The Finance
Shield.

The formal title for this role is Group Finance Lead. Internally, we call it the Shield — because "Lead" describes where you sit, but "Shield" describes why the role exists. The Finance Shield is the person whose work protects the rest of the company from financial noise — the uncertainty, the gaps, the surprises that slow a team down and erode trust.

When this role is done well, the work at Threls happens without financial friction. Our Craftsmen — the engineers, designers, and delivery specialists who build the software we ship — never wonder whether an invoice went out on time. None of the co-founders loses sleep over whether the numbers are right. No audit catches us unprepared. The work happens quietly, rigorously, and on time — and because of that, everyone else can focus completely on what they are here to do.

A quick note on language: we use the Guild for the whole of Threls — the Craftsmen who make the work, and the small operational team who keep it running, whom we call the Engine. This role sits in the Engine.

Here is the point about the two Leads that matters most: neither of you can produce the complete financial picture alone. That is by design.

Cost plus revenue equals the management accounts. Project cost plus project revenue equals true project economics. Cost plan plus revenue plan equals the Group's budget and forecast. Every meaningful financial output at Threls is the product of both halves working in sync.

Because the halves are complementary, the rhythm is one of daily connection — a short sync most days, shared ledgers, a shared reporting cadence, clear hand-off points on anything that sits on the line between cost and revenue. No hierarchy between the two Leads. Two peers, each accountable for their own domain, jointly accountable for the integrity of the whole. The founder gets the complete view from both of you together, not from either one of you alone.

A note worth making explicit: we have no plans to scale this team. We believe deeply in using automation and AI to remove the tedious, repetitive work that drains a finance function — so the people doing the work can spend their time on what actually matters. Analysis. Judgment. Forward-looking thinking. The work we love to do. If your instinct when a function grows is to add headcount, this is not the environment you are looking for. Our instinct is to automate first, hire only when automation genuinely cannot cover the need.

Threls exists to free people from noise and return them to what really matters. That is our vision. A vision alone is not enough to run a company by, though — without a practical framework, it becomes words on a wall. So we built one. We call it the Compass, because its job is to keep us oriented when noise, opinion, or pressure might pull us in other directions.

The Compass is our internal operating framework — the standard we use to hold every significant decision against our vision. Five pillars, each one a concrete mark of excellence: Clarity. Rhythm. Craftsmanship. Partnership. Sustainability. The Finance Shield is not defined by a task list. It is defined by how the role serves each of these five pillars, every month, every year. You can read more about our vision and the thinking behind the Compass on our philosophy page: threls.com/about-us/philosophy.

The Compass above is what we hold our work against. The values below are who the person holding the work needs to be. Both matter. Skills can be developed. Values cannot be installed. These are the six values that shape the culture of Threls — you can read the full version on our culture page: threls.com/about-us/culture.

Threls is a self-funded, independent company. We answer only to our clients and to each other. We do not have investors setting targets that override our judgment. That means financial decisions are made on the basis of what is right — not what looks good on a quarterly deck.

We work in harmony, not in bursts. We do not celebrate people who work until midnight. We expect focus, discipline, and honest communication — and in return we protect your time and your life outside work.

We hire globally. You can be based wherever you are in the world. But we expect at least three days a week working from an office. If you are in Malta, Gozo, or Tallinn, that means one of our offices. Anywhere else, it means a shared office space of your choice. This three-day baseline is our minimum, and may be increased further in line with company policy over time — we would rather be honest now that this is the direction we are moving in, not the other way. We are not open to fully remote arrangements.

We have thought carefully about why. Two reasons.

First, we want you fully focused. Our experience is that people work best when their work environment is separate from where they eat, sleep, and spend time with the people they love. A dedicated workspace creates a clean edge between work and life, and that edge is what actually lets you switch off at the end of the day. Remote-only arrangements tend to blur that edge. Three days in an office restores it.

Second, the evidence on remote work and wellbeing is hard to ignore. The European Commission's Joint Research Centre ran the first EU-wide loneliness survey in 2022 and found that 13% of EU citizens reported feeling lonely most or all of the time, with a further 35% lonely at least some of the time — a scale of social isolation the Commission has since flagged as a critical public health concern. Eurofound, the EU agency researching working conditions, has documented that full-time teleworkers are twice as likely to exceed the 48-hour working week, take insufficient rest, and experience knock-on effects to their physical and mental health. We are not willing to ignore that. We want the people who work here to be well — mentally, physically, and socially — and a consistent rhythm of in-person work is one of the simplest, most evidence-backed ways to protect that.

We would rather be direct now than waste your time or ours. If any of the below sounds like you, this is probably not the right fit — and that is not a judgment. It just means there is a better place for you elsewhere.

We do not have a standard application form. What we ask instead is that you write us a cover letter that addresses the seven questions below — in your own words, at whatever length feels right. That cover letter is required. Please upload it as a document alongside your CV on Join.com when you apply through the link at the bottom of this page. We read every one personally, and we would rather receive five thoughtful responses than fifty templated CVs.