Build the Finance Function for What Comes Next

Some finance roles are about maintaining the machine.

This one is about building it.

The Onset is partnering with a rapidly growing Australian technology services group to appoint a Executive Finance Controller with the technical credibility, commercial judgement and ambition to shape its next stage.

The organisation has grown through acquisition and organic expansion, bringing together specialist businesses across technology consulting, software engineering, cloud, data, AI and digital services.

The platform is built. The opportunity now is to integrate it, scale it and make finance a genuine source of control, insight and competitive advantage.

Why this role is different

You will not inherit a finished finance function and simply keep it moving.

Reporting to the COO and working directly with the Executive Team, Board and business leaders, you will have the mandate to:

• establish a trusted and scalable Group finance model;
• strengthen control, cash visibility and reporting;
• turn financial information into sharper commercial decisions;
• improve forecasting and performance accountability;
• simplify systems, processes and provider arrangements;
• embed automation and AI where they create real value;
• build the finance capability required for future growth and acquisitions.
• This is a rare combination of control, commercial leadership and transformation.
  
  You will need to operate at both altitudes: confident in the Boardroom, but equally prepared to get into the detail of a consolidation, forecast, balance sheet or broken process when required.
  
  What is in it for you?
  
  The opportunity to:
  
  shape the finance architecture of a substantial technology services platform;
• work closely with experienced executives, founders and business leaders;
• influence how the broader organisation operates and makes decisions;
• lead a meaningful transformation rather than inherit somebody else’s finished model;
• apply AI and automation to real finance problems—not innovation theatre;
• build a credible platform toward broader CFO-level responsibility.

The scale is meaningful. The mandate is real. The work will be visible.

Who will thrive here?

You may currently be a:

• Finance Director;
• Group Financial Controller;
• Head of Finance;
• Deputy CFO;
• Senior finance leader ready for broader enterprise ownership.

You will bring deep capability across financial control, multi-entity reporting, consolidation, audit, cash management, forecasting and executive reporting.

Experience within technology services, consulting, professional services or another people-led, project-based organisation will be important.

Private equity, acquisitions or finance transformation exposure will strengthen your case.

More importantly, you will be:

• technically strong;
• commercially sharp;
• comfortable challenging assumptions;
• hands-on when the situation demands it;
• energised by ambiguity and building;
• ambitious about what a modern finance function can become.

This role is not for someone looking to manage finance from a distance.

It is for someone who wants to leave the organisation substantially stronger than they found it.

Financial control is the foundation. Better decisions, scalable growth and transformation are the prize.

The search is being managed confidentially by The Onset.

Apply now or contact Aaron Williams at The Onset on aaron@theonset.com.au

Finance Director

Executive Finance Leadership | Transformation and growth | Passion for AI

The Onset is partnering with a rapidly growing Australian technology services group to appoint a hands-on Finance Director.

The organisation has expanded through a combination of acquisitions and organic growth, bringing together specialist capabilities across technology consulting, software engineering, cloud, data, AI and digital services.

Having successfully assembled the broader group, the next phase is focused on integration: establishing stronger financial disciplines, improving executive insight and creating a scalable operating model across multiple businesses.

Finance will be central to that transition.

The opportunity

Reporting to the Chief Operating Officer, the Finance Director will lead the Group finance function and partner closely with the Executive Team and operating-business leaders.

This is a broad leadership mandate combining:

• financial control and governance; 
• Group reporting and consolidation; 
• executive and Board insight; 
• forecasting and commercial performance; 
• finance transformation; 
• team and provider leadership; 
• acquisition integration. 

This is not a role for someone who wants to operate at a distance from the detail.

You will need to move comfortably between reviewing a complex consolidation, improving the month-end process, preparing executive reporting, challenging a forecast, strengthening cash visibility and redesigning how finance operates across the Group.

The mandate

Lead financial control and governance

You will own the integrity of the Group’s financial operations, including:

• month-end and year-end close; 

• multi-entity consolidation; 

• statutory financial reporting; 

• external audit; 

• tax compliance; 

• treasury and cash management; 

• technical accounting; 

• financial controls and governance; 

• balance-sheet integrity and reconciliation. 

Your first responsibility will be ensuring that the Executive Team, Board and investors can rely on accurate, timely and transparent financial information.

Improve executive insight

You will lead the monthly executive reporting process, bringing together financial results, forecasts, key business drivers, emerging risks and commercial opportunities.

The expectation is not simply to explain what happened.

You will help leadership understand:

• why performance moved; 
• what is driving the result; 
• where the business is heading; 
• what decisions or actions are required. 

You will strengthen forecasting, commercial analysis and performance accountability across the Group.

