Finance Operations Specialist

$62,000 - $73,000 a year Finance Operations Specialist (Vancouver-based, US Experience) Location: Hybrid (3 days in office, Vancouver) Type : Full-time Compensation: $62,000–$73,000 CAD (depending on experience) 👋 About the Role Hi, I’m Anna, CFO at Zen Educate. We are scaling rapidly across the UK and US, and with that growth comes complexity. We are looking for a Finance Operations Specialist based in Vancouver to serve as a pivotal operational hub across our US finance operations. This is a broad, highly crucial cross-functional role that directly powers our growth engine. Beyond driving our US revenue cycle and accounts receivable, you will play a central part in payroll onboarding and processing, accounts payable, credit card reconciliations, and internal control enforcement. We need a systems thinker with strong data skills who thrives on owning multi-faceted financial operations. If you are excited to build scalable financial infrastructure, partner across teams, and directly impact the success of a fast-growing tech company, we want to meet you. 👋 About Zen Zen Educate is a technology company that matches schools with temporary educator staff. Our mission is to change the world of education recruitment. Schools spend over $9bn a year on temporary educators, with over $2bn per year of that spent on fees that take money out of the education system. By leveraging the latest technology, we purpose-built a platform that helps schools to pay less while educators earn more. We have recently raised our Series B funding of $37mil, the largest round in European EdTech this year. This is an exciting opportunity to make a difference and be part of a high-growth startup that is expanding rapidly in the UK and US markets! 🧠 What We’re Looking For We are looking for an analytical operator who is passionate about efficiency and user experience. You aren't satisfied with just "getting the job done"—you want to know how to do it better next time. Traits that define success in this role: Data-Driven: You are comfortable manipulating large datasets to find answers. You don't just see a late payment; you analyze the data to understand why it happened. Systems Thinker: You seek to automate and structure workflows. You build guardrails, not just workarounds. Collaborative Problem Solver: You can communicate complex financial issues to non-finance stakeholders (like Account Managers) to resolve client disputes quickly. US Market Experience: You have hands-on experience with US billing and payroll, sales tax, or cross-border complexities. 🏗️ What You’ll Be Doing Architect the AR Lifecycle: Own the billing and receivables process for US partner schools, ensuring the system can handle increased volume as we scale. Data Analysis & Reporting: Monitor aging reports and billing data to identify negative trends or recurring issues. Proactively flag risks to leadership before they become problems. Cross-Functional Partnership: Act as the financial strategic partner to US Account Managers. You will help them navigate billing hurdles to maintain healthy relationships with our school partners. Process Optimization: Continuously audit the Order-to-Cash cycle. Identify bottlenecks and implement data-backed solutions to streamline invoicing and cash reconciliation. Customer Success: Manage inquiries regarding billing issues with a focus on root-cause resolution, ensuring a seamless experience for our schools. Credit Card Reconciliation: Perform regular reconciliations of corporate credit cards and expenses, ensuring accurate categorization and documentation. Accounts Payable (AP) Support: Support the AP function by verifying vendor invoices, coding expenses, and assisting with disbursement runs. Educator Payroll Onboarding: Assist with payroll onboarding for educators, ensuring seamless intake, accurate setup, and compliance. Policy Enforcement & Compliance: Enforce internal finance policies and best practices across daily operations and team workflows. 🛠 Tools & Systems Excel Mastery is Essential: You should be highly proficient (Pivot tables, VLOOKUPs, managing large datasets). Tech-Forward: Experience with Xero or large-scale ERPs is great, but an aptitude for learning new tools quickly is better. Bonus: Experience with visualization tools (Looker, Tableau) or SQL is a strong asset, though not required. 🌱 Growth & Career Path We value impact over titles. The US business is growing fast, and as a key hire in the Finance Operations team, you will have plenty of opportunities to expand your scope. We’ll support your development with honest feedback, flexibility, and clear progression criteria. 🤝 Our Culture Our finance team is distributed across the UK, Europe, and North America. Even though we are not all physically together, we are a tight-knit team and work closely and collaboratively. We’re still building. You’ll help shape systems, not just maintain them. Diversity and inclusion matter—and we’re still learning how to do better. If you’d be the first of something on our team, we want to support you. 🤝 What the team says: “One of the most rewarding parts of working in finance at Zen is how embedded we are in the business. It's not just about numbers, it's about partnering with teams to make the right decisions. Zen's growth means we are constantly tackling new challenges which keeps work fresh and interesting!" “I genuinely enjoy my role at Zen — it challenges me, inspires growth, and allows me to make a meaningful impact to our schools, whilst working with a friendly and supportive team.” ⚡ Hiring Process We move fast. Here’s what to expect: Initial Chat: A quick screen to align expectations, discuss your data/systems experience, and answer questions. Secondary Chat: With Annie, our Head of Finance in the US. Interview & Technical Task: A session in our Vancouver office to walk through your career, plus a practical task to assess your ability to handle data and solve operational scenarios. Values-Based Conversation: With a member of leadership to discuss mindset, alignment, and growth goals. 🙌 Ready to Apply? If you are a Finance Operations or AR professional who loves data, enjoys building systems, and wants to support real-world outcomes in education—we’d love to hear from you. Apply now or reach out with questions.