VP - Finance

About Bright Money

Bright Money is a consumer fintech built for middle-income consumers. Our platform helps consumers build credit, manage debt, and access suitable loans and credit cards—addressing the key financial needs of people living paycheck to paycheck.

Bright is a profitable, India-built fintech serving the U.S. market, with a clear trajectory toward $100 million in revenue. Our business model combines subscription revenue with a financial-services marketplace across loans, credit cards, and credit-building solutions.

We have launched an AI-powered money assistant and agentic AI experiences that simplify access to credit. Our ambition is to build the first AI-driven consumer-fintech platform for middle-income consumers.

Founded in 2019, Bright’s founding team includes leaders from McKinsey’s Banking Practice—Petko Plachkov andAvi Patchava—and data science leaders from InMobi. Bright is backed by leading global venture capital firms and technology investors across the U.S., Europe, and Asia.

With a data-driven, high-ownership, and fast-paced culture, we are building a global consumer-fintech company from India.

What is the role about?

Bright is looking for a VP – Finance in India to own the company’s finance engine end to end: FP&A, accounting and controllership, and financial operations. You will run planning and forecasting, close the books across our India and U.S. entities, keep compliance watertight in both jurisdictions, and build the systems and team that let finance scale with the business.

This is a hands-on leadership role. You will build the numbers the Board sees, partner with business leaders on the decisions behind them, and hold the operating discipline that a profitable, fast-scaling fintech depends on.

What will you do?

• FP&A: Own budgeting, forecasting, the long-range plan, and variance analysis; build the models and scenarios that inform pricing, growth, and investment decisions.

• Controllership: Own accounting and month-end close across the India and U.S. entities, including revenue recognition, consolidation, and reporting under the applicable standards.

• Audit, tax & compliance: Run statutory and internal audits, direct and indirect tax, transfer pricing, and regulatory filings in India, and coordinate U.S. compliance with external advisors.

• Financial operations: Own billing, collections, reconciliations across subscription and marketplace revenue, vendor payments, payroll inputs, and expense controls.

• Controls & process: Build the financial controls, SOPs, and approval frameworks the company needs as it scales, and keep them enforced.

• Business partnering: Work with Growth, Product, and Data Science on unit economics, cohort margins, and the metrics that drive commercial decisions.

• Systems & automation: Own the finance stack—ERP, billing, and expense systems—and drive automation that removes manual effort from close and reporting.

• Board & investor reporting: Produce the monthly and quarterly reporting pack for leadership, the Board, and investors, and support diligence as needed.

• Team leadership: Build, lead, and develop the India finance team across FP&A, accounting, and FinOps.

Ideal candidate profile

Experience & Background:

• Experience: 12+ years in finance, with senior ownership across FP&A and controllership; experience in a high-growth technology or fintech company is essential.

• Qualifications: Chartered Accountant preferred; MBA Finance or CPA also considered. A mix of Big 4 and in-house experience is an advantage.

• Breadth: Equally strong on forward-looking planning and on the books—candidates deep in only one of the two will not fit this role.

• Standards & structure: Working knowledge of Ind AS and U.S. GAAP, and experience supporting a cross-border entity structure with U.S. operations.

• Compliance: Hands-on with Indian statutory requirements—audit, direct and indirect tax, transfer pricing, FEMA, and ROC filings.

• Revenue models: Exposure to subscription revenue and financial-services marketplace or lending revenue is a strong plus.

• Systems: Experience selecting, implementing, or scaling finance systems and automating close and reporting cycles.

• Leadership: A track record of building and leading finance teams, with the credibility to partner with CXOs and the Board.

• Location: Based in Bengaluru, or willing to relocate.

Mindset & Operating DNA:

• Ownership: Treats the integrity of the numbers and the health of the finance function as personally theirs.

• Hands-on: Comfortable in the detail—building the model, reviewing the reconciliation—while leading a team.

• Operating discipline: Brings rhythm and rigour to close, reporting, and planning cycles, and holds the line on controls.

• Commercial instinct: Reads the business behind the numbers and gives leaders a clear view, not just a report.

• Pace: Thrives in a fast-moving environment where processes are still being built.

Non-Fit Profiles

• Candidates strong in controllership alone, with no ownership of planning, forecasting, or business partnering—or the reverse.

• Profiles from large corporates who rely on a big team and established processes, without hands-on execution.

• Those with no exposure to a cross-border or U.S.-facing entity structure.

• Candidates looking for a purely reporting-focused role, with no appetite for building systems, controls, and a team.

What Bright Offers?

• A profitable sub-unicorn with U.S. market scale – liquidity potential at $1–3B valuations.

• Real ownership: You own the finance function end to end and build it as the company scales.

• Wealth creation: Equity at an inflection stage of scale.

• A data-driven, high-cadence culturethat combines consulting rigor with FinTech speed.

• Benefits: Excellent benefits package in line with sector best practice.