion responsible AI adoption within the finance function, ensuring outputs are validated, compliant, and aligned with Nekohama’s premium brand standards.
Budgeting & Analysis:
- Support and refine Nekohama’s annual planning and rolling forecast processes. Collaborate with the executive team to establish budgets aligned with strategic priorities and capital allocation discipline.
- Monitor monthly and quarterly performance against budget, delivering clear analysis and high-quality narrative insights that inform leadership decisions. Develop forward-looking financial models to evaluate growth initiatives, pricing strategy, margin optimization, and operational efficiency.
Business Partnering / Cross-Functional Collaboration:
- Serve as a trusted financial advisor to the executive team. Translate financial data into strategic guidance, proactively identifying risks and opportunities.
- Review vendor agreements, support negotiations, and provide analytical rigor around investment decisions, cost structures, and international expansion. Investigate operational variances and lead root-cause analysis where needed.
Executive Presentations:
- Prepare and elevate monthly and quarterly executive materials, ensuring leadership has clear visibility into financial performance, KPIs, cash position, and strategic initiatives.
- Provide structured analysis and concise, decision-oriented commentary.
Ad-Hoc Projects:
- Lead high-impact finance initiatives such as creating performance dashboards and KPI infrastructure.
- Operate as a proactive builder — identifying gaps before they surface and implementing solutions that strengthen Nekohama’s foundation for long-term global growth.
About You
- We are looking for candidates with 5-7+ years of experience in an accounting / finance role or equivalent, having worked in full-cycle accounting. Bonus if you have previous experience in a high-growth F&B, Manufacturing, or Technology company.
- Bachelor’s degree in accounting or finance, completion of a professional designation, or graduate degree (e.g. CPA, MBA).
- Previous experience in team management / leadership within finance and an understanding of IFRS and US GAAP as well as domestic and international accounting matters, including multi-currency experience.
You should have:
- Track record of execution and a big team player attitude, able to lead projects start to finish.
- An obsession with accuracy and meticulous attention to detail. You take pride in knowing every dollar that comes in and out of a company.
- A passion for all things numbers. You are a deep analytical thinker with advanced Excel skills hunting down the financial story of what happened and why.
- Familiar with financial technology. Our stack consists of: Quickbooks Online, Monarch, Zamp, and Hubspot.
- A strong understanding of KPIs and metrics - you can tell the story of what’s happening in the business operationally and financially.