Startup · 2017
Co-founded an edtech startup
Served as CEO and CFO of an online study-help platform for Victorian students. Built the product, managed an offshore tech team and led school and investor relationships.
Finance leader · Melbourne
Commercial finance leader. Systems builder. AI-fluent.
I make finance faster, sharper and more commercial. I have led a $1.3bn five-year strategic partnership, three ERP implementations, a month-end close rebuild and an AI rollout that gives a finance team about 30 hours a month back.
Chartered AccountantCA ANZ
AASB, IFRS and SOXApplied across audits in Australia, the US and Singapore
FinOps Certified PractitionerCertified 2025
AWS Certified Cloud PractitionerCertified 2022
Bachelor of CommerceUniversity of Melbourne, Finance and Accounting
Scope and proof
Where I add value
A.1Commercial partnering
I work alongside the business, product and tech teams, with cloud and technology as my edge. I turn pricing, margin and forecast questions into decisions, and utilisation, consumption, renewals and project profitability are the numbers I know best.
Strategic partnership
Led the financial modelling and go-to-market planning behind a five-year strategic partnership with a global cloud provider, from assumptions and sensitivities through to the financial story and the board paper.
$1.3bnFive-year partnership
Cloud pricing and margin models
Built AWS and Azure cost and margin models that support pricing, forecasting and resell strategy. Reviewed large multi-year enterprise cloud deals, including private pricing agreements.
AWS · AzureCloud economics
A group sold twice
Led finance on due diligence, integration planning and reporting alignment for the first sale of the group, then held a core role in the second sale that followed.
2 dealsM&A
A.2Continuous improvement
I treat month-end, forecasting and reporting as processes that can be improved. I map them, remove the rework, and add controls so the gains hold.
Month-end close rebuilt
Led a two-stage rebuild of the month-end close with a team of six. Added stricter internal controls over compliance and balance sheet management, plus variance analysis and close metrics.
BD+12 → BD+6 → BD-1Close timeline by stage
Finance automation on Workday
Streamlined transactional finance workflows in Workday, removing manual handling and cutting transactional hours equivalent to about two full-time roles.
~2 FTETransactional hours saved
A.3Systems, ERP and tooling
I have delivered three ERP implementations and I am comfortable across the ERP, planning and BI stack and the spreadsheets that connect them. I build Power BI reports and AWS QuickSight dashboards, and when a tool is missing, I build a working version myself.
Three ERP implementations
Migrations from Xero to Workday and from NetSuite to Workday. Finance lead on an eight-month programme covering design, testing, documentation and change management. Recognised across the group as the Workday ERP subject matter expert.
3 ERPsXero and NetSuite to Workday
A.4AI in finance
I build connected workbooks and templates that use AI for analysis, performance metrics and reporting. I have tested, built and implemented agentic workflows and skills for recurring forecasts, and for high-volume work such as infrastructure costs and large invoices, where accuracy is non-negotiable. The goal is hours back for the team while judgement stays with people.
AI-enabled finance team
Championed Claude across the finance team and rolled out agentic workflows that take accuracy-critical, high-volume work such as infrastructure costs and large invoices from recording through to reporting. Recurring forecasts and analyses now run automatically, so the team spends its time on judgement and partnering.
~30 hrsSaved per month
Approach
How I work
- Model it before the meetingI bring the numbers and a recommendation, not just questions.
- Automate the repeatable, keep the judgementMachines handle the volume. People make the calls.
- Controls first, then speedA faster close only counts if the numbers still hold.
- Sit with the people who run the workI learn the process from those doing it, whether that is engineers or the AP team.
- Leave it better than I found itEvery close, model or process ends up cleaner and documented.
Side builds
Things I have built
Family business
A website built with Claude
Designed, built and deployed a website for my father's business end to end with Claude, hosted on GitHub. Claude did the heavy lifting on structure, copy and code while I set the direction and made the calls.
Personal tool
Workout tracker
A customised workout tracker that works across phone and laptop. It is hosted on GitHub Pages and syncs every session to Google Sheets.
Community project
The Kitchen Line
A simple, easy-to-use RSVP web app for a casual pickleball club I am starting. Members reply in a tap and I can see who is coming.
Say hello
I am always keen to talk finance, systems and AI.
jai@jaipainter.com.au
Or find me on LinkedIn, or read my resume (PDF).