The Finance & Operations Lead is a senior leadership hire tasked with spearheading Mtindo’s transition from a founder-led startup to an institutionalized, process-driven enterprise. This role is the bridge between Mtindo’s creative social mission and its long-term financial resilience. You will own the design of the Manual Prototype, standardizing the business logic, unit economics, and operational workflows to prepare the organization for an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) implementation. Your mission is to build a scalable financial engine that ensures Mtindo’s social impact is supported by operational discipline.

Key Responsibilities

Strategic Financial Management & Scalability

• Path to Operational Self-Sufficiency: Own the financial roadmap, identifying levers for margin improvement and capacity optimization to ensure long-term commercial viability.
• Costing: Implement a batch-level costing framework that captures material utilization, labor efficiency, and factory overheads.
• Margin-Driven Strategy: Provide data-driven insights to align pricing and cost structures with margins, ensuring that orders support the business sustainability ambitions.

Systems Transformation & ERP Readiness

• The "Manual Prototype": Develop and manage an integrated manual system (BOM, production planning, and inventory) to define and stress-test the business logic before digitization.
• ERP Project Leadership: Lead the future ERP selection and implementation process, and define functional requirements and vendor management.
• Data Standardization: Establish and maintain high standards for SKU definitions, vendor data, and historical cost records, etc., ensuring that all organisational data is “ERP upload” ready.

Operational Governance & Working Capital

• Inventory Ownership: Implement rigorous inventory tracking systems to optimize stock levels, minimize waste, and improve cash-conversion cycles.
• Working Capital Optimization: Manage receivables and payables with a focus on maximizing liquidity and maintaining healthy cash flows for order initiation.
• Traceability & Control: Centralize financial workflows to ensure 100% traceability across all banking and operational channels.

Institutional Integrity & Impact

• Management Reporting: Produce monthly executive management packs, including product-line profitability, order pipeline analysis, and rolling cash flow forecasts.
• Sustainable Stewardship: Integrate resource-efficiency tracking into the costing model, aligning financial health with Mtindo’s environmental and social commitments.
• Board-Level Financials: Maintain high-integrity financial records, ensuring the business is always ready for external audit, investor due diligence, or lender review.

Candidate Profile: Education & Experience

• Professional Qualification: Degree in Finance/Accounting; CPA or ACCA certification is required.
• Manufacturing Expertise: 5–10 years of experience in financial management, specifically within an SME production environment (Apparel or Textiles experience is a distinct advantage).
• Systems Implementation: Proven track record in overseeing digital transitions or implementing integrated ERP systems (e.g., Odoo, MS Dynamics, SAP).
• Costing Specialist: Deep expertise in inventory valuation, SKU management, and standard costing frameworks.

Skills & Personal Qualities

• Institutional Builder: You thrive in building, taking pride in turning raw data into structured, process-driven insights.
• Strategic Sparring Partner: Ability to work closely with the CEO to guide pricing, staffing, and investment decisions through a commercial lens.
• Resilience & Adaptability: Comfortable leading change in a fast-paced, mission-driven environment.
• Mission Alignment: A genuine interest in social enterprise, vocational training, and the development of sustainable local industry.

What We Offer

• A pivotal role in a growing brand with a significant social and economic footprint in Gulu
• The authority to design and lead a major digital and financial transformation.
• A competitive executive compensation package.