Executive Director/Vice President, Finance & Controller

Cartography Biosciences, Inc.; South San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 250,000 - 280,000; Full time

Job summary

Cartography Biosciences, Inc. is seeking an Executive Director/Vice President, Finance & Controller to serve as a strategic partner ensuring financial integrity and operational excellence.

You will oversee financial reporting, accounting, treasury, tax, risk management, FP&A, and compliance in a highly visible leadership role reporting to the CFO. You will lead a growing finance team, partner with cross-functional leaders, and support capital initiatives, audits, and long-range planning as

Qualifications

• 10+ years of progressive finance and accounting experience, including leadership roles in biotech or life sciences.
• Experience with IPO readiness, SOX implementation, and SEC reporting.
• Strong communication, analytical, and presentation skills for cross-functional collaboration.

Responsibilities

• Oversee financial close process and US GAAP financial statements.
• Prepare management reports, investor reporting, and board packages.
• Lead general ledger, accounts payable, payroll, accounts receivable, and treasury functions.
• Deliver senior leadership financial presentations; manage budgets and forecasts.
• Maintain scalable internal controls and drive process improvements.
• Collaborate with external auditors, tax advisors, and financial service providers.
• Support equity and debt financing and due diligence activities.
• Perform ad-hoc analyses and assist with special projects.

Skills

Leadership

Financial reporting

Communication

Analytical

Internal controls

Budgeting

SOX compliance

Education

Bachelor's degree in finance or accounting

Master’s degree preferred (MBA)

CPA/CFA preferred

Tools

QuickBooks Online

NetSuite

Prendio

Carta

Ramp

Rippling

Job description

Executive Director/Vice President, Finance & Controller

About Cartography Biosciences

Cartography Biosciences is advancing a differentiated oncology pipeline of antibody-based therapies designed to target tumors with unprecedented precision. The company’s ATLAS and SUMMIT discovery platforms are powered by an industry-leading, fully integrated dataset spanning hundreds of thousands of cell states across healthy tissues alongside large-scale single-cell profiling of patient tumors. By combining petabyte-scale proprietary data, machine learning, and AI-driven biological insights, Cartography is identifying highly specific tumor targets and logic-gated target combinations to generate therapies engineered for maximal tumor selectivity and meaningful patient impact. The company’s lead program, CBI-1214, is a T-cell engager in development for colorectal cancer. CBI-1214 entered the clinic in early 2026 and is currently enrolling and treating patients in a phase 1 trial.

Position Summary:
The Executive Director/Vice President, Finance & Controller will serve as a trusted business partner responsible for ensuring financial integrity, operational excellence, and strategic decision support. You will oversee all aspects of financial reporting, accounting, treasury, tax, risk management, financial planning and analysis, and compliance. In short, this is a highly visible, senior leadership role collaborating cross-functionally to help guide the future growth of the organization and support corporate initiatives. The successful candidate will be comfortable operating strategically while being hands-on with the day-to-day finance and accounting operations. The position will report to the CFO when the role is filled and will initially report to the CEO; title for the position will be based on experience.

Essential Functions:

• Oversee general internal financial operations of Cartography.
• Manage the financial close process and preparation of financial statements in accordance with US GAAP, ensuring accuracy and timeliness
• Prepare and review management reports, investor reporting, and Board level financial packages.
• Oversee general ledger, accounts payable, payroll, accounts receivable, and treasury functions
• Deliver financial presentations to senior leadership, including annual budget summaries and quarterly financial reports. Pro-actively engage with internal stakeholders and functional leaders on budget management and financial accountability, challenge assumptions and estimates, identify areas for improvement and/or cost savings, and ensure consistency between departmental financial plans, corporate goals, and program/project timelines
• Strong understanding of technical accounting matters, including but not limited to, ASC 606 (revenue recognition), ASC 842 (leases), ASC 718 (stock-based compensation), clinical trial accounting, and R&D accruals
• In conjunction with other current/future members of Cartography’s finance team, serve as a primary point of contact for external auditors, tax advisors, valuation specialists, insurance brokers, banking and investment advisors, and other finance and accounting service providers
• Ensure timely submission and compliance with statutory reporting obligations
• Design, implement, and maintain a scalable internal control framework. Drive continuous improvements to financial systems, processes, and reporting infrastructure as the company grows
• Partner with the CFO and Director of Finance on budgeting, forecasting, and long-range financial modeling
• Build, mentor, and lead a high-performing finance and accounting team
• Support equity and debt financing and due diligence activities
• Perform ad-hoc financial analyses and assist with special projects, as required.

Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in finance, accounting, or related field; master’s level degrees (e.g., MBA) or professional distinctions (e.g., CPA, CFA) preferred
• Minimum of 10+ years of progressive finance and accounting experience, most recently in the biotechnology, pharmaceutical, or the life sciences industry with at least 4-6 years of experience in a leadership or managerial capacity
• Mix of both Private and Public company experience preferred, including direct involvement in IPO readiness activities, SOX implementation, and SEC reporting
• Detail oriented, solution driven with excellent written and verbal communication, analytical, and presentation skills; effective at communicating across all levels in the organization
• Experience with QuickBooks Online and NetSuite, bill, Prendio, Carta, Ramp, Rippling, or other comparable systems
• Strong organizational skills to meet tight deadlines
• Enjoys a challenging, fast-paced environment; adaptable and flexible
• Strong interpersonal skills; effective on teams as well as individually

The pay range for this role is:

250,000 - 280,000 USD per year (Executive Director)