Telios is an established UK education business entering an exciting period of growth across private tuition, education provision and international education partnerships.
We are developing increasingly sophisticated commercial models involving UK education delivery, public-sector and institutional partners, international programmes, tutor workforces and new areas of education provision.
We are deliberately building our senior infrastructure on a fractional basis rather than creating unnecessary permanent overhead.
We are therefore looking for an exceptional Fractional Finance Director who can become a trusted strategic adviser to the Founder and help us build a financially disciplined, scalable and profitable organisation.
This is not primarily a bookkeeping role.
We want someone who can look at an opportunity, interrogate the numbers, identify financial risks and tell the Founder clearly whether the business should proceed, renegotiate or walk away.
The Role
You will take strategic oversight of financial planning across Telios and its developing programmes.
You will help us understand not simply what has happened financially, but what is likely to happen next.
Key responsibilities will include:
Strategic Finance
- Act as a senior financial adviser to the Founder.
- Build financial forecasts and scenario models.
- Develop annual and project-level budgets.
- Analyse profitability by business area, client, programme and project.
- Establish minimum acceptable gross-margin and contribution-margin thresholds.
- Advise on pricing strategy.
- Challenge proposed expenditure before commitments are made.
- Advise when the business can safely recruit or expand.
- Develop board/management-level financial reporting.
Cash-Flow Protection
- Build and maintain rolling cash-flow forecasts.
- Introduce a 13-week cash-flow management process.
- Forecast funding requirements before projects launch.
- Stress-test major contracts against delayed payments, cost overruns and lower-than-expected revenue.
- Establish appropriate cash-reserve policies.
- Monitor debtor exposure.
- Advise on payment terms, deposits, mobilisation payments and milestone billing.
International Programme Finance
A particularly important part of the role will involve evaluating international education programmes.
You may be asked to:
- Build detailed programme budgets.
- Calculate delivery margins.
- Model different cohort and scale scenarios.
- Analyse tutor, staffing, technology, travel and mobilisation costs.
- Design milestone-based payment structures.
- Assess foreign-currency exposure.
- Advise on project reserves and contingencies.
- Analyse the financial impact of international entities, partners or subcontractors.
- Work alongside appropriate tax/accounting advisers where specialist overseas tax advice is required.
- Prevent Telios from committing resources before funding is sufficiently secure.
VAT, Tax and Financial Structure
You will not necessarily replace our external accountant.
Instead, we want someone capable of ensuring that the right questions are being asked.
You should be confident coordinating with external accountants and specialist tax advisers regarding:
- VAT treatment.
- Education-sector VAT issues.
- Recruitment/employment-business models.
- Corporation tax planning.
- Contractor and employment considerations.
- International transactions.
- Permanent-establishment and cross-border tax risks.
- Intercompany arrangements if additional companies are established.
- Appropriate accounting treatment for programme income and costs.
Where specialist tax advice is required, we expect you to identify the issue and recommend the appropriate specialist rather than guess.
Financial Controls and Systems
- Review current finance processes.
- Improve financial controls and approval procedures.
- Establish delegated spending authorities.
- Introduce clear purchasing and expense controls.
- Review invoice, payment and reconciliation processes.
- Support integration between financial and operational systems.
- Help ensure accurate management information.
- Develop simple dashboards allowing the Founder to understand the financial health of the business quickly.
- Work effectively with Xero and other finance/payment systems.
Growth and Risk
Before Telios enters a new programme or market, we want Finance involved.
You will help answer:
- What is the realistic profit?
- What is the worst-case financial outcome?
- How much working capital is required?
- When does Telios break even?
- What assumptions are driving the model?
- What happens if revenue is delayed?
- How much fixed overhead can safely be added?
- Which costs should remain variable?
- What contractual payment protections are needed?
- At what point should we stop or pause a project?
Who We Are Looking For
We are looking for someone significantly more experienced in finance than the Founder—not simply someone who can maintain spreadsheets.
You will ideally have:
- ACA, FCA, ACCA, FCCA, CIMA or equivalent professional qualification.
- Significant Finance Director, CFO, Head of Finance or senior commercial-finance experience.
- Experience advising founder-led SMEs or growth businesses.
- Strong cash-flow forecasting ability.
- Strong commercial modelling and pricing experience.
- Experience building management information and financial controls.
- Ability to simplify complicated financial issues for a non-finance Founder.
- Confidence challenging the Founder constructively.
- Excellent commercial judgment.
- Experience managing external accountants, tax specialists and auditors.
Particularly Valuable Experience
We are especially interested in applicants with experience in one or more of the following:
- Education.
- Tutoring.
- Recruitment or staffing businesses.
- Employment businesses.
- Alternative Provision.
- Government-funded programmes.
- Public-sector contracts.
- International education.
- Project-based businesses.
- Professional services.
- Multi-entity organisations.
- Cross-border transactions.
- Rapidly growing founder-led SMEs.
You do not need to have experience in every category.
What This Role Is Not
This is not primarily:
- Bookkeeping.
- Transaction processing.
- Payroll administration.
- Data entry.
- Basic accounts preparation.
We already expect routine finance administration to sit below Finance Director level or with external accountants.
We are hiring for judgment.
Working Relationship
The role is designed as a genuine fractional consultancy engagement.
We expect the successful person to work with other clients and maintain substantial professional autonomy.
Rather than requiring fixed daily attendance, we will agree priorities, deliverables and an appropriate allocation of consultancy days.
The commitment may fluctuate as major projects move through proposal, mobilisation and delivery.
We are looking for somebody interested in developing a long-term advisory relationship rather than simply completing isolated tasks.
Initial Paid Assignment
The successful candidate's first engagement is expected to include a paid financial diagnostic of the business.
This is likely to include reviewing existing financial information and producing recommendations covering:
- Cash-flow visibility.
- Management reporting.
- Profitability.
- Financial controls.
- International programme budgeting.
- Key financial risks.
- Immediate priorities.
- A practical 90-day finance roadmap.
Any substantive work undertaken as part of the recruitment process will be paid.
Application
Please apply with your CV and a short covering note addressing:
- Your experience as a fractional Finance Director/CFO or equivalent.
- Your experience with founder-led SMEs.
- Any education, recruitment, staffing, public-sector or international project experience.
- An example of a situation where you advised a founder not to pursue, or to restructure, a commercially risky opportunity.
- Your current day rate.
- Your typical monthly availability.
We are particularly interested in candidates who combine financial rigour with a pragmatic, entrepreneurial approach.
We want someone prepared to protect the business—not merely report its numbers.
Pay: £500.00-£600.00 per day
Work Location: Remote
