Guided tour · Step 1 of 5
The brief
This is the mandate, captured the way you'd hand it to an associate — role, company context, the dimensions that matter. Everything that follows is downstream of these words.
The mandate
Chief Financial Officer
NorthVale Therapeutics · UK pre-Series A oncology biotech
A hands-on financial architect to drive the Series A from the inside and build the finance function from scratch — someone who has actually owned a cap table and sat across from VCs at a UK drug-development company.
A 60-second walkthrough of the filters & scoring behind the list.
①Must clearpass / fail gates
- Worked inside a drug-development biotech — not pharma services, medtech or healthtech
- Holds a senior finance leadership role (CFO, FD, VP Finance)
- Time spent at an early-stage, venture-backed company
- Company headquartered in the UK
②Then scored onweighted to 100%
- Fundraising & M&A40%
Led Seed/Series A rounds; data rooms, VC pitches, M&A
- UK Biotech Ops35%
R&D tax credits, grants, UK biotech ecosystem
- C-Level Leadership25%
Board-facing CFO who built a finance function
- Company
- NorthVale Therapeutics
- Location
- United Kingdom (UK footprint, with geographic hiring scope in London/UK)
- Product
- Developing first-in-class small-molecule therapeutics in oncology.
- Business model
- Early-stage, pre-revenue biotechnology company focused on drug development, currently advancing its lead programme toward clinical candidate nomination.
- Funding stage
- Pre-Series A. The company recently completed a successful £12m pre-Series A raise and is actively preparing for a Series A fundraise and potential future acquisition.
- Candidate pitch
- This is a high-impact opportunity to join a well-funded, cutting-edge biotech startup at a pivotal inflection point. The incoming CFO will sit on the Senior Management Team (SMT) and play a foundational role in shaping the company's financial strategy, driving a Series A round, and directly influencing the company's trajectory toward clinical stages and potential acquisition.
- Title
- Chief Financial Officer (CFO)
- Seniority
- C-level
- Why this role exists
- Following a £12m raise, NorthVale requires a strategic yet hands-on financial leader to own the full spectrum of financial activities, build the infrastructure for scale, and spearhead the upcoming Series A fundraise and potential acquisition positioning.
- Key responsibilities
- This role involves partnering with the CEO and SMT on overall financial strategy, owning the Series A fundraising process, aligning R&D budgets, managing UK-specific financial compliance, overseeing cash runway and treasury, handling HR ownership, and delivering management and statutory reporting to the Board.