Senior Accountant - IFRS

About Pleo Messy spend management is tricky business. And tedious processes are a lose-lose situation for all involved, not just finance. At Pleo, we’re changing that. We build spend solutions that make managing money seamless, empowering, and surprisingly effective for finance teams and employees alike – with a vision to help all businesses ‘go beyond’. The word ‘Pleo’ actually means ‘more than you’d expect’, and living by that mantra has been the secret to our success over the last 10 years. Now, we’re at a pivotal moment in our journey; every move we make has a direct impact on our 40,000+ customers, our business, and our collective success. We need people who take pride in uncovering customer needs, who turn complex problems into simple solutions, challenge the way things are done (respectfully), and always aim high. With great ambitions driving us forward, we can’t say we’ve got this whole thing figured out. And frankly, that’s half the fun! What we can say is that we’re a driven, progressive, and, importantly, a kind bunch of 850+ people from over 100 nationalities, all committed to delivering the future of business spending, together. About the role We’re looking for a Senior Accountant / Financial Reporting specialist to join our Finance Team at Pleo. In this role, you’ll help strengthen core accounting execution, audit management, and monthly consolidated results analysis while being part of a high-growth environment as we scale our financial infrastructure. If you’re excited about leveraging AI and automation to redefine modern accounting with a strong focus on IFRS excellence and financial rigor, then this is the opportunity for you! Who you’ll be working with and reporting to You’ll report to our Accounting Associate Director and work closely with teams across the Finance organisation. You will be part of a team dedicated to technical rigor and operational efficiency, partnering with cross-functional departments to elevate our accounting processes to the next level. What you’ll be doing As a Senior Accountant, you will: • Prepare and post journal entries, perform balance sheet reconciliations, and drive high standards for period close improving quality and speed. • Own the preparation of audit schedules, coordinate responses to requests, and drive the closure of audit questions to ensure a predictable, well-documented process. • Deep dive into monthly results, flagging risks, unusual transactions, and key movements while providing decision-ready insights for finance leadership. • Identify accounting risks, implement practical mitigations, and strengthen internal controls to ensure our processes are scalable and accurate. • Actively leverage AI tools to improve efficiency and consistency, identifying opportunities to standardise and simplify recurring accounting work. What you bring You’ll thrive in this role if you have: • 6+ years of experience with a strong ability to apply IFRS in real-world scenarios. • Comfort working with consolidated results, analysing variances, and exercising complex accounting estimates and judgments. • Proven experience managing audits end-to-end or acting as the primary finance contact for external auditors. • A track record (or clear potential) of using AI and automation to improve accounting outcomes and efficiency. • The ability to operate effectively in a fast-changing environment with an “ownership mindset” and excellent judgment. • Strong ability to translate complex accounting issues into scalable process improvements and clear insights for stakeholders. Why is this role a good fit for you This role is a good fit for you if: • You want genuine agency at group level rather than executing instructions handed down by a central team • You’d rather design a process than inherit one, and you want to see your own work implemented • You like variety. This is a different topic most days, not a fixed monthly cycle This role is not a good fit for you if: • You want a settled, mature environment where the process is set and the day looks the same. That’s the clearest reason this role doesn’t work out for people • You need stable priorities. It’s volatile here. Several topics run at once, progress depends on other people, and priorities can change overnight • You want to stay inside accounting. A large part of the job is working with teams outside Finance and with external advisors in each country How you’ll develop in this role In your first 6 – 12 months at Pleo, you’ll: • Lead the Audit Readiness initiative to drive impact in our year-end execution and documentation standards. • Collaborate with the Finance team to embed AI-forward ways of working, automating manual workflows to increase team capacity. • Grow your skills in process improvements and financial analysis, taking on new challenges as the company continues to scale across our legal entity markets. • We’re committed to helping you develop your career, whether that means taking on bigger leadership projects, mastering the intersection of AI and Finance, or deepening your expertise in complex consolidated reporting. The location This role is hybrid (on average, 3 days a week in the office) and can be located in either our Lisbon or Madrid office. Show me the benefits! 💳 Your own Pleo card (no more out-of-pocket spending!) 🍜 Lunch is on us for your work days – enjoy catered meals or receive a lunch allowance based on your local office 🏥 Comprehensive private healthcare – depending on your location, coverage options include Vitality, Alan or Médis 🌴 We offer 25 days of holiday + your public holidays 🏠 For our Team, we offer both hybrid and fully remote working options 🏖️ Option to purchase 5 additional days of holiday through a salary sacrifice ❤️‍🩹 We use MyndUp to give our employees access to free mental health and well-being support with great success so far 👶 Paid parental leave – we want to make sure that we’re supportive of families and help you feel that you don’t have to compromise your family due to work The interview process We want to ensure you are set-up for success and understand what will be expected of you. If your application is successful, our interview process is as follows: • Intro call: A 30-minute chat with our Talent Partner to discuss the role and your background. • Hiring manager interview: A conversation with our Accounting Associate Director covering your technical accounting and IFRS experience. • Team panel and Pleo challenge: You’ll meet the hiring manager, his manager and a peer from the team. The challenge is presented live in the session, so there’s nothing to prepare or send in advance. We’re looking at how you handle complexity, new areas and stakeholders. • Final interview: A closing conversation, used where it’s helpful for both sides. Transparency is important to us so we also wanted to share some insights about what we’re looking for in applications to ensure you can set yourself up for success! Last time we hired this role, we received a lot of applications but can only interview a finite number of people. Some of the key reasons why previous candidates didn’t make it past the application screening stage include: • CV writing and content: we receive a lot of CVs, and many of them are AI-generated. We love seeing people leverage AI—it’s a big focus for us internally too—but without human intervention, these CVs can sometimes become generic and fail to show a candidate in the best light. What we’re really looking for is the specific details of real impact that only you know from your previous experience. A top tip from us is to use the “Achieved X, as measured by Y, by doing Z” formula (credit: Laszlo Bock, ~2014) to give a really clear picture of what you’ve worked on. A final note: including links to your previous companies’ websites is a huge help and allows us to truly understand your background! • Application care: every single application we receive is reviewed by a human (yes, hundreds of them) because we believe that candidates’ efforts should be matched by an equal level of human care. This means that we expect a similar level of attention put into your application. Read and answer the application questions carefully, they make a huge difference in our decision-making process. • Profile to role fit: highlight most important aspects of the role, points that might get misunderstood, any specific industry requirements etc. About your application • English first. Since it’s our company language, please submit your application in English. You’ll be using it a lot if you join us. • A fair look for everyone. Our talent team reads every single application to ensure the process is fair. To keep things running smoothly, we only accept applications through our system—our support team can’t pass on calls or emails. • Diversity drives us. We can only reach our goals if our team reflects the world around us. That starts with you hitting apply, even if you don’t tick every single box. We encourage people from all backgrounds and experiences to join us. • Interview at your best. We want you to feel comfortable throughout the process. If you have any accessibility requirements or need a specific format, email [email protected]. We’ll design a process that works for you. • Your data is safe. When you apply, we process your personal data as a data processor. For more information on how Pleo processes personal data, read our Privacy Policy here. • Applying for multiple roles? Nothing is stopping you, and we assess every role independently. However, we do look for alignment, so make sure you can explain why your interest and experience are right for each specific role. • Reapplying. If you’re applying for the same role again, please wait six months from your last decision before hitting submit.