Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A) Manager

Releaf (www.releaf.co.uk) is an innovative, regulated online medical cannabis clinic serving 20,000+ patients. We specialise in the fast, efficient delivery of high-quality medication and exceptional patient care. We are a company of around 170 people, and we are building the finance function that will take the business to its next stage of scale. We are an AI-first finance team. We have rolled out Claude across the finance function, and it is already part of how we produce Board packs, investor updates, analysis and reviews. We are looking for someone who will take that further, not someone we need to convince. Role overview We are hiring an FP&A Manager to own financial planning, forecasting and performance reporting across the group. This is the first dedicated FP&A role at Releaf. A target plan and commercial models are already in place. You will take ownership of their preparation, develop them into a full driver-based planning model, and set the standard for how planning and reporting work as we scale. You will report to the Finance & Commercial Director and work directly with the CFO and the Board, with no direct reports initially. Within your first year you will own the preparation of the budget, the rolling forecast, the monthly performance and Board packs, and the group cash flow model. The Group Finance Manager owns month-end close, accounting policy, accruals and the statutory audit; you will provide forecast and commercial inputs to the close, and work closely with them on reconciled numbers. This role suits someone with at least three years post-qualification experience who has done FP&A inside a larger business, or a business that has scaled, and now wants the whole discipline rather than a slice of it. You already use AI tools in your day-to-day work, you have opinions on where they help and where they do not, and you are energised rather than alarmed by a business with ambitions to grow substantially from its current level. How the finance team uses AI today Claude is in daily use across the finance team. Current uses include:

• Board packs: drafting and reviewing commentary, checking the numbers tie through, and challenging the narrative before it goes to the Board
• Investor updates: building investor materials and update packs from the underlying model
• Analysis and modelling: variance analysis, cohort and unit economics work, scenario modelling and model review
• Contracts and commercial: first-pass review of supplier, manufacturing and commercial agreements, with the risks flagged for a human decision
• Operational finance: reconciliations, month-on-month file comparisons, working papers and data clean-up The FP&A Manager will be expected to use these tools from the first week, and to make them a standard, documented part of how planning and reporting get done. Key responsibilities 1. Planning, budgeting and forecasting
• Own the development process and preparation of the annual budget and the quarterly re-forecast, built on business drivers
• Own the preparation and reporting of the rolling three-month revenue and gross margin forecast, and be accountable for its accuracy
• Own the preparation of the group cashflow forecast, including working capital, stock purchasing and intercompany flows across the Group
• Support the Finance & Commercial Director on target-setting, and report performance against both budget and target
• Build scenario and sensitivity analysis into the planning process so the Board sees a range, not a single line 2. Performance reporting and the Board pack
• Own the production of the monthly performance reporting pack end to end — revenue, gross margin, cost of sales, overheads, cash and the operational KPIs that drive them
• Prepare the monthly Board pack and slide deck, including commentary, for review and sign-off by the Finance & Commercial Director. Use AI to speed up drafting and review, while remaining accountable for the accuracy of every number
• Own the monthly cost of sales analysis and the margin bridge — price, volume, mix, discount, freight and fulfilment
• Report on the commercial performance of the international entities as they become material
• Issue a mid-month flash on revenue, gross margin and cash ahead of the full pack
• Support investor updates with consistent, reconciled numbers and clear narrative 3. Finance data, systems and AI
• Own the design, development and maintenance of a single, governed finance data warehouse, bringing together Xero, Spendesk, Stripe and Releafs ERP, so the finance team can use reliable data in reporting, analysis and AI models. This includes data quality, reconciliation to the ledger, access controls and the exclusion or anonymisation of patient-identifiable data
• Own the implementation and management of AI initiatives across the finance team. Set the roadmap with the Finance & Commercial Director and CFO, build AI into planning and reporting, and deliver reusable workflows, including prompts for variance commentary, the flash, pack review, reconciliations and data preparation. Train the team and measure the time released and accuracy gained
• Lead the automation of reporting across Xero, Spendesk, Stripe and Releafs own ERP, replacing manual consolidation with something that runs
• Working with the Group Finance Manager, identify where AI can remove manual effort from the close and reporting cycle, deliver it, and measure the time it releases
• Set and apply sensible guardrails for AI use in finance — human review of outputs, a clear audit trail, and the right handling of commercially sensitive and patient-related data in a regulated healthcare business
• Map and upgrade the end-to-end planning and reporting workflow; document controls, assumptions, AI workflows and change logs 4. Commercial partnering
• Own unit economics and cohort analysis (CAC, LTV, retention) to support commercial and marketing decisions
• Translate the numbers for non-finance leaders, and be willing to challenge them
• Support the Finance & Commercial Director on departmental cost analysis and budgeting for Marketing, Clinic, Operations and IT
• Contribute to business cases and investment appraisal
• Help colleagues outside finance get more from AI for their own reporting and analysis What success looks like in year one
• A trusted planning model. A driver-based budget and rolling three-month revenue and gross margin forecast that the Board uses to make decisions, with forecast accuracy measured and reported every month.
