Chief Financial Officer (m/f/d)

Own. Own the finance function end-to-end. Accounting, controlling, reporting, tax, and the annual financial statements — and the judgment behind them. The numbers are yours:accurate, on time, founder-ready, and built to help the business decide. Lead. Build the finance team from the ground up. Hire, steer, develop.Multiply the output of everyone in it, not just your own. Build. We're scaling fast, and the finance backbone has to scale with us: systems, processes, controls, forecasting. Build a genuinely automated operation, not a manual one held together by effort. You don't inherit a finished machine — you build it. Steer. Own the forward view: planning, budgeting, forecasting. Track cash, runway, and burn. You see what's coming and steer for it. People. Own the systems that pay and grow the team: compensation, bonus structures, performance reviews, the people operation behind them. In a firm that hires the best, how you reward them is a competitive weapon. You build it, you make it work. Govern. Own risk, compliance, and controls as the firm scales across borders. Own the external relationships that come with them: auditors, tax advisors, banks, authorities. Expand. The role scales with the firm. New deals, new business units, new ground — you grow with it, and the finance backbone becomes the platform the firm builds on

What you bring

Background: Strong degree in finance, business, or a comparably analytical field. A professional qualification (Steuerberater, ACCA, CPA) or an audit background is a plus. A track record that speaks for itself matters more. Experience: Demonstrated experience in high-performance settings: fast-scaling company, top-tier consultancy, investment banking, or private equity. We don't count years, we count what you can run. Three exceptional years beat ten average ones. Functional Experience. A minimum of three annual closes under your own responsibility, including the team, deadlines, and sign-off. Finance Craft. Deep command of accounting and reporting under HGB. Real strength in controlling and corporate finance — cash-flow and scenario modelling, month- and year-end close. People & Comp. You have designed and run compensation packages and performance-review systems before — not just administered them. You know how to pay people in a way that attracts and keeps the best. Systems.Hands-on with modern finance and ERP tooling (DATEV, SAP, or comparable), and fluent in using AI to do the work faster and cleaner. You build clean processes instead of working around messy ones, and automate everything that should be. Lead.You've built and grown teams before — hired, developed, and made the hard calls. And you're an equal to founders, management, and department heads: clear, direct, trusted in the room. Languages.Fluent in English and GermanAdditional languages are a plus C. Griffin, Founder of Citadel You will work alongside intrinsically driven people who do "what it takes" — and you hold your own among them. You run the finance and operating backbone yourself, pulling the founders in only when it truly matters. Not a talker — a doer who makes things work.

• Book-smart. Strong academic foundation. Think in structures, not gut feel.
• Street-smart. Read the room fast. Prioritise ruthlessly. Grasp commercial reality.
• People-smart. Communicate with precision — clear, direct, persuasive. Build trust across functions and seniority.
• Athlete performance mindset. High aspirations. Grit. Learn faster than the environment

Entrepreneurial guts. You have built something, owned something, or bet on yourself at some point — and it shows in how you operate. P&L is not an abstraction. Ambiguity is a problem.

Why join ALAIKA

• Ownership & Impact. Own the entire finance function of a scaling firm, work directly with the founders, and build the backbone the whole company runs on. A rare scope for a single role.
• Compensation. Above market with very entrepreneurial-driven bonus structures. “My biggest economic misunderstanding was that people got rich from high salary, but almost no one on Forbes got there through salary but only with equity.” — Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI
• Stellar Network. Shoulder-to-shoulder with financial services executives running today’s giants and the founders building tomorrow’s.
• Offices.Munich and Barcelona. More coming.

Plus: the essentials done right — EGYM Wellpass, bike leasing, a kitchen stocked with healthy food and team events worth showing up for: Oktoberfest, team dinners, and more.

When you are a fit

“Show me an athlete who did well academically. An athlete because they know what it takes to win and they have had to experience loss.” — move.

Build the backbone. Enable what comes next.