Thank you for the taking the time to review our role description.
Instructions on how to apply are at the bottom of the description below. We look forward to your application!
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Chaissociate (Finance, Ops & Special Projects)
About Pamban
Pamban is a fast-growing chai brand selling across speciality distributors, wholesale, retail and ecommerce.
We’re founder-led, growing quickly, and at the point where finance and operations need proper ownership.
This role exists to keep the business running smoothly and give the founders leverage to focus on growth of the business.
The Role
A jack-of-all-trades role with genuine accountability. You own making sure finance and day-to-day operations run smoothly, accurately, and on time — and you lead or support special projects as business priorities shift.
The role is intentionally broad. We’re not looking for someone who wants a tightly scoped job. We’re looking for someone who gets excited by variety, is comfortable with ambiguity, and wants to grow with the business. Over time, this role has the potential to evolve significantly as we scale.
Most of the work is operational groundwork. It’s not always glamorous, but it allows you to get a fundamental understanding of the business. The exposure and ownership are unusually high for an early-career role, and the scope grows with the business.
What You’ll Do
You’ll be in charge of both day-to-day FinOps operations and the ongoing improvement of our processes, to make sure our business is well positioned for growth. We’ll rely on you to identify and implement strategic improvements on an ongoing basis. This will create periodic Special Projects for you to support and execute – along with any other exciting opportunities that come our way!
Operations
– Own sales order processing, customer issue resolution, and logistics management
– Support on purchase order processing and effective inventory planning / management
– Own our relationship with our third-party logistics provider
– Keep internal systems (CRM, order management) running correctly
– Identify and implement strategic improvements to our processes, ensuring that they are fit for purpose as we grow
Finance
– Keep costing models and margin calculations up to date, to support founders in making commercially sound calls
– Maintain accurate Xero records and support management accounts
– Ad-hoc support to founders on cash flow and working capital monitoring
– When required, invoice customers and chase payments
Special Projects
– Lead or support projects, as our business priorities shift — including but not limited to: NPD, retail launches, trade shows (e.g. coffee festivals), strategic finance and ops projects
– Expect periods where one major project becomes your primary focus
– Progressively take ownership of workstreams currently run by the founders
Who We’re Looking For
We are looking for someone 2–5 years into their career at a consumer, food, drink, or FMCG company — think challenger consumer brands, speciality coffee, or similar — who has seen fast-paced growth happen and now wants to take on broader ownership.
– Hungry, entrepreneurial, commercially-minded, and highly-organised
– Comfortable in finance (unit economics, margins, costing) and operational details (inventory management, logistics) – familiarity with Xero, Unleashed, Prospect, Mintsoft is a plus, but definitely not necessary
– Proactive, low-ego, and comfortable doing unglamorous work
– Excited by startup environments and genuine ambiguity
– Passionate about any or all of these – chai, coffee, hospitality, food, NPD testing, stickers, process optimisation
Accountability
Day-to-day finance and ops decisions sit with you. For larger strategic calls, you lead the analysis and recommendation, making critical decisions together with the founders. A strong performer will seek and earn broader ownership over time.
Compensation
We want someone who’s excited about building something, not just taking a job. The equity component is intentional — we want this person to feel genuinely invested in Pamban’s growth.
Compensation guidelines:
£34–38k salary, dependent on experience
Discretionary, based on performance targets (5-10% range)
Participation in the company’s share option scheme
Holiday – 29 days (incl. bank holiday) + a day off for your birthday
Enrolment into the company pension scheme
How to apply
Interested?
Send us an email with your CV and a short answer to each of these questions (max 100 words each):
1. Why would you be a great fit for the role?
2. What is one specific moment in your career which will prepare you well for the role?
3. What is your favourite café and what makes it so great?
4. What are 3 brands which inspire you today and what makes them special to you?
5. Our sticker collection is extensive – what is one idea for a chai-based sticker that Pamban could use? Our recent “Chairizard” sticker has gone down a storm, if you need some inspiration…
Please email your responses to: info@pamban.co.uk with the subject line “[Your Name] – Chaissociate application”
