Koala is a global furniture brand bringing Australian design and innovation to the world. We create forward-thinking products that solve problems for people and homes everywhere, driven by our purpose to make the world a more comfortable place.

We’ve always believed in doing things differently, whether in the way we develop products, how we do people and culture, or the way we bring the brand to life. That mindset has fuelled our growth, helping us disrupt categories in ways that are creative, bold and often unexpected. While we’re a household name in Australia, our journey on the global stage is only just beginning.

Since launching in 2015, our furniture has reached homes across Australia, Japan, the US and the UK. As a B Corp-certified, customer-obsessed, and data-led company, we’re committed to revolutionising furniture for generations to come through design, innovation, and meaningful sustainability.

Role Description 

Your primary mission in this role is to drive profitable growth by shaping pricing, marketing and investment decisions and owning delivery against financial targets. As the vital link between Finance and our Commercial teams, you provide the analytical "truth" that drives performance. You translate complex data into clear commercial narratives, ensuring our local strategy is backed by sound financial logic and a relentless focus on sustainable growth.  

Key Responsibilities 

1. Commercial Partnership & Decision Support

• Trading Performance & Influence: Actively participate in weekly trading meetings to influence real-time decisions on promotional strategy, pricing, and marketing spend allocation. You are responsible for ensuring these levers are optimised to protect discount rates and improve overall Contribution Margin.

• P&L Performance & Visibility: Shape performance by ensuring the relevant stakeholders have clear, actionable insight into what is driving results and where to intervene. 

• Investment Optimisation & Metrics: Actively steer marketing investment to maximise ROI and profitable growth. Partner with Growth and Marketing to shape spend allocation using a deep understanding of digital marketing funnels, specifically Meta/Google metrics, analysing drivers such as Marketing ROI per Order, Marketing Ratio, dMER, AOV and Orders per Customer. 

• Supply & Demand Connection: Drive inventory efficiency by ensuring commercial decisions are made with a clear understanding of stock health, ensuring our promotional calendar and demand forecasts are aligned with stock availability.

• Strategic Partnership & Exposure: To drive performance, you will partner closely with the COO, VP of Fulfillment, and the Marketing, B2B, and Retail teams, providing the financial rigour and transparency needed to support their decision-making. 

2. Budgeting & Forecasting Ownership

• Forecast Lead: Set the financial trajectory for the business by owning the end-to-end budget and forecasting process. You’ll coordinate commercial inputs from across the business and translate them into a high-integrity financial forecast.

• Margin Management: Forecast and manage Product Margins across COGS and Logistics costs. Work with Global Product to ensure product roadmaps and margin expectations are aligned with market realities.

• Operating Cost Oversight: Maintain a watchful eye on local operating costs, ensuring we stay lean while we scale.

• Global Integration: Represent the business in global financial planning, ensuring local performance and outlook are clearly understood and appropriately reflected in group decisions. Act as the key conduit to the Central FP&A team, ensuring performance and forecasts are accurately integrated into global reporting cycles. 

3. Financial Integrity & Performance Analysis

• Month-End Collaboration:  Ensure financial results are accurate and decision-ready. You partner with the accounting team through month-end to ensure costs and performance are correctly captured, providing leadership with reliable numbers they can confidently act on.

• Pre-Close Insights: Ensure leadership has clarity on performance drivers before results are finalised. You review metrics pre-close to identify and interpret key variances, enabling timely commercial responses and well-understood outcomes once numbers are locked.

Ideal background

• 5+ years in a Finance Business Partnering or Commercial Finance role, ideally within a fast-paced E-commerce or Retail environment with a proven track record of influencing senior stakeholders and delivering measurable business results.

• High proficiency in data analysis and the application of AI tools to drive faster, smarter decision-making.

• You understand how a DTC business moves. You have a solid grasp of digital marketing metrics and how they flow through to the bottom line.

• You thrive in a fast-paced environment and love finding the "next" angle to drive business performance.

• You can explain complex financial concepts to non-finance stakeholders with ease and confidence.

• CA/CPA qualified (or equivalent) is preferred.

Treehouse Perks and Privileges

Koala is only great when its employees are happy and we’re one happy bunch!

• Hybrid working - We’re mixing it up with ~3 days back in the Alexandria Treehouse (office) and work from bed/home (WFB)

• Take a break - Generous time off - volunteer, parental, Koala life leave and more to help keep your work-life balance, balanced.

  Treehouse goods - Fully stocked kitchen with an emphasis on healthy local produce, think bougie brekky, salad bar, kombucha on tap, monthly barbies and more.

• Pet-friendly - The Koala Treehouse is as pet-friendly as they get!

• Surprise & delight - The two-word combo at the core of everything we do. All Koalas can expect to enjoy free Koala products with ‘mates rates’ for your friends and fam.

• Support & wellbeing - Our employee experience respects and embraces all families, formed, found and evolving. You’ll have access to our Employee Assistance Program, which includes unlimited sessions for financial, work, relationship, family or wellbeing support.

• Accelerate your career - via our Learning Management platform Juno, as well as individual and team growth budgets and dedicated days.

• Community & connection - We believe that simply doing ‘no harm’ isn’t good enough So, how are we doing our part? BCorp Certified, WWF Partnership, volunteer days, a member of SoftLanding, 1% and so much more.

All in all, the Koala Kommunity is a great place to hang out and belong to!

Koalaties We Look For

At Koala, we do things a little differently and we don’t shy away from the fact that we expect a lot from our employees! We are ambitious. We are curious. We are selfless. We want you to challenge expectations, always look to make a difference and give us something different from the norm. We want people that bring great energy, that have a long-game focus and are always trying to find new angles and approaches to the way we work. We're a team full of entrepreneurial spirit and have a relentless focus on 'what's next' but while always reviewing 'what's been done' and learning, growing and adapting. We're confident, but NEVER arrogant and we adapt to change like Steve Smith under a short ball. Honesty and empathy drive everything we do, as well as a total focus on exceeding our customers’ expectations. So if you feel like this could be you... well what the bloody hell are you waiting for? Drop us a line, and let's see what you've got! ;)

There’s no such thing as a ‘perfect’ candidate, Koala is a place where everyone has opportunity. So however you identify and whatever background you bring with you, please apply if this is a role that would make you excited to come into work every day. We’re an equal opportunity employer, and recognise that a diverse workforce is crucial to our success as a business.

To read more, check out our careers, LinkedIn, or the great work we do with Work180.