Chief Financial Officer (CFO)

At DATAPAO, data ignites passion, community fuels collaboration, and growth knows no bounds. We are a leading Data Engineering and AI consulting company backed by Databricks and recognized for our unmatched delivery standards and rapid growth. We have been named Databricks EMEA Emerging Business Partner of the Year (2024), achieved the Golden Tier status in the Databricks Partner Program , and made three consecutive appearances on the Financial Times FT1000 list .

We are looking to hire a Chief Financial Officer to drive our very ambitious growth plans. This role will report directly to the CEO and will be part of the Leadership Team.

The position is based in the Budapest HQ or remote (given your commitment to travel regularly to Budapest). You will oversee a team of 2 from the get-go, with an additional headcount to be added within the first 6-12 months.

The Role

As our first CFO, you will be the CEO's closest strategic partner and the architect of DATAPAO's financial future.

You are expected to shape capital allocation, commercial strategy, forecasting, and company-wide performance. You will lead the Finance function, connect every other business unit through planning and forecasting, and keep the company resilient, fundable, and scalable.

We are looking for a true CFO, not a controller role with a big title. Meaning you'll own both halves of the job: the strategic agenda (e.g., pricing, unit economics, scenarios, investor and board narrative) and the operational engine beneath it. Your Senior Controller and Finance Admin run most of the day-to-day, which frees you to spend your time where it counts, informing the business what to do next.

What You'll Own

Strategic & Commercial Leadership

Shape GTM strategy with the CEO and Head of Sales, including pricing and margin models.

Build and own the unit economics for consulting and AI-driven services.

Translate financial insight into concrete strategic recommendations.

Integrate Finance with Delivery, Education, Sales, People, and Marketing through shared planning and forecasting.

What good looks like : the Leadership Team makes decisions based on your numbers and forecasts because they trust them, and you are in the room shaping the conversation, not reporting on it afterward.

Financial Planning & Forecasting

Build forward-looking forecasts and scenarios, each with a recommended action.

Maintain 18 to 24 months of runway visibility at all times.

Own the planning process end to end, not just the spreadsheets, but the process as a whole.

Map scenarios we might face, signal risk early, and work on mitigation with the leadership team.

What good looks like : monthly scenario updates with clear recommended actions land on the Leadership Team's table before anyone has to ask. Hence, the Leadership Team is aware of and acts in advance on utilization, gross margin, and cash flow risks.

Performance Insights & Analytics

Use data to explain why something happened (not only what happened) and to inform future decisions.

Build and run dashboards across utilisation, margin, pipeline health, and financial performance.

Operate a dependable weekly and monthly reporting cadence.

Be prescriptive: tell us what to do next.

Work with each business unit to show them how they are performing against the budget and how to operate more efficiently.

What good looks like : leaders open a dashboard and know where they stand without having to ask Finance, and every insight comes with a "do this next" recommendation.

Finance Function Design

Build a modern, automated finance organisation. This means that you leverage technology (yes, AI too) to improve operational efficiency

Improve the accuracy of our finance data and reporting to the level that the rest of the company relies on it as the single source of truth.

Lead and grow the finance team: a Senior Controller and Finance Admin today, with room to add a third hire within 6-12 months.

What good looks like : month-end closes quickly and accurately on systems, and over time, the volume of work the Finance Team can sustain with the same headcount is increasing.

FinOps, Risk & Compliance Oversight

Own the outcome of FinOps: accounting, AP/AR, payroll, and compliance, run through your team rather than by your own hand.

Keep us paying and paid on time, and compliant with UK and Hungarian tax regulations. (We operate in the UK and HU with legal entities, and in Spain via EOR operators)

Manage treasury: cash and currency exposure across markets.

Oversee legal, tax, and cash-flow risk from a commercial perspective.

Keep the company operating safely within its risk appetite, not through bureaucracy but through clarity and systems.

What good looks like : nothing slips. Payments and filings are never late, both jurisdictions stay clean, and risk is visible to the Leadership Team before it bites. We don't have excess cash sitting idle, and we hedge against currency risk as much as possible.

Investor Relations & Board Reporting

Own the board-level reporting.

Lead a fundraising or an acquisition process (if applicable).

What good looks like : board papers tell a clear story with no decoding required, investors trust the numbers, and we can move fast when a raise or an opportunity appears.

How success will me easured in this role?

Your success will be a function of the metrics you'll drive and the metrics that you'll co-own with the rest of the Leadership Team.

You'll drive:

Forecast accuracy (e.g., within ±5% on the rolling quarter)

Cash-flow runway, with 18 to 24 months of visibility

Working capital cycle

Reporting cadence and quality (weekly and monthly)

You'll co-own with the Leadership Team:

Gross margin

EBITDA vs. Plan

Utilisation rate

Project margin health

Revenue predictability

The exact targets are to be agreed with the CEO upon joining.

What does it take to fit the bill?

We know that unicorns don’t exist. But at a minimum, we think you should check most of the boxes below to carry the weight of this role.

Must have:

CFO or equivalent senior finance leadership experience in a high-growth technology or professional-services business.

A solid track record of driving planning, forecasting, and growth in partnership with Sales, Delivery, and other business units.

Demonstrated commercial acumen: you think about margin, pricing, and growth, not only control.

Strong compliance knowledge.

An excellent communicator who can carry a number from a spreadsheet to the boardroom.

Nice to have:

Experience in professional services or consulting.

Managed fundraising or acquisition processes.

Built or modernised a finance function and its systems.

Comfortable sitting in a sales call and working hand in hand with the commercial team.

While we'd like to see you mastering all the above, don’t worry if you don't tick every box. If you tick enough and are keen to drive the growth of one of the best consulting companies in EMEA, we'd love to hear back from you.

What will the selection process look like?

Screening Interview (~60 minutes): Run by one of our recruiters or our Head of People. The main purpose is to confirm required experience, business acumen, and partnership skills.

Cultural Interview (~60 minutes): Our Head of People will run it. While we are fully committed to building a high-talent density, “genius jerks” have no place here, so we take fitting the community very seriously. This will be skipped if the screening round is run by our Head of People.

External CFO Interview (~75 minutes): We're partnering with a fractional CFO to help us probe the core skills required for this role and your experience across the multiple dimensions you'll oversee.

CEO Interview (~75 minutes): The main focus will be on how you build trust and partner with various functions, particularly Sales. We'll also touch on your experience with planning and