Finance & Business Operations Associate

Foundation; California; On-site; USD 75,000 - 100,000; Full time

Job summary

Foundation in Orange County, CA is seeking a finance/operations professional to join the SVP of Operations and Finance. This is a hands-on, multitask role that blends finance, purchasing, vendor management, and investor data preparation in a fast-growing robotics startup.

You will build business cases, manage payables and month-end close, and drive reporting and budgeting processes. Travel to shows and client meetings is occasional; you will own end-to-end financial cycles with integrity and

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Finance or Accounting.
• 2–5 years of experience in finance, business operations, consulting, or a startup seat with cross-functional exposure.
• Experience with Bill.com, QuickBooks, or NetSuite is a plus.
• Strong Excel or Google Sheets skills and clear written communication.
• Comfortable presenting to customers, partners, investors, and executives; ability to represent the office when SVP is not present.

Responsibilities

• Build the business case for customer deployments and investor data rooms.
• Prepare and manage payables, month-end close, and tax filings.
• Issue and track POs; keep open-PO and commitment reporting current for engineering.
• Support vendor onboarding and contracts; ensure smooth flow of parts and services.
• Develop ROI models, pricing and deployment proposals for customers.

Skills

Excel/Sheets

Communication

Customer facing

Education

Bachelor's degree in Finance or Accounting

Tools

Bill.com

QuickBooks

NetSuite

Job description

Foundation is developing the future of general purpose robotics with the goal to address the labor shortage.

Our mission is to create advanced robots that can operate in complex environments, reducing human risk in conflict zones and enhancing efficiency in labor-intensive industries.

Your previous experience in robotics isn't a prerequisite — it's your talent and determination that truly count.

We expect that many of our team members will bring diverse perspectives from various industries and fields.

We are looking for individuals with a proven record of exceptional ability and a history of creating things that work.

This Position is based on Orange County California.

Our Culture

We like to be frank and honest about who we are, so that people can decide for themselves if this is a culture they resonate with. Please read more about our culture here https://foundation.bot/culture.

Who Should Join:

• You like working in person with a team in San Francisco.
• You deeply believe that this is the most important mission for humanity and needs to happen yesterday.
• You are highly technical - regardless of the role you are in. We are building technology; you need to understand technology well.
• You care about aesthetics and design inside out. If it's not the best product ever, it bothers you, and you need to “fix” it.
• You don't need someone to motivate you; you get things done.

The Role

You'll work directly for the SVP of Operations and Finance, who runs go-to-market, operations, and finance for the company. This is not a back-office seat. In a given week you might build the business case for a customer deployment, prep an investor data room, and run the payment cycle — because all of that runs through this office. You'll be trained on the parts you haven't done. The expectation is that you can move between them fast.

Why We Are Hiring for This Role:

• As we scale robot production, purchase order volume across components, tooling, and vendors is growing faster than our finance team can keep up with manually.
• Payables and accounting operations: assisting with AP end to end in Bill.com, and managing our outside accounting and tax firms through month-end close, tax filings, and R&D credit work.
• Purchasing: issuing and tracking POs for components, tooling, and services, and keeping open-PO and commitment reporting current so engineering isn't waiting on paperwork.
• Vendor administration: onboarding, terms, and the paperwork that keeps parts and services flowing.
• The financial model, annual budget, and budget-vs-actuals reporting.
• Fundraising: diligence requests, data rooms, and investor and board materials.
• Audit readiness, cap table and equity administration, and advisor and vendor agreements with outside counsel.
• Customer deals: business cases and ROI models, pricing and deployment proposals, LOI and term sheet support, and the diligence packages customers ask for along the way.
• Customer and investor travel: prep, materials, and follow-through for meetings and trips, domestic and international.

What Kind of Person We Are Looking For:

• Bachelor's degree in Finance or Accounting.
• 2–5 years of experience in finance, business operations, consulting, or a startup seat where you touched more than one function. Public accounting works too if you're ready to get out of it.
• Comfortable with the mechanics: you can build a model, run a payment cycle, and read a contract, or learn any of them fast. Bill.com, QuickBooks, or NetSuite experience is a plus.
• Strong in Excel or Google Sheets and a clear writer — you'll produce decks, memos, and customer-facing documents, not just spreadsheets.
• Comfortable in front of customers, partners, investors, and executives, and able to represent this office when the SVP isn't in the room.
• Detail-oriented enough to run a high-volume payment cycle without dropping anything, while still moving fast on everything else.
• Trustworthy and discreet with customer, financial, and investor information.
• Thrives in a fast-paced startup where processes are still being built, priorities shift weekly, and ownership matters more than titles.
• Curious about hardware and robotics — you want to understand what we build, buy, and sell, and why.
• Willing to travel occasionally for shows and customer meetings.

We provide market standard benefits (health, vision, dental, 401k, etc.). Join us for the culture and the mission, not for the benefits.

The annual compensation is expected to be between $75,000 - $100,000. Exact compensation may vary based on skills, experience, and location.