Controller

Arketa; Northern (KY); Remote; USD 110,000 - 160,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Unlimited PTO

Stock options

Medical, dental and vision insurance

Fitness class reimbursement

Parental leave

Job summary

Arketa is seeking a Controller to own in-house accounting, month-end close, financial reporting, tax, and audits. You will start hands-on and grow into a Senior Controller leading a small team as Arketa scales.

You’ll partner with the VP of Finance, implement robust internal controls, manage multi-system bookkeeping, and leverage AI to improve efficiency without sacrificing accuracy. This is a high-ownership, strategic role.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of progressive accounting experience.
• CPA or strong public accounting background preferred.
• Ownership mindset with hands-on approach.
• Attention to detail and accuracy.
• Experience using AI to speed up repetitive tasks.
• Experience with tax, audits, and multi-state filings.

Responsibilities

• Month-end close & financial reporting
• Internal controls & GL structure
• Tax compliance & coordination
• Payables & receivables management
• Bookkeeping & accounting operations
• Audit leadership with external firm coordination

Skills

5+ years accounting experience

Ownership mindset

Attention to detail

Ambiguity tolerance

AI-assisted workflows

Education

CPA certification

Tools

Stripe

Brex

Job description

At Arketa, we believe software should be more intelligent, more intuitive, and truly support the people using it. The fitness and wellness industry has been underserved by technology for too long, and we’re here to change that.

We’re building the operating system for modern fitness and wellness businesses. Products that don’t just look good, but actually help studio owners and instructors grow their community, increase revenue, and deliver world-class client experiences. That means sweating the details, questioning assumptions, and delivering tools that are as powerful behind the scenes as they are seamless for the end user.

Great products come from fast-moving, aligned teams with clear focus and high standards. At Arketa, we invest in our people, our processes, and our product foundations. That way, we can move quickly and build with care week after week and year after year.

Whether you're an engineer, operator, or customer advocate, you'll be part of a team pushing wellness forward and doing the best work of your career.

Controller

Location

United States

Employment Type

Full time

Location Type

Remote

Department

Finance

Compensation

About Arketa

Arketa is building the operating system for modern fitness and wellness. Our mission is to make wellness more accessible by empowering studios and wellness entrepreneurs to grow beyond in-person classes. We provide a powerful, all-in-one platform to manage and scale hybrid wellness businesses, whether online, in-person, or both.

With Arketa, studios can manage schedules, accept bookings and payments, build on-demand video libraries, host retreats, run automated marketing, and launch fully branded apps and websites. We make it simple for founders to deliver a seamless, professional experience across every customer touchpoint. We've raised $15M in Series A funding and are growing quickly. It's a unique moment to join us. We're building a category-defining company in a fast-moving space, and we're looking for a leader who is excited to help shape what world-class partner support looks like in the wellness category.

About the Role

We're bringing accounting in house, and you'll be the person who owns it. As our Controller and right hand to our VP of Finance, you'll take full ownership of bookkeeping, the month-end close, financial reporting, tax, and audit, raising the bar on accuracy and building the foundation leadership relies on to make strategic decisions.

This role flexes both ways. Day to day, you'll be hands-on in the books, running close and reconciliations yourself. You'll start as an individual contributor for your first 6 to 12 months, with a clear path to Senior Controller leading a small team as the function grows.

About the Team

You'll join our Finance team as the first in-house accounting hire, working directly with our VP of Finance. Accounting has been supported by outsourced partners up to now, and as Arketa grows we're ready for someone with a true owner's mindset to build the function from the ground up. You'll have high visibility with our leadership team and partner closely with our external auditors and tax advisors.

What You'll Do:

Month-end close & financial reporting: Drive a timely, accurate close and produce monthly financial statements that leadership can trust and act on.

Internal controls & GL structure: Design and maintain the control environment, including correct account and department mapping, clean categorization rules, and documentation that will hold up under audit scrutiny.

Tax compliance & coordination: Manage tax filings and coordination with external tax partners, including credits (e.g., R&D) and multi-state considerations.

Payables & receivables: Manage the full AP/AR cycle, including vendor bill pay, employee reimbursements, invoicing, and collections, ensuring nothing sits stale or miscategorized.

Bookkeeping & accounting operations: Own day-to-day bookkeeping alongside higher-level accounting: transaction categorization, journal entries, and general ledger maintenance across our banking, payroll, payments, and accounting systems. Use AI to speed up repetitive, time-consuming work while applying your own judgment to get it right.

Audit leadership: Serve as primary liaison to our external audit firm, prepare schedules, respond to PBC requests, and manage the audit timeline.

What success looks like:

First 30 days: Take ownership of the books from our outsourced partner, learn our systems (banking, payroll, Stripe, Brex, accounting), run your first month-end close, and have audit prep underway for the December kickoff.

First 60 days: Serve as the day-to-day lead with our auditors through fieldwork, delivering schedules and PBC requests on time, while tightening GL mapping and categorization rules.

First 90 days: Deliver a consistent and reliable monthly close, have core internal controls documented, and be on track to take bookkeeping accuracy to 99%.

What we're looking for:

Typically 5+ years of progressive accounting experience. We care more about relevance than tenure, so a strong candidate with 3 to 4 years doing exactly this work is encouraged to apply.

Strong foundation from public accounting or the finance team of an established company, ideally followed by time in a high-ownership, early-stage environment

Deep command of core accounting: month-end close, financial reporting, internal controls, payables and receivables, and tax

A high-ownership mindset and genuine enjoyment of hands‑on work

Comfort with ambiguity and building process where none exists

Best‑in‑class attention to detail and an unwavering commitment to accuracy

You use AI to move faster on repetitive, time‑consuming tasks while still exercising your own judgment

Bonus:

CPA

Prior audit experience, ideally from the company side (preparing schedules, responding to PBC requests, managing the audit timeline)

Familiarity with Stripe and Brex (or similar tools) and experience managing books across multiple systems without a single unified ERP

You Should Apply If

You're smart, a little bored in your current role, and hungry for a bigger challenge

You want to build a finance function from scratch with real visibility and ownership

You trained in public accounting or a large company and are ready to own the whole picture at an early-stage company

You want to be hands‑on today with a clear path to Senior Controller and a team

You're mission‑driven and excited about wellness becoming more accessible

You May Not Want to Apply If

You prefer the structure and defined scope of a large, slower‑moving environment

You'd rather manage the work than do it yourself

You need fully built‑out processes to be effective

You want a slower pace or a more established later‑stage environment

What We Offer:

Ownership and Opportunity for Advancement

Competitive Salary and Stock Options

Unlimited PTO: our policy is designed to give you the flexibility to rest, recharge, and take care of personal needs, while staying aligned with your team and responsibilities.

Medical, dental and vision health insurance

Fitness Class Reimbursement: we're committed to supporting both employee wellness and our industry relationships. As an Arketa employee we see movement as opportunity.

Parental Leave Policy

For this role, the estimated annual base salary is $110,000 to $160,000, depending on experience and qualifications. In addition to base pay, we offer equity. We believe in compensating fairly and transparently, and we're happy to provide more detail during the interview process.