Finance Associate

Current AI; Paris; On-site; EUR 55,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

Current AI in Paris is seeking a finance professional to organize financial operations, contracts and records. You will ensure tools are in good order and money moves correctly, reporting to the Finance & Operations Manager.

This role suits someone with a financial background who enjoys bringing order to processes, improving controls, and maintaining high discretion in a fast-growing public-interest AI organisation.

Qualifications

• 3 to 5 years of experience in audit or an in-house finance role.
• Solid knowledge of French accounting (PCG) and month-end close.
• Bachelor or equivalent in Finance, Accounting or similar field.
• Careful with detail and critical thinking: you notice when a number does not match.
• Fluent in English and French, written and spoken.
• Experience in a fast-paced startup or scale-up environment.
• High discretion, you will handle confidential funder, grantee and staff information.
• Comfortable in an organisation that is still building its processes, able to bring your own methodology

Responsibilities

• Own the full invoice lifecycle, including recording, coding, verifying expenses against contracts, and tracking payments against contract limits.
• Handle payment processing and reconciliation, including executing supplier payments, issuing grantee disbursements, and reviewing corporate credit card expense claims.
• Own the monthly closing workflow and bank reconciliation in coordination with the external accountants.
• Track budget vs. expenses each month and provide guidance to leadership on resource allocations.
• Support the annual audit process.
• Manage our tools, subscriptions, licences and team access.
• Run and monitor the automated workflows we build, flag and elevate issues when something breaks.
• Identify and implement opportunities for automation.
• Strategically allocate donor funds to grantees, in line with each donor’s restrictions.
• In collaboration with the Grants Operations Associate, prepare reporting packs for each funder, develop automation where possible.
• Support donor and partner relationship management.
• Ensure vendor compliance by screening vendors against sanctions and prohibited-party lists.
• Keep our data protection records current as our tools change.
• Prepare contracts and route them for signature, with support from legal counsel.
• Manage contracts in compliance with our procurement policy.
• Support supplier sourcing and negotiation.

Skills

Attention to detail

Discretion

Fluent English

Fluent French

Cross-functional collaboration

Process improvement

Education

Bachelor or equivalent in Finance, Accounting or related field

Tools

PCG knowledge

Job description

Founded at the AI Action Summit in Paris in February 2025, Current AI is a global, first-of-its-kind partnership of governments, philanthropists, researchers, grassroots builders, and industry leaders. Together we're catalyzing the movement for public-interest AI.

Most of the AI systems are controlled by a handful of private companies, leaving governments worried about AI sovereignty and millions of dependent users vulnerable to one policy change or geopolitical shift. We believe the solution is to build open and public technology infrastructure that serves people over profit.

Across the world, brilliant people are building AI that serves the public interest, but the work is fragmented. What's missing is strategic coordination at scale.

Technology companies operate with a unified roadmap and resources, giving them an advantage. Current AI exists to give public-interest technologists the same advantage by investing in the connective tissue among people and projects so that every effort is coordinated and amplified.

Role Overview

Current AI is a small team building its operational systems from the ground up. This role sits at the centre of that effort: you will make sure the team has the right tools to work efficiently, and that money moves correctly, contracts are in order and records are accurate. You will report to the Finance & Operations Manager and work closely with colleagues in grants, programmes and people operations. This multi-faceted role suits someone with a financial background looking for a broader scope and who enjoys putting order into things that do not yet have any, and will bring a critical eye to financial processes to ensure continuous improvement.

What you'll do

Your responsibilities will span the following areas:

Invoices and payments

• Own the full invoice lifecycle, including recording, coding, verifying expenses against contracts, and tracking payments against contract limits.
• Handle payment processing and reconciliation, including executing supplier payments, issuing grantee disbursements, and reviewing corporate credit card expense claims.

Accounting and audit

• Own the monthly closing workflow and bank reconciliation in coordination with the external accountants
• Track budget vs. expenses each month and provide guidance to leadership on resource allocations
• Support the annual audit process

Tools, systems and automation

• Manage our tools, subscriptions, licences and team access.
• Run and monitor the automated workflows we build, flag and elevate issues when something breaks.
• Identify and implements opportunities for automation

Partnerships and donor reporting

• Strategically allocate donor funds to grantees, in line with each donor’s restrictions
• In collaboration with the Grants Operations Associate, prepare reporting packs for each funder, develop automation where possible
• Support donor and partner relationship management

Compliance

• Ensure vendor compliance by screening vendors against sanctions and prohibited-party lists.
• Keep our data protection records current as our tools change.

Contracts and vendors

• Prepare contracts and route them for signature, with support from legal counsel.
• Manage contracts in compliance with our procurement policy
• Support supplier sourcing and negotiation

What we're looking for

Essential Qualifications

• 3 to 5 years of experience in audit or an in-house finance role
• Solid knowledge of French accounting (PCG) and month-end close
• At least Bachelor or equivalent in Finance, Accounting or similar field
• Careful with detail and critical thinking: you notice when a number does not match
• Fluent English and French, written and spoken.
• Experience in a fast-paced startup or scale-up environment.
• High discretion, you will handle confidential funder, grantee and staff information.
• Comfortable in an organisation that is still building its processes, able to bring your own methodology

Nice-to-haves

• Exposure to US funders or grant reporting
• Experience automating finance workflows, or curiosity about AI tools to do so

We're looking for people who:

• Put the mission before personal credit and work well in low-ego, highly collaborative teams.
• Exercise good judgment and integrity, including knowing when to push back or say no.
• Enjoy building from scratch and making progress with imperfect information.
• Have a bias to action - shipping useful things and helping others do the same.
• Are comfortable moving between strategy and hands-on execution as needed.
• Work effectively across cultures, time zones and disciplines.
• Believe AI can serve the public interest, and are willing to do the practical, unglamorous work to make that true.