Build the finance operating model

The organisation currently operates across multiple businesses, finance processes and delivery resources.

You will help establish a more consistent and scalable Group finance model, including determining:

• what should be managed centrally; 
• what should remain within individual businesses; 
• how onshore, offshore and external resources should be deployed; 
• which processes should be standardised; 
• where systems and automation can remove unnecessary work. 

You will lead a lean finance function while building stronger capability, accountability and commercial understanding.

Lead finance transformation

Working closely with the COO, you will modernise how finance operates across the Group.

This will include:

• simplifying and standardising finance processes; 
• improving data quality and management information; 
• increasing automation; 
• embedding AI where it delivers measurable value; 
• improving reporting consistency; 
• optimising external-provider arrangements; 
• establishing scalable processes for future acquisitions. 

The objective is not to automate inefficient processes. It is to redesign the function around better control, information and decision-making.

About you

You are an experienced finance leader who combines technical authority with commercial judgement and practical execution.

You may currently be operating as a:

• Finance Director; 
• Group Financial Controller; 
• Head of Finance; 
• Deputy CFO; 
• senior divisional finance leader. 

You will bring strong experience across:

• multi-entity financial reporting and consolidation; 
• technical accounting and statutory reporting; 
• external audit and tax; 
• treasury and cash management; 
• budgeting, forecasting and performance analysis; 
• executive and Board reporting; 
• finance systems and process improvement; 
• team leadership and senior stakeholder engagement. 

Experience within technology services, consulting, professional services, managed services or another people-led, project-based environment is critical to success in this role.

Exposure to private equity, acquisition integration or multi-business Group environments would also be valuable.

Most importantly, you will be:

• technically credible; 
• commercially curious; 
• confident challenging assumptions; 
• hands-on and pragmatic; 
• comfortable with ambiguity; 
• capable of building a finance function, not simply maintaining one.

What success looks like

Within your first 12 months, you will have:

• strengthened the control and reliability of Group reporting; 
• improved the speed and discipline of the month-end close; 
• established more consistent reporting across the operating businesses; 
• improved cash visibility and forecast reliability; 
• delivered clearer executive and Board reporting; 
• defined and begun implementing the future finance operating model; 
• improved the effectiveness of internal and external finance resources; 
• embedded automation into selected finance workflows; 
• built a finance team recognised as both a trusted steward and commercially useful partner. 

Why consider this opportunity?

This is an opportunity to shape the finance architecture of a growing Australian technology services group.

You will work directly with the COO, Executive Team and business leaders to influence how the organisation operates, how performance is understood and how the Group scales from here.

This is a rare and genuine build mandate-not a maintenance role.

Apply now or contact Aaron Williams at The Onset on aaron@theonset.com.au

Build the People function of a high-growth Australian technology company

This is an opportunity to join a growing Australian technology company at an exciting stage of its journey.

Following significant growth, the business is investing in its People function and is looking for someone who can build the operational foundations that will support its next phase of success.

Working closely with the Head of People & Culture, you'll take ownership of the operational side of the function - creating scalable processes, implementing a new HRIS and embedding the governance, compliance and structure that every growing organisation needs.

This isn't a traditional People & Culture Business Partner role focused primarily on coaching leaders. Instead, it's an opportunity for someone who enjoys building better ways of working, improving processes and creating operational excellence across the employee lifecycle.

If you love bringing order to complexity and seeing the impact of your work across an organisation, we'd love to hear from you.

What you'll be doing

• Own the operational side of the People & Culture function
• Review and improve people processes across the employee lifecycle
• Lead the implementation of a new HRIS
• Build scalable systems and processes that support business growth
• Review and strengthen HR policies, governance and compliance
• Drive continuous improvement across People Operations
• Support recruitment, onboarding and core People processes
• Partner with leaders to provide practical advice on day-to-day people matters
• Use people data and reporting to identify trends and improve decision-making
• Help build a consistent, efficient and high-performing People function

What we're looking for

We're looking for someone who enjoys creating structure, improving processes and making things work better.

You may currently be working in HR Operations, People Operations, as a People & Culture Advisor, HR Advisor or in a similar operational HR role and be looking to step into a broader Partner position.

You'll bring:

• Experience across the employee lifecycle
• Strong HR Operations or People Operations experience
• Experience improving processes and building operational efficiencies
• Exposure to HR systems or HRIS implementation
• Experience developing policies, governance and compliance frameworks
• Strong organisational skills and exceptional attention to detail
• Confidence partnering with leaders across the business
• A practical, hands-on approach with a continuous improvement mindset

A formal HR qualification isn't essential - we're more interested in your operational capability, commercial mindset and ability to build scalable People practices.

What's on offer?

