Financial Controller

About EH Group Engineering

EHG is developing cutting-edge fuel cell technology for heavy duty mobility and large-scale stationary power applications. Our uniquely redesigned product is a significantly more compact fuel cell with high power density and lower costs of production. Faced with the challenges of climate change and the transition to a decentralised energy system, EHG seeks to provide high performance and cost-effective fuel cell solutions to our clients and partners.

To help achieve our vision of a decarbonised future we are seeking a Financial Controller to build and run the finance function of our Swiss entity as we scale from R&D into series manufacturing. Reporting to the CFO, you will bring our accounting in-house from our external fiduciary, establish a fast and reliable monthly close, and be the finance lead in Switzerland for our growing international group.

This role requires full-time, on-site presence at our Nyon, Switzerland office. We're not able to offer remote or hybrid arrangements, so candidates should be prepared to relocate.

About the role

This is a build role as much as an accounting role. Today our bookkeeping sits with an external fiduciary; you will bring it in-house and make the monthly numbers yours. You will design the close, the purchase order process and the many other policies, then run them, and you will lead the finance side of our ERP implementation as the company moves into series production. We are looking for someone with solid Swiss accounting fundamentals who has built a finance function before and wants to do it again, rather than someone looking to run an established one.

Key Responsibilities:

• Lead the transition of bookkeeping, AP, AR, banking and fixed assets from our external fiduciary to in-house, and own the general ledger of the Swiss entity

• Run the monthly close on a published calendar and shorten it to under 10 days, with a monthly management pack for the CEO and board

• Prepare weekly cash reporting and the 13-week cash forecast for the CFO, run supplier payment runs and manage day-to-day banking

• Design and run the purchase order process, tying purchase orders to projects and feeding customer-level margin reporting

• Own Swiss statutory compliance: annual accounts under the Code of Obligations, the annual audit, Swiss VAT, and cantonal and federal tax filings, working with our fiduciary and auditor

• Oversee payroll and social insurance (AVS, LPP, LAA, family allowances) with our payroll provider

• Deliver the Swiss monthly reporting package to our US finance team for group consolidation in USD, and own intercompany reconciliation with our US and India entities

• Lead the finance workstream of our ERP implementation: chart of accounts, approval workflows, data migration, testing and go-live

• Write and maintain finance policies and procedures: delegation of authority, purchase approvals, expenses and month-end

• Act as the working contact for the auditor and respond to finance data requests from banks and investors

Skills and Experience Required:

• Swiss accounting qualification (Brevet fédéral de spécialiste en finance et comptabilité, expert-comptable diplômé, or equivalent) or Big 4 audit training is mandatory

• Minimum 6 years of accounting experience, including hands-on Swiss statutory accounts, Swiss VAT and payroll

• Experience as the first or lead finance person in a startup or scale-up, ideally in an industrial or engineering company

• Proven experience running a full monthly close end to end and producing management reporting

• Experience as finance lead or key user in an ERP implementation or major migration (Odoo, NetSuite, Dynamics, Abacus, SAP Business One or similar)

• Experience reporting into a group parent in another currency, including intercompany accounting

• Comfortable working hands-on and autonomously, building processes rather than following them

• Proficiency with Excel and ERP software is mandatory

• Excellent spoken and written English is mandatory; French is a plus

• Swiss or EU/EFTA national, or holding a valid Swiss work permit

Nice to have:

• Inventory, WIP or project accounting in a company that ships physical product

• US GAAP or US parent company exposure

• Customer prepayment, grant or R&D funding accounting