Finance Lead (Inventory & Stock Optimisation)
REF: KK701
Market Related Salary
Cape Town CBD, Western Cape
Reporting to the Head of Finance, the successful candidate will be responsible for the full financial ownership of inventory across the businesses. This includes maintaining accurate stock valuations and reconciled positions, managing system integrations into the accounting environment, driving automation and process overhauls and acting as the primary Finance Business Partner to the commercial heads. This position requires an equal balance of deep technical accounting rigour and commercial, AI-driven strategic thinking.
RESPONSIBILITIES:
Inventory Financial Management:
Full financial ownership of inventory
Maintaining accurate, timely, and reconciled stock positions across all warehouses, fulfilment centres and in-transit nodes
Managing and reporting on stock cost — including landed cost, cost of sales, provisions and write-downs
Owning the month-end inventory close process
Ensuring correct accounting treatment of all inventory movements and associated costs in line with IFRS, with specific application of IAS 2 (Inventories)
Maintaining and continuously improving on internal controls over the full inventory cycle
WACP Management and Valuation:
Managing, maintaining and updating Weighted Average Cost Price (WACP) calculations to ensure inventory is accurately valued at all times
Owning the WACP automation project end-to-end: design, development, testing, and implementation of automated WACP calculation processes
Investigating and resolving WACP discrepancies and ensuring alignment between operational stock systems and the accounting ledger
Maintaining fully documented WACP calculation models with audit-ready supporting workings
Owning fully landed cost prices and associated costs related to imported goods
System Integrations and Reconciliations:
Managing and overseeing the stock integration between operational systems and the accounting system, ensuring accurate and timely posting of all stock transactions
Investigating and resolving failed or erroneous stock integrations
Working with IT, Data, and Operations teams to improve data quality and system integration architecture across all inventory touchpoints
Building and maintaining automated reconciliation frameworks that flag exceptions in real time, without reliance on a fully integrated ERP
Stock Loss and Shrinkage:
Identifying, quantifying and investigating stock losses across the fulfilment network
Building robust loss-attribution frameworks — distinguish between theft, damage, system error and process failure
Performing and reviewing shrinkage and obsolescence provision calculations; ensure all provisions are adequately supported, documented, and correctly recorded
Partnering with Operations and Logistics to drive root cause resolution and financial recovery
Tracking shrinkage trends and surface financial risk to leadership
Providing support with the financial implications of stock positioning decisions — open-to-buy, liquidation, aged inventory and excess stock
Providing financial modelling and scenario analysis to guide stock optimisation trade-offs: holding cost vs. markdown risk vs. stockout cost
Monitoring and reporting on slow-moving, aged, and excess inventory — drive commercial conversations with Buyers and Category Managers
Supporting budgeting and forecasting processes with robust inventory assumptions and cost modelling
Cost Management:
Tracking and analysing all inventory-related costs: storage fees, inbound logistics, fulfilment costs allocated to inventory, write-offs and provisions
Challenging cost structures and identifying savings opportunities
Ensuring correct IFRS treatment of all inventory-related costs and movements
Reporting and Analytics:
Designing and owning the inventory finance reporting suite — dashboards, KPI scorecards, exception reports, and executive-level summaries
Building reporting infrastructure that works in the absence of a fully integrated ERP — using data pipelines and BI tools to connect fragmented data sources into coherent financial views
Providing weekly, monthly, and ad hoc stock reporting to the Head of Finance, CFO and Commercial leadership
Developing and maintaining comprehensive inventory health reporting: stock levels, movement, ageing, and risk
Audit and Compliance:
Leading and managing the year-end stock count process: planning, coordination with operational teams, counting supervision, and full reconciliation of count results to accounting records
Managing and responding to external and internal audit queries related to inventory — maintain audit-ready working papers and supporting documentation at all times
Ensuring all inventory accounting policies and procedures are compliant and consistently applied
Owning the inventory controls environment; designing and enforcing policies that prevent loss, misstatement and system error
Process Overhaul and Automation:
Conducting a full audit of existing inventory finance processes — identifying manual, duplicated or high-risk steps
Designing and implementing automated replacements: reconciliation bots, automated exception alerts, scheduled reporting pipelines, AI-assisted anomaly detection
Championing a culture of continuous improvement
Leading automation projects within the finance context from design through to implementation and handover
Accurate and timely stock integration reconciliations between operational and accounting systems
Fully documented and automated WACP calculation model
IAS 2-compliant inventory accounting policies and procedures
Monthly and year-end inventory financial reports
Completed and fully reconciled stock count files
Audit-ready working papers and responses to all audit queries
Automated month-end inventory reporting packs
Support and document shrinkage and obsolescence provision calculations
Live inventory health dashboards and KPI scorecards for management and CFO
REQUIREMENTS:
Bachelor’s degree in Accounting, Finance, or a related field
CA (SA) or CIMA advantageous
Strong working knowledge of inventory management at scale-essential
4 to 7 years’ experience in e-commerce, retail, FMCG, or a data-intensive commercial environment
Demonstrable experience in inventory accounting, cost accounting, or supply chain finance
Hands-on experience with stock and ERP system integrations and reconciliations
Proven track record of working in environments without fully integrated ERP systems — you know how to build financial rigour from imperfect data
Experience designing or managing automation projects within a finance context
Experience as a Finance business partner to commercial or operational teams
Advanced data analytics: SQL, Python (highly advantageous), Power BI / Looker / Tableau
Experience building or working with data pipelines, API integrations, or automated reporting tools
Familiarity with AI tools and their application in finance workflows: AI-assisted forecasting, anomaly detection, process automation
Strong Excel and Google Sheets modelling skills
Understanding of ERP and WMS integrations and data architecture is a strong advantage
Solid understanding of inventory management principles