Operations & Finance Lead
About this opportunity
Polysense is scaling fast. We build operational intelligence software that's reshaping how food manufacturers work. Customers like Agristo, Lotus Biscoff and La Lorraine already run on it, and the engine powering that growth needs to keep up. Our finance and operations backbone needs to be tight, automated, and built to scale.
To make that happen, we're hiring an Operations & Finance Lead. Not a back-office role. A builder role. You'll own Polysense's finance and business operations, find what's slowing us down, and replace it with lean, AI-native processes that don't need an army to run. You report directly to the Chief of Staff and keep us scaling without bloating overhead.
Take every finance and business process at Polysense to the next level: build what's missing, and get everything else ready for the next phase of growth.
💼 What you'll be doing
• Finance ownership
• Build and own the financial reporting layer, from cash flow forecasting to board-level dashboards and KPI tracking, so leadership always has clear, reliable visibility on where we stand. Monthly reporting cadence is yours.
• Drive FP&A across the organisation. Build the yearly budget with functional Heads and give teams clear insight into their cost base so they can make better decisions.
• Spot subsidy and grant opportunities and own the full application process, from identification to submission. We've run FIT and R&D tracks before; you build a structural approach so we never leave money on the table.
• Own bookkeeping end to end, from quarterly VAT returns to annual closing. You drive this in-house for the Belgian entity, and coordinate with our external accountant for the US entity (Polysense Solutions Inc.) to keep compliance covered.
• Operations & business infrastructure
• Lead cross-functional projects with no clear owner. When something important needs to happen across teams, you scope it, drive it, and see it through — this is a core part of the role, not an occasional ask.
• Own RevOps. Partner with sales leadership on forecasting and pipeline management, and build the reporting and process infrastructure that gives the team better visibility and helps them sell more.
• Drive AI enablement across the team. Spot where manual work can be replaced with AI-native tooling and workflows, build it, and help other functions adopt it — this is how the rest of your scope stays lean as we grow.
• Own general company operations: admin, documentation, and SaaS/vendor management (tracking subscriptions, flagging renewal risk, making sure we get value for what we pay).
• Work alongside our legal counsel on contract management, GDPR compliance, and corporate filings — you're the internal point of contact making sure nothing gets dropped.
Key point: Finance comes first: it has to run reliably before anything else does. But this role isn't capped at finance. Once it runs itself, expect the operations side to keep expanding into whatever Polysense needs built next.
💪 What you bring
Background & Experience
• 5 to 8+ years in finance, operations, or a role combining both. The more relevant the experience, the less those years matter either way.
• A finance background is preferred, but we care more about what you've built than which box you tick.
• Experience running finance inside a high-growth, venture-backed company is a strong plus. Ideally you've seen a company scale from one stage into the next (joined around seed, built through Series A/B) and know how to build your way out of processes that can't keep up. What stage you're at today matters less than having lived that curve.
• You build with AI, not just use it. That means going further than chatting with Copilot or ChatGPT day to day. We don't expect you to ship code, but your default should already be automate this, not do this by hand.
Skills & Mindset
• High ownership, low handholding. You set your own priorities, manage your own calendar, and take initiative without being asked. You don't wait for a brief, you write it.
• Resourceful. When you hit something you don't know, you find the answer yourself before it becomes a blocker. You don't get stuck, and you don't wait for someone to unstick you.
• AI native, not AI curious. You don't just use AI tools, you build with them. Whether that's Claude, Claude Code, or whatever gets the job done, your default is to automate. Manual work is a last resort.
• Comfortable in the weeds. Some of what this role needs is genuinely repetitive before it's automated. That doesn't wear you down. You'd rather fix it once and for all than keep doing it manually or hand it off.
• Process builder, not process follower. You care about making things better, not just keeping them ticking. Clear, direct communicator. No politics. No noise.
You don't need to walk in with a fully-formed roadmap on day one. We'll shape that together, and you're welcome to challenge it. What matters is that once we've agreed on the plan, you can run with it independently. If you can also design that roadmap yourself from the start, even better: that's what opens the door to a more senior, Head of level version of this role.
🌟 What success looks like
✓ Within the first 3 to 6 months: bookkeeping runs in-house on our own system, invoice booking is automated, management P&L is live, and leadership has a clear, current view of cash at all times. Built to scale, not to rebuild later. ✓ Operational excellence within the finance function. All processes run smoothly with minimal repetitive manual work ✓ Monthly reporting cadence is fully in control and gives leadership clear visibility at all times ✓ FP&A is embedded in how functional teams plan and make decisions ✓ Subsidy and grant opportunities are tracked and acted on structurally ✓ Key business processes across Polysense are documented, optimised, and ready to support the next phase of growth ✓ The Chief of Staff spends less time on operational firefighting and more time on strategy
🌟 The Perks - What's in it for you?
• Full ownership: Take initiative, make an impact, and help shape the future of Polysense.
• Freedom to innovate: Experiment, create, and bring your bold ideas to life.
• Ambitious team spirit: Join a close-knit team that means business: collaborative, creative, and full of energy. We make it work and make it matter!
• Amazing workspace: Work from the vibrant and stylish Upoffiz campus in Ghent, easily accessible and buzzing with energy.
• Shared growth: Take ownership of your projects while co-developing the future of Polysense with the team.
🚀 Why Polysense?
People join a company like Polysense for the impact they can have, the freedom to try and innovate, and the growth, both theirs and ours.
We're early-stage, ~30 people, real product-market fit with some of the biggest customers in the world, and a real shot at becoming something big. Not just our opinion, also our investors and customers.
Join now and you're not filling a slot, you're laying groundwork that's still standing in five years.
A big company usually means a fixed lane, and no guarantee it survives the next reorg no matter how good you are. Here, if you're good, people notice fast and growth is possible in a number of directions.
We don't know how big this gets. But getting in early is worth something you won't get anywhere else.
💌 Ready to join us? Let's build something amazing together. Apply now and be part of the Polysense success story!