Business Manager Portugal (Responsável… at Timeleft · Lisbon

⌘Role Overview

Timeleft has a Portuguese subsidiary, Hello Stranger Timeleft Portugal, Lda: it carries marketing investment, employs people, works with freelancers, and manages its own bank accounts and accounting with a local certified accountant.

You are the person who makes sure the Portuguese entity runs: you close the books on time with the accountant, you deliver P&L and cash position, you pay suppliers and people, you produce reporting for the investors , and when anyone asks a question about this company, you are the one who answers it.

This is a finance and administration role with real ownership of a live entity. You report to the VP Finance in Paris, and work directly with the Head of People and the CEO.

Your mission: make the Portuguese entity reliable and documented: financially, administratively and legally.

Employment type: Part-time — 80% FTE (full-time equivalent)

⌘Key Responsibilities

1. Own the monthly close and financial reporting of the Portuguese entity

• Close the month — accruals, supplier invoices, payroll entries, intercompany elements, bank reconciliations.
• Manage the accountant — own the relationship with our external accounting provider and our certified accountant: brief them, set expectations, review what they produce, challenge what looks wrong.
• Produce the entity P&L every month, with month-over-month evolution and comments : material variances, their cause, your recommendations.
• Reconcile the bank accounts and explain every material movement.
• Prepare the statutory accounts and annual filings with the accountant, on the Portuguese calendar (financial year closes 31 December).
• Maintain the audit trail — every euro in and out of this entity must be documented, justified and retrievable.

2. Supervise payments and treasury

• Control the payments made from the Portuguese entity: invoices issued for the correct entity, amount matches spend, payment executed on time, correctly booked.
• Supervise freelancer and supplier payments — verify invoices, prepare payment runs, confirm execution, resolve disputes.
• Manage the banking relationship — account setup, payment limits, user rights, onboarding of signatories, escalation when a transfer is blocked.
• Monitor entity cash — available balance, committed spend, upcoming obligations. Flag any risk of shortfall before it becomes one.
• Maintain the payment calendar so no deadline (Meta, payroll, tax, social security) is missed.

3. Supervise the EOR employees and freelancers on the entity

• Verify monthly that every EOR employee and freelancer attached to the Portuguese entity has been paid correctly and on time, via Deel.
• Interface with Deel on contracts, amendments, onboarding, offboarding and invoicing for the Portuguese entity.
• Support the setup of local Portuguese payroll with the Head of People and the accountant, then run it once live.
• Hold a monthly review with the Head of People: headcount, contractors, open issues.

4. Own local administration, compliance and corporate housekeeping

• Be the Portuguese-language interface for the accountant, the bank, Autoridade Tributária, Segurança Social and any local counterparty.
• Handle the entity's administrative obligations — registrations, declarations, certificates, RCBE, certidão permanente renewals.
• Manage the registered office in practice — collect and process mail, handle in-person steps, keep the corporate file complete.
• Maintain the corporate document set — statutes, minutes book, powers of attorney, intercompany agreements, contracts: organised, current, retrievable.
• Handle Portuguese contracts and suppliers — review, track, renew, archive.

5. Advise on local budget allocation

• Track budget consumption by cost centre, with landing forecasts against plan.
• Present variances and their causes to the VP Finance.
• Produce a formal allocation recommendation each quarter: where the budget should go next, with the reasoning — plus an ad-hoc one whenever consumption or performance diverges materially from plan.

6. Contribute to cross-entity finance and admin projects

• Support FP&A work with the VP Finance — cost-centre budget reviews, landing forecasts, reporting improvements.
• Take on group administrative work where capacity allows — finance operations, HR administration, workflow documentation, tooling.
• Document what you build — every process you set up should be written down so it survives you.

⌘Expected Outcomes

• Monthly close delivered on time, twelve months out of twelve — target D+5
• Zero late payment on Meta invoices, EOR payroll, freelancers, tax and social security.
• Zero unexplained bank movement at month end.
• A monthly entity report produced and read by the VP Finance, Head of People and CEO: P&L, cash position, budget consumption, written comments.
• A complete, current corporate and compliance file — any document requested produced within 48 hours.
• Statutory accounts filed on time, with no qualification and no penalty.
• Local Portuguese payroll live and running, with all eligible contracts migrated from EOR to local contracts.
• A documented operating manual for the entity — close checklist, payment calendar, compliance calendar, supplier list, contact list.
• Budget consumption tracked against plan with monthly variance analysis, and four quarterly allocation recommendations submitted.

