š OPPORTUNITY OVERVIEW:-Confluent is actively recruiting for a Head of New Ventures Finance position in Cape Town. This is an excellent opportunity for professionals in the Finance / Accounting / Audit sector looking to advance their careers.
šÆ IDEAL CANDIDATE PROFILE:-We are seeking talented individuals with the following profile:ā¢ Experience Level: 4 years ā¢ Educational Background: Others or equivalentā¢ Industry Focus: Finance / Accounting / Auditā¢ Location Preference: in Cape Town
š¼ WHY THIS ROLE MATTERS:-Financial professionals like Head of New Ventures Finance are vital for organizational stability and compliance. This role offers the opportunity to impact business strategy and financial health.
š CAREER DEVELOPMENT INSIGHTS:-This role in Finance / Accounting / Audit offers valuable career progression opportunities aligned with your experience level and professional aspirations.
š APPLICATION GUIDANCE:-When applying for this Head of New Ventures Finance position, ensure your CV highlights:ā¢ Relevant experience matching the 4 years requirementā¢ Educational qualifications in line with Othersā¢ Specific achievements in the Finance / Accounting / Audit fieldā¢ Any certifications or specialized training
š SOUTH AFRICA JOB MARKET CONTEXT:-The Finance / Accounting / Audit sector in South Africa continues to show strong demand for skilled professionals. This position represents a valuable opportunity in the current job market.
Job Title: Head of Emerging Business Finance
Salary: Market-Related Job Type: Permanent Sectors: Investment Finance Reference: 206546
Vacancy Details
Employer: Confluent
Position: Head of Emerging Business Finance
Location: Hybrid Position - Pinelands (Cape Town)
The Company
Confluent, a South African financial services conglomerate, offers services in debt counselling and management, consumer credit matching, insurance distribution, and comprehensive lifecycle financial services.
The Opportunity
The Head of Emerging Business Finance reports directly to the Group CFO and oversees Pillar 2. This role involves the evaluation, structuring, establishment, and incubation of new joint ventures, partnerships, subsidiaries, and emerging businesses to be integrated into Confluent's core operations. The position is based in Cape Town, with necessary travel.
This hands-on finance-building role starts with crafting investment cases and financial models, progresses through commercial agreements, funding, and finance setup, and concludes with a seamless handover to Finance Operations and FP&A/Platforms. Signing a transaction marks a milestone, not the end of responsibilities.
The successful candidate will collaborate with existing finance pillars, business sponsors, and specialist advisers, with resources agreed upon with the Group CFO as the venture portfolio expands. Success lies in sound investment decisions, controlled launches, disciplined incubation, and transferable businesses, rather than merely increasing deals or the portfolio size.
Key Responsibilities
Investment Evaluation and Financial Modelling
Construct investment cases detailing strategic fit, alternatives, returns, funding requirements, and downside scenarios with a clear recommendation, including reasons not to proceed. Build and maintain integrated profit-and-loss, balance-sheet, and cash-flow models, documenting assumptions, operating drivers, and sensitivity analysis. Distinguish the venture's economics from Confluent's return and each investing or contracting entity's exposure, including partner shares, shared-service charges, working capital, and cash requirements without double-counting benefits. Apply agreed customer-lifetime, cohort, and valuation methodologies with Pillar 3, distinguishing fee income from retained credit or insurance risk and accounting profit from available cash.
Commercial Structuring and Agreements
Design the proposed ownership, partner contributions, funding, and commercial economics with the business sponsor, Group CFO, and relevant specialists. Identify who invests, contracts, earns income, and bears risk. Develop and negotiate term sheets within delegated authority, covering ownership, future funding, dilution, revenue or profit sharing, services, information rights, governance, and exit arrangements. Own the commercial brief for shareholder, investment, funding, and operating agreements. Coordinate Group Legal and tax, accounting, and regulatory advisers; legal advice, drafting standards, and legal sign-off remain with Group Legal. Coordinate due diligence, approvals, conditions, and completion obligations. Ensure executed agreements reflect the approved economics and update the model for the terms actually signed.
Finance Establishment and Launch Readiness
Lead the finance implementation plan with Pillars 1 and 1A: banking, accounting setup, billing, collections, payment approvals, cash monitoring, reporting calendars, and named process owners. Coordinate entity formation and required legal, tax, and regulatory work with the relevant specialists. Confirm the contracting, funding, and approval arrangements before launch commitments are made. Agree launch-readiness criteria and an early-operation plan with the business sponsor and receiving finance teams. Ensure the venture can transact, account, report, and obtain funding consistently with its model and agreements.
Incubation and Performance Management
Act as the lead finance partner during incubation, owning the venture forecast, cash outlook, partner-obligation monitoring, and actual performance explanation against the investment case. Feed venture forecasts into Group planning from the outset. Reconcile financial, economic, and operating measures with Pillars 1, 3, and 4; maintain one controlled model and a clear record of changes. Agree staged funding, cash limits, and milestones. Recommend whether to continue, scale, change direction, fund further, or stop, based on evidence rather than sunk costs. Support the business leader with financial insight and challenge while preserving their accountability for customers, product, sales, operations, and delivery.
