VP Finance

About the role

The Vice President, Finance owns the end-to-end financial strategy and operational backbone of Preply's global growth trajectory. This leader is responsible for shaping long-term financial planning, ensuring rigorous capital allocation, and driving profitability across all business units. They act as the primary architect of investor readiness, preparing the organization for potential capital-markets activity and public-company standards. The role demands direct oversight of a multifaceted finance portfolio, integrating Business Partnership FP&A, Corporate Finance, Procurement, and the Finance PMO under a unified strategy. They provide decisive leadership to finance analytics, ensuring data integrity and actionable insights for the executive team. Ultimately, this executive serves as a critical advisor to the CFO and the Board, aligning financial performance with strategic milestones while fostering a culture of excellence and accountability.

Key facts

What you'll do

• Define and execute Preply's long-term financial strategy in partnership with the CFO and executive leadership, focusing on sustainable growth, marketplace efficiency, and global scale.
• Lead company-wide forecasting, budgeting, capital allocation, and investment planning to ensure disciplined profitability and optimized cash management across all regions.
• Strengthen Preply's external financial narrative and investor engagement, maintaining transparency, accuracy, and credibility in all communications with the investment community.
• Drive the evolution of finance systems, controls, and reporting processes required for a potential public-company environment, including governance, compliance, and audit readiness.
• Serve as a trusted financial advisor to senior business leaders, converting complex analytical insight into strategic action for both B2C marketplace and B2B go-to-market initiatives.
• Build scalable processes, systems, and decision frameworks that support Preply's global growth trajectory and enable efficient execution at every stage.
• Inspire and empower high-performing teams across FP&A, Corporate Finance, Procurement, and the Finance PMO, fostering accountability, ownership, and a results-driven culture.
• Collaborate with Finance Analytics to enhance forecasting accuracy, improve data quality, and deliver executive-level financial visibility for critical decisions.
• Oversee Finance PMO initiatives to ensure disciplined execution of key strategic projects, aligning resources, timelines, and outcomes with corporate priorities.
• Embed a culture of accountability combined with empathy, rewarding performance, developing talent, and modeling Preply's principle of constant excellence.
• Lead the adoption of AI and agentic tools across FP&A, Corporate Finance, and Procurement, identifying opportunities where automation and AI-assisted analysis can replace manual processes and elevate output quality.
• Set the standard for AI literacy and tool fluency within the finance organization, enabling the team to leverage AI as a core component of daily operations and strategic decision-making.

Requirements

• Bring 10+ years of progressive finance leadership experience, including 5+ years at the senior-executive level leading multi-disciplinary teams in fast-paced, high-growth environments.
• Demonstrate direct experience preparing for or operating within a public-company environment, with deep understanding of investor expectations, regulatory standards, and the rigor of public reporting.
• Show a proven track record of partnering with CFOs and investor-relations leaders to support external communications, investor updates, and capital-markets engagement.
• Exhibit strong strategic finance acumen, having built and scaled FP&A and corporate finance functions that successfully support global, rapidly scaling organizations.
• Highlight a history of successful collaboration with product, marketing, and operations leaders to align resources with strategic priorities and drive cross-functional execution.
• Display an ability to delegate effectively, empower teams, and create an environment where ownership and accountability are deeply embedded.
• Maintain a commitment to fostering a culture of empathy and excellence, ensuring that performance is rewarded and talent is continuously developed.
• Demonstrate fluency in the company's core values, applying them to decision-making and day-to-day interactions across a global, diverse workforce.

Nice to have

• Preferred experience in AI adoption within finance functions, specifically related to agentic tools, automation, and data orchestration.
• Demonstrated success in scaling finance operations for marketplace or platform business models.
• Familiarity with preparing finance teams for public-market scrutiny and regulatory compliance.

Practical notes

• This role is based in New York and requires in-office presence.
• The position involves collaboration across global time zones to support Preply's international growth.
• Candidates must be eligible to work in the United States without sponsorship for this role.