Group Chief Financial Officer

The Opportunity:

Maxwell+Spark is looking for a Group Chief Financial Officer to lead the finances of an international energy-technology business through its next stage of growth — where finance stops being a reporting function and becomes a lever.

We design, build and support lithium-ion power systems for industrial logistics: forklift and materials-handling batteries and allied (motive.li) and trailer and truck refrigeration power (advantage.li and fridge.li), built on common platforms, often for the same blue-chip end-users, with product-wide telematics (insight.li).

Headquartered in Rotterdam, and founded in Durban in 2017, we are around 150 people on three continents, with offices and assembly in South Africa, the Netherlands and the United States and customers in some 15 countries. Following our Series B in 2025, we are backed by investors in the EU, Japan, USA and South Africa.

Our footprint has made the decisions harder and more interesting: where to put capital, how to fund it, what drives margin in a hardware business operating in at least three currencies, how to build a finance function that scales with us in both systems and strategy.

This is not a role defined by reporting, controls and compliance. Those fundamentals are non-negotiable, but we need someone able to gain a fundamental understanding of the business behind the numbers, challenge assumptions, build transparent models to drive direction, and design innovative financial solutions around our products. Someone strategic and at home in an innovative and informal culture, and who brings new thinking to the table.

Your First-Year Mandate:

Five things matter most in the first twelve to eighteen months, in this order.

1. Capital and investors . Lead the Group’s funding strategy and its execution - debt, strategic partnerships, lease & EaaS models and growth capital - and own the relationships with our shareholders, board and senior lender.
2. One set of numbers . Own a Group financial model that the board, investors and management all plan from: budget, forecast, scenarios, levers.
3. Cash . Treasury, working capital and production cash discipline & strategy across a multi-currency, multi-entity group that holds real inventory.
4. Manufacturing economics. Clarity, visibility and analysis of cost, margin and inventory by product and by site — and the costing, design, production and pricing decisions that follow from it.
5. A finance function built to scale . Systems, controls, strategy, and a team that operate as a deep partner to the business, not a back office.

The Role:

You will be a member of the executive leadership team, reporting to the CEO, and the finance voice to our board and shareholders. The role might later entail appointment as a statutory director of Maxwell and Spark Group B.V. (statutair bestuurder), and possibly of subsidiaries. The mandate is Group-wide - the Netherlands, South Africa, the United States (plus the UK and Germany) - and spans strategy, operations and governance.

The seat is Rotterdam, our Group headquarters, alongside the CEO and two other execs. Our largest operation and the finance team base are in Durban: expect some time in South Africa, particularly in your first months, and possible very occasional travel to the United States, though we are a heavily digital, Teams, Loop & Cloud-driven company.

Your influence will extend beyond finance. We will expect you to understand our products, manufacturing and general operations, markets and commercial drivers — and to use that understanding to shape the business together.

What You’ll Own:

Capital and stakeholders

• Funding strategy and execution across equity, strategic and debt sources.
• Investor, board, shareholder and senior-lender reporting and relationships; banking, audit and insurance relationships.

Planning and performance

• The Group budget, rolling forecast, cash-flow and scenario models.
• Management reporting that powers decisions, not just records them.
• Evaluation of investments, partnerships, new markets and business models.

Manufacturing and cash

• Treasury, working capital and inventory across the Group.
• Cost, margin and profitability visibility by product and by site.
• Costing and pricing, in partnership with the operational and commercial teams.

Governance and systems

• Financial governance, risk management, modern controls, and statutory compliance across all Group entities, including transfer pricing, exchange control, B-BBEE and government incentive and development-finance programmes.
• Scalable systems, processes and controls — using automation and data to make finance faster, clearer, and more useful, without unnecessary bureaucracy. Integration with other company-wide systems (largely established).
• Ownership of, or close involvement in, legal matters (e.g. shareholder, financing and commercial relationships), and aspects of HR (e.g. payroll and remuneration).

Team

• Lead and develop the Group finance team as a strategic partner to the business.
• Be one of the key senior leaders in the Group, based at headquarters with the CEO, and two other execs , driving and establishing culture and cohesion across our Dutch, US and South African teams.