⌘Skills & Competencies

Must have:

• Accounting fundamentals — you can build and read a balance sheet and a P&L, and you know what sits behind each line.
• Monthly close experience — you have been accountable for a close cycle, not just contributed to one.
• Bank reconciliation and treasury basics — payment runs, cash monitoring, banking platforms.
• Portuguese accounting, tax and social security framework — working knowledge (SNC, IVA, IRC, Segurança Social).
• Working with an external accountant — you know how to brief one, review their output and challenge.
• Excel or Google Sheets at a real level — pivots, lookups, building a model someone else can use.
• Fluent Portuguese and fluent English, written and spoken. Both non-negotiable.

Soft skills:

• Rigour — you reconcile to the cent, and you notice when something does not tie.
• Autonomy — the deadlines are given, the method is not.
• Direct communication — you surface problems early, with a proposed solution attached.
• Ownership without a manual — half of what you need does not exist yet. You build it.
• Discretion — you handle salary, banking and investor information.
• Comfort with senior exposure — you present to the VP Finance and the CEO directly, in English, monthly.

Nice to have:

• Experience in a startup or scale-up operating across multiple countries.
• Exposure to intercompany flows, transfer pricing or cross-border recharges.
• Familiarity with Deel, Qonto, Finthesis
• Experience with investor or fund reporting.
• Audit background (Big Four or local firm), or a first experience in a chartered accountancy practice.
• Automation instinct — you have used scripts or AI tools to remove repetitive work from your own job.

**⌘**Required experience

Must have

• 4 to 6 years of experience in accounting, finance operations, or administrative and financial management.
• At least one experience where you were personally accountable for a closing cycle and for the accuracy of what was filed.
• Direct experience dealing with external counterparties — accountants, banks, tax authorities.
• Degree in accounting, finance, management or economics, or an equivalent professional path.
• Based in the Lisbon area, able to be physically present weekly.
• Fluent Portuguese and fluent English.

Nice to have

• Experience as the sole finance person in a small entity or a foreign subsidiary.
• TOC / Contabilista Certificado qualification, or progress towards it.
• Experience setting up payroll, banking or accounting for a new entity.
• Experience in a consumer, marketplace, events or hospitality business.

Deliberately not required

• Marketing, growth or commercial experience — this is not that role.
• Team management experience — this role has no direct reports.
• Prior general management or director-level experience.

⌘Objectives for the first 3 months

Month 1 — Take control of the file

• Map the entity — read every corporate, banking, accounting and contractual document. Produce a written inventory of what exists, what is missing, what is out of date.
• Meet every counterparty — accountant, Joongle, bank contacts, Deel account manager, plus the internal owners (VP Finance, Head of People, CEO).
• Build the calendars — monthly close, payments, compliance and filings for the next 12 months.
• Deliver a written diagnostic of the entity's administrative and financial state, ranked by risk.

Month 2 — Close a month yourself

• Run the monthly close end to end with the accountant, and deliver the first entity report: P&L, cash, budget consumption, comments.
• Take over payment supervision — Meta invoice checked and booked, freelancer and supplier payments verified, EOR payroll confirmed with the Head of People.
• Clear the gaps from the month-1 diagnostic — missing documents obtained, expired items renewed, corporate file completed.
• Set up the monthly rituals with the VP Finance, the Head of People and the CEO.

Month 3 — Make it repeatable

• Second close delivered on time, faster than the first, with a documented checklist anyone could follow.
• First investor reporting pack prepared and reviewed.
• Budget consumption tracking live by cost centre, with the first formal allocation recommendation submitted.
• A written operating manual for the entity — close, payments, compliance, contacts.
• A prioritised list of what you would automate next, with your reasoning.

⌘Recruitment process

Introduction Interview (30 min) with Talent Acquisition Lead

Business Interview (30 min) with VP Finance

Case Study (take-home, ~3 hours)

Case Study Q&A (45min) with VP Finance

Final Interview (30min) with CEO

We might ask for references.