• The opportunity to shape and build the operational foundations of a growing People function
• Genuine ownership and autonomy to improve the way things are done
• Work alongside an experienced and supportive Head of People & Culture
• Lead the implementation of a new HRIS and key People initiatives
• Join a collaborative technology business experiencing significant growth
• Flexible hybrid working
• Competitive salary package

This is a rare opportunity to join a business that's entering its next stage of growth and play a key role in building the People function that will support it.

Apply now or contact Geri Condon at The Onset on geri@theonset.com.au

Senior SOE Systems Engineer

Join a major State Government organisation modernising its end-user computing environment.

You'll lead the design and evolution of enterprise SOE and endpoint management platforms across a large, complex technology environment.

Responsibilities

• Design and support modern SOE platforms.
• Manage Microsoft endpoint technologies.
• Improve endpoint security and compliance.
• Automate deployment and configuration.
• Deliver modern workplace solutions.

Desired Experience

• Microsoft Intune / Endpoint Manager.
• SOE engineering.
• Entra ID / Active Directory.
• Endpoint security.
• Modern workplace technologies.

Senior Platform Infrastructure Engineer

Join a major State Government organisation delivering modern infrastructure platforms that support critical business services.

This is a senior engineering role focused on cloud, hybrid infrastructure, automation and enterprise platform engineering.

Responsibilities

• Design and implement enterprise infrastructure.
• Deliver cloud and hybrid platform solutions.
• Automate infrastructure using IaC.
• Improve platform security and resilience.
• Produce technical documentation and mentor engineers.

Desired Experience

• Enterprise infrastructure engineering.
• Cloud and hybrid platforms.
• Infrastructure automation.
• Virtualisation.
• Storage, backup and disaster recovery.

Principal Security Analyst (Cyber Advisory)

Join a major State Government organisation supporting enterprise cyber governance and assurance across critical technology environments.

Work closely with project teams and stakeholders to assess risk, strengthen security controls and ensure technology initiatives meet security obligations.

Responsibilities

• Conduct cyber risk assessments.
• Develop security and accreditation documentation.
• Support governance, assurance and compliance activities.
• Assess vulnerabilities and security controls.
• Provide trusted cyber security advice.

Desired Experience

• Security Assurance or Cyber GRC.
• Risk assessments.
• Security frameworks.
• Security architecture knowledge.
• Strong communication skills.

Principal Security Engineer (SIEM & Detection)

Join a major State Government organisation investing heavily in its cyber security capability.

This is a hands-on engineering role focused on building and improving enterprise detection, SIEM and SOAR capabilities across a complex technology environment.

Responsibilities

• Engineer and enhance SIEM and SOAR platforms.
• Build detection rules and automation workflows.
• Integrate security tooling across cloud, endpoint and identity.
• Improve alert quality and detection coverage.
• Develop SOC playbooks and operational documentation.

Desired Experience

• Microsoft Sentinel, Splunk, QRadar or Elastic.
• SOAR automation.
• Detection Engineering.
• SIEM integrations.
• Threat detection and incident response.

Cyber Security Architect

Join a major State Government organisation delivering large-scale technology transformation programs.

You'll work with architects, engineers and project teams to ensure security is embedded into solutions from day one, providing practical guidance across cloud, infrastructure and enterprise platforms.

Responsibilities

• Design security architectures for enterprise technology initiatives.
• Produce architecture artefacts and support technical governance.
• Provide security guidance across cloud, network and enterprise platforms.
• Partner with project teams to embed Secure by Design principles.
• Influence security standards and architecture patterns.

Desired Experience

• Enterprise Security Architecture.
• Secure by Design.
• Cloud and hybrid security.
• Network security architecture.
• Strong stakeholder engagement.

You'll join a large enterprise where you'll work alongside architecture, engineering and delivery teams to ensure security is embedded into technology initiatives from day one. Whether it's cloud platforms, digital products or emerging technologies, you'll provide practical guidance that enables the business to move quickly without compromising security.

This role is about influencing outcomes rather than policing them. You'll review solution designs, define security architectures, identify risks early and work closely with technical stakeholders to deliver secure, scalable solutions. You'll also help evolve the organisation's security capability and contribute to the adoption of modern technologies, including AI-enabled services.

You'll have experience as a Security Architect within a large, complex environment and be comfortable working across multiple projects and stakeholders. You'll have a solid understanding of cloud security, modern application architectures and secure design principles, with the ability to communicate technical concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences.

Experience with cloud platforms, container technologies, APIs, automation, DevSecOps and security architecture frameworks will be highly regarded, along with a genuine interest in emerging technologies and the evolving security landscape.

Russell@theonset.com.au  / 0438984265