What We’re Looking For:

You will hold a relevant degree (finance, economics, engineering or similar) and ideally a professional finance qualification (RA, RC, CA, CFA or equivalent), with at least ten years in senior finance roles and a track record of successfully leading finance in a scaling, operationally complex business.

Essential

• Manufacturing, engineering or hardware-technology experience: you understand bills of materials, inventory, standard costing, production working capital, and have an inherent feel for long commercial hardware cycles.
• Strong modelling, forecasting and scenario-planning capability — built by you, not only reviewed by you.
• Capital experience: raising and managing institutional funding — debt, equity, strategic - and reporting to investors, lenders and boards.
• Multi-entity, multi-currency, multi-jurisdiction group experience, including consolidation and transfer pricing.
• Commercial judgement: turning financial information into business decisions, and the standing to challenge the CEO and executive team.
• Leadership of a finance team, and of relationships with banks, auditors and shareholders.

Highly valued

• Venture- or growth-equity fundraising and investor relations in a VC, scale-up or private-equity-backed environment.
• Exposure to both a scaling business and a larger corporate environment.
• Experience with Dutch/EU/UK funding and innovation instruments (e.g. EIC, Invest-NL, RVO schemes such as WBSO).
• Experience in international group structures.
• Experience as a statutory director of a Dutch B.V., and of working with an investor-appointed board.
• Experience in energy, batteries, sustainability or industrial technology.
• An innovative and strategic, highly solution-driven mindset.

An MBA, management consulting or similar, hands-on experience with automation and analytics, and Dutch language skills (our working language is English) would be advantageous.

The Person Behind the CV:

Qualifications matter. How you think matters as much.

You are curious about the business behind the numbers and about where it’s headed, and you go and see for yourself - on the production floor, in the order book, in the customer conversation, in the systems, in the nature of existing company relationships and agreements. You think strategically and are unafraid of being inquisitive or of detail. You challenge assumptions, ask the uncomfortable question, and do not accept “that’s how we’ve always done it” as an argument.

You understand governance without defaulting to bureaucracy. You are direct, and expect directness in return. You enjoy building — models, systems, teams, ways of working — and you are comfortable making and owning decisions without perfect information. You see technology, AI and automation as tools, and have already put them to work deeply.

Most of all, you want to contribute beyond the traditional boundaries of finance, and of business. If your career path doesn’t fit the conventional CFO mould but you meet the fundamentals, we’d still love to hear from you.

What We Offer:

• We want our CFO invested in the outcome, and sharing in the value created.
• Competitive executive remuneration, with an annual performance bonus linked to executive KPIs and Group performance.
• Participation in the Group’s long-term incentive plan through an ESOP, with a meaningful allocation for this role.
• A strong pension scheme, with a high employer contribution.
• Hybrid working with substantial work-from-home and flexible hours.
• Standard Dutch benefits, including expense allowances, tax-efficient commuting and a bicycle plan.
• Encouragement in continued learning and further study.
• A Rotterdam-based executive role with interaction and time in Durban and the United States, and flexibility where the work allows.

Why Maxwell+Spark?

Because the business is dynamic, opportunities abound, we believe in our mission and so do you. That mission is pragmatic: taking diesel and lead-acid out of industrial logistics at a lower total cost for the customer, with systems that are better in all respects - from Dutch headquarters with a global footprint. You start from a working financial architecture and team, with the mandate to improve both and to innovate at every level - from how we fund the Group to how our customers pay for our products, and how we build them.

You will not inherit a mature multinational finance structure and be asked to simply maintain it. You will shape how a nine-year-old, three-continent hardware company funds itself, measures itself and scales, with a direct line into decisions on manufacturing, product, international expansion, commercial strategy, technology and investment.

We work by SPRINT: Simplicity, Powered Growth, Reliability, Innovate Now, Teamwork - and we are looking for a CFO who brings those principles to financial leadership, together with experience and sound judgement.

Job Types: Full-time, Permanent

Work Location: In person