At least 5 years of accounting experience, with a strong grounding in audit (Big 4 or equivalent) and in-house experience in a scale-up or multi-entity group.
Prior experience leading a small team and an interest in helping people grow.
Strong accounting knowledge.
Comfort with an ERP and advanced spreadsheets; NetSuite experience is a plus.
Use of AI in daily work.
Fluency in French and English.
Strong organizational skills and rigorous attention to detail.
Responsibilities
Manage and develop a team of accountants.
Hire new team members and shape the team’s structure as the company enters new countries and businesses.
Coordinate external accounting and tax firms, holding them to clear deadlines and quality standards.
Run the monthly and annual close across all entities using a clear calendar and checklist, delivering accurate and complete figures on time.
Own statutory financial statements under local GAAP.
Manage intercompany flows and reconciliations and prepare data for group consolidation.
Review balance sheet reconciliations monthly and clear old or unusual items.
Manage inventory accounting, including acquisition and refurbishment costs, stock valuation, write-downs, and physical counts in UpCenters.
Match payments from payment providers and buy-now-pay-later partners, and account for returns, warranties, and trade-ins.
Keep supplier invoices, payment runs, and collections under control.
Oversee VAT and sales tax across five countries, including the margin scheme for second-hand goods, EU OSS, and US sales tax.
Work with external advisors on corporate income tax, transfer pricing documentation, and tax filings.
Serve as the main contact for statutory auditors and during tax audits.
Strengthen internal controls, including segregation of duties, approval workflows, documented processes, and accounting policies.
Lead projects to shorten the close and automate reporting in NetSuite and related tools.
Partner with FP&A, Operations, and leadership on projects such as new market launches, fundraising due diligence, and system changes.
Desired Qualifications
Exposure to inventory accounting and multi-country VAT.
Experience in retail, e-commerce, or second-hand goods.
German or Dutch language skills.
NetSuite experience.
DSCG or DEC qualification.
About Upway Upway’s mission is to make electric mobility accessible to everyone. We buy second-hand e-bikes, refurbish them in our UpCenters and resell them online. We’ve already put more than 200,000 e-bikes back on the road in 🇫🇷 France, 🇩🇪 Germany, 🇧🇪 Belgium, 🇳🇱 the Netherlands and 🇺🇸 the United States. Our goal: 1 million e-bikes back on the road by 2030.
Why this role is special
You set the standards. Accounting at Upway is moving from “getting it done” to “built to scale.” The close calendar, controls and policies you put in place will become the backbone of a group targeting 1M bikes by 2030.
Accounting with real operations behind it. Physical stock in several warehouses, second-hand VAT schemes, refurbishment costs, returns and warranties across 5 countries. The problems are concrete, and they directly affect our margins.
International from day one. Five countries on two continents, with new markets and new businesses coming. You’ll build the multi-entity setup as we grow.
Automation is part of the job. We expect you to automate our accounting and reporting processes
Lead the team
Manage and develop a team of 4 accountants: 3 senior accountants, 2 junior accountants.
Hire new team members and shape the team’s structure as Upway enters new countries and businesses.
Coordinate external accounting and tax firms in and hold them to clear deadlines and quality standards.
Own the close and statutory reporting
Run the monthly and annual close across all entities using a clear calendar and checklist and deliver accurate, complete figures on time.
Own the statutory financial statements under local GAAP.
Manage intercompany flows and reconciliations and prepare data for group consolidation.
Review balance sheet reconciliations monthly and clear old or unusual items.
Get our business-specific accounting right
Inventory: acquisition and refurbishment costs, stock valuation, write-downs and physical counts in our UpCenters.
Revenue and cash: matching payments from our payment providers and buy-now-pay-later partners, and accounting for returns, warranties and trade-ins.
AP/AR: keep supplier invoices, payment runs and collections under control.
Tax and compliance
Oversee VAT and sales tax across 5 countries, including the margin scheme for second-hand goods, EU OSS and US sales tax.
Work with external advisors on corporate income tax, transfer pricing documentation and tax filings.
Be the main contact for statutory auditors and during tax audits.
Raise standards
Strengthen internal controls: segregation of duties, approval workflows, documented processes and accounting policies.
Lead projects to shorten the close and automate reporting in NetSuite and the tools around it.
Partner with FP&A, Operations and leadership on projects like new market launches, fundraising due diligence and system changes.
Experience: +5 years years in accounting, with a strong grounding in audit (Big 4 or equivalent) and in-house experience in a scale-up or multi-entity group.
Management: you’ve already led a small team and enjoy helping people grow.
Technical depth: strong Accounting knowledge. Exposure to inventory accounting and multi-country VAT is a real advantage, as is retail, e-commerce or second-hand goods experience.
Education: a Master’s in accounting or finance, or a business school degree. DSCG or DEC is a plus.
Tools and AI: comfortable with an ERP (NetSuite is a plus) and advanced spreadsheets. You already use AI in your daily work.
Languages: fluent French and English. German or Dutch is a plus.
How you work: Strong organizational skills, rigorous attention to detail and excellent communication abilities to work effectively with both finance and non-finance teams.