• A Board and management pack that runs like clockwork. The monthly performance and Board packs land on a fixed date.
• Full cash visibility. A group cashflow forecast that gives the Board a reliable view of cash and working capital across the Company.
• A finance data and AI foundation. A governed data warehouse in live use, manual consolidation removed, and documented AI workflows with the hours they release measured. Requirements Essential
• Fully qualified ACA, ACCA or CIMA with at least three years post-qualification experience
• Demonstrable ownership of budgeting, forecasting and management or Board reporting — not support of someone else's
• Demonstrable production of Board packs and presentation of financial performance to senior leadership, with clear, decision-focused commentary
• Advanced Excel: driver-based modelling, including with large datasets. You should be able to build a three-statement or driver model from scratch
• Hands-on, current experience of using AI tools such as Claude, ChatGPT or Microsoft Copilot in your own finance work — for example drafting Board or management commentary, building and checking models, analysing large datasets, reviewing documents or automating reporting. You will be asked to walk us through real examples at interview
• Sound judgement on AI output: you know where it is reliable, where it is not, and you check before you rely on it
• A track record of building or materially improving a reporting process, ideally through automation and AI
• Experience structuring and managing finance data for reporting or analytics
• Evidence that your analysis has changed a decision, with the number attached
• Confident communicating with and challenging senior non-finance stakeholders
• Comfortable with incomplete data and imperfect systems, and inclined to go and fix them Desirable
• Experience building repeatable AI workflows rather than one-off prompts — shared prompt libraries, AI connected to finance systems or data, or AI-assisted automation of a reporting cycle
• SME or scale-up experience — you will recognise the difference between a process that is broken and one that has simply not been built yet
• Multi-entity or group reporting
• Xero, Spendesk, Stripe; Power BI or equivalent; SQL or Python
• Stock, cost of sales or supply-chain-intensive experience
• Healthcare, pharmacy, e-commerce or another regulated sector, including handling sensitive data responsibly
• Involvement in an ERP or reporting system implementation What we offer
• Competitive salary, reviewed annually, plus a performance-related bonus
• Private health insurance and pension
• Funded professional subscription (ACA, ACCA or CIMA) and a personalised development budget
• Full access to Claude and the finance teams AI tooling from day one, and the time and backing to build with it
• Remote working with occasional UK travel, and the flexibility to structure your own week
• Employee Assistance Programme, employee perks and Releaf staff patient benefits
• Direct exposure to the CFO and the Board from month one
• The chance to build an AI-enabled function rather than inherit a manual one How to apply Please send a CV and a short covering note answering four questions, in bullet points or a few short paragraphs: 1. What attracts you to Releaf and to this role in particular? 2. Which parts of your experience map most directly onto the responsibilities above? 3. Tell us about one piece of analysis or reporting you produced that changed a decision. What was the decision, and what changed? 4. How do you use AI in your current role today? Give one specific example of a finance task you now do differently because of it, and how you checked the output. Selection process
• Stage 1: an informal remote conversation.
• Stage 2: a second interview in person. We will discuss your written response to this job description and work through examples of how you would tackle them.
• Stage 3: an in-person presentation. You may choose either a case study we provide or a piece of your own work, anonymised as needed. Your presentation should cover the data analysis, how you used AI to produce it and how you checked the output, and Board-level commentary on what the numbers mean and what should happen next. Allow 20 minutes to present and 20 minutes for questions. AI at interview: every candidate will be asked about their use of AI. Expect to talk through real examples from your current work, and to show us how you would use Claude on a typical FP&A task such as drafting variance commentary or reviewing a forecast. We are an inclusive employer and welcome applications from a diverse range of candidates. If there is anything we can do to support you through the process, please tell us.