Manager – Financial Controller

Are you a *Chartered Accountant* who enjoys going beyond accounting and wants to play a key role in shaping the financial engine of a high-growth, AI-first company?

*Pepper is looking for a Manager – Financial Controller* to own controllership, financial reporting, compliance, FP&A, and business insights as we scale across entities and geographies.

About Pepper

Pepper is a *content-led growth engine built for the AI age. We bring together strategy, technology, and creative talent to help brands accelerate content velocity, improve visibility across **LLMs, search, and social*, and drive predictable, compounding organic growth.

Our flagship AI platform, *Atlas, uses autonomous SEO, GEO, and content agents—with human-in-the-loop quality—to help brands stay discoverable, trusted, and cited across **AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity*.

Today, Pepper powers content-led growth for *2,500+ industry leaders*, including Amazon, Google, HSBC, Atlassian, Unilever, ITC, and Instacart.

What you’ll own

This is a *controllership-first role with significant FP&A and strategic finance ownership*.

📌 *Controllership, Audit & Compliance*

* Own month-end close, statutory reporting, audits, and the compliance calendar end-to-end

* Drive consolidation across entities and geographies, including intercompany reconciliations and eliminations

* Maintain an audit-ready finance data room for diligence, investor reporting, and fundraising

📌 *Controls, Processes & Systems*

* Design, document, and strengthen the internal control framework

* Own and optimise *Zoho Books*

* Automate reconciliations, reporting, and compliance workflows using technology and AI

* Build and mentor a strong accounting team with high standards for review and documentation

📌 *FP&A, AOP & Forecasting*

* Own the Annual Operating Plan across revenue, costs, headcount, and cash

* Lead monthly forecasting and rolling reforecast cycles

* Build driver-based financial models and scenario plans for hiring, pricing, and growth investments

📌 *MIS, P&L & Business Reviews*

* Own the monthly MIS pack covering actuals vs. budget vs. forecast

* Translate variances into clear business drivers and actionable insights

* Prepare board and investor reporting across P&L, cash, cohorts, and KPIs

* Track burn and identify opportunities for optimisation

* Evaluate ROI across sales and marketing investments

📌 *Unit Economics & Strategic Finance*

* Analyse customer-level gross margins across segments, geographies, content types, and industries

* Track *NRR, GRR, cohorts, churn, and quality of revenue*

* Identify drivers of contribution margin and EBITDA and work with teams to improve profitability

* Build business cases for new programs, services, and pricing initiatives

* Partner with leadership and cross-functional teams on strategic projects

What we’re looking for

✅ *CA with 4–6 years of post-qualification experience*, with strong experience in controllership, accounting, audit, and compliance

✅ Proven ownership of *month-end close, statutory financial statements, and annual audit cycles*

✅ Strong knowledge of *Ind AS*; IFRS/US GAAP exposure is a plus

✅ Hands-on experience with *GST, TDS, Income Tax, and ROC compliance*; transfer pricing/FEMA exposure is an advantage

✅ Strong FP&A capabilities across *AOP, budgeting, forecasting, variance analysis, MIS, and board reporting*

✅ Ability to build robust financial models *from scratch*

✅ Experience with *Zoho Books or another accounting ERP*

✅ Advanced *Excel* skills; SQL/BI experience is a plus

✅ Comfortable using *AI tools to automate finance processes*, including reporting, reconciliation, forecasting, and analysis

✅ Excellent communication skills, with the ability to make complex financial information easy for business leaders to understand

⭐ Experience in a *venture-backed startup (Series A–D)* is a strong plus.