Handover to Finance Operations and FP&A/Platforms
Design the destination and handover criteria at establishment. Transfer operational finance to Pillar 1 or its agreed provider as processes stabilize; do not wait for the venture to be classified as core. Transfer recurring forecasting, performance analysis, and business partnering to Pillar 4 once the model, operating drivers, and reporting processes are sufficiently established and maintainable. Secure documented acceptance of responsibilities, capacity, and residual risks. Handover evidence must cover reliable closes and controls, reconciled actuals, documented models, agreements, funding obligations, training, and named owners. Base readiness on operational and financial maturity, not profitability alone. For a JV, the handover may concern Confluent's investment and shareholder reporting rather than ownership of the JV's entire finance function.
Governance, Risk, and Approvals
Prepare decision-ready proposals for the Group CFO and relevant boards or authorized bodies, respecting delegated authority, reserved matters, and entity-specific interests. Keep Group analysis separate from legally effective entity decisions. No model or Group recommendation automatically authorizes an investment, fee, borrowing, guarantee, or distribution. Maintain related-party, conflict-of-interest, and approval discipline, with a linked record from proposal through agreements, implementation, and monitoring.
Team Leadership and Capability Building
Build a repeatable venture-finance approach with reusable models, structuring checklists, approval papers, launch plans, and handover standards. Prioritize the venture portfolio and agree on resourcing with the Group CFO. Coordinate internal specialists and manage external advisers against defined deliverables, timelines, and budgets. Develop and transfer knowledge so ventures do not depend indefinitely on Pillar 2. Review investment outcomes and successful handovers, including value protected by declining or stopping an unsuitable investment.
Experience and Qualifications
Essential: CA(SA) or an equivalent recognized professional accounting/finance qualification. Leadership and commercial execution experience. At least 4 years of experience in a similar and senior-level role involving new joint ventures, contractual partnerships, subsidiaries, and internally developed businesses, including selected international opportunities. A relevant accounting or finance qualification, supported by substantive hands-on financial leadership and commercial execution experience. A demonstrable track record of establishing a new business, JV, partnership, or subsidiary beyond the investment case and agreement stage into a functioning finance operation. Strong integrated financial modelling, forecasting, cash management, and investment appraisal capability, with personal ownership of the underlying work. Experience translating commercial economics into funding and contractual requirements, working effectively with legal and other specialist advisers. Evidence of managing early-stage financial performance and transferring models, processes, and responsibilities to permanent finance owners. Credibility presenting recommendations to senior executives, boards, or investment committees and influencing partners and cross-functional teams without relying on reporting lines.
Strongly Preferred: CA(SA) or an equivalent recognized professional accounting qualification. Financial services, consumer finance, insurance, fintech, or comparable regulated-business experience. Cross-border structuring, partner negotiation, and venture funding experience, with the judgement to involve specialist advisers early. Familiarity with customer-lifetime models, cohort economics, shared-platform costs, and the distinction between capital-light fee income and retained financial risk.
Candidate Profile
The Head of Emerging Business Finance combines investment judgment with the practical ability to build and transfer a finance operation. The successful candidate will demonstrate:
Intellectual honesty about the investment case Tests assumptions, exposes downside risks, and distinguishes a credible business from an attractive presentation. Can recommend stopping an initiative as confidently as scaling it.
Hands-on ownership from model to operation Is comfortable building the model, shaping commercial terms, and resolving practical launch issues. Does not regard adviser coordination or transaction signing as sufficient delivery.
Commercial judgment and partner credibility Understands both the venture's viability and Confluent's return. Negotiates firmly and fairly, while respecting counterparties, specialist responsibilities, and decision-making authority.
High tolerance for ambiguity Creates proportionate structure without waiting for perfect information. Makes uncertainty explicit and adapts as evidence emerges, rather than imposing mature-business bureaucracy prematurely.
A customer-lifetime lens Recognizes the value of shared acquisition, routing, retention, and cross-product relationships. Commercial choices must support appropriate customer outcomes, not simply maximize an immediate sale.
Reconciliation and successful handover Connects the model, agreements, accounting, and performance reporting. Builds documented processes and capable receiving owners, measuring success by what continues to work after handover.
Culture and Working Style
Confluent's culture is direct, pace-conscious, and ambition-led. Candour and constructive pushback are expected; disagreement is welcomed when it improves a decision. The Head of Emerging Business Finance works with the Group CFO, business leaders, and partners to build enduring value while treating clients and counterparties fairly.
The Head of Emerging Business Finance must be comfortable
ā¢ Being challenged in real time on assumptions, funding, returns, and delivery risks. ā¢ Pushing back on the Group CFO, CEO, or venture sponsor when the evidence warrants it. ā¢ Disagreeing with operating heads, partners, and pillar peers without losing the working relationship. ā¢ Working transparently across shareholders with differing interests, and transferring responsibility rather than retaining it unnecessarily.
