Head of Finance

Ethena Labs; United States; Remote; USD 180,000 - 280,000; Full time

Job summary

Ethena Labs is seeking a Head of Finance to own the full finance function, from accounting and close to forecasting, planning, and board reporting. You will work closely with the COO to give every department a clear line of sight into their budget in a fast-growing SaaS environment.

You’ll lead a high-performing team, spot risks and opportunities in the numbers, oversee audits and fundraising, and present data-driven recommendations to the board.

Qualifications

• Experience leading finance in SaaS, including accounting, close, planning and forecasting.
• Built and led a finance team with accountability for the numbers.
• Experience with audits and fundraising; board-facing presentations.

Responsibilities

• Own planning, forecasting, annual plan and reforecasts.
• Oversee accounting end-to-end, tax, and regulatory compliance.
• Lead investor relations, board reporting, and financing activities.
• Develop and scale the finance function, balancing automation with control.

Skills

FP&A

Accounting leadership

Board presentations

Fundraising

People leadership

Tools

ERP systems

Excel

Job description

Who we are

We're Ethena, an AI platform that's revolutionizing the Compliance space. Our team of agents helps Compliance and People leaders run proactive Compliance programs that drive real behavior change. From Policies and Disclosures to Training, Hotline, and Analytics, our agents work together to drive smarter, faster, human-led decision-making. Hotline and training data rolls up into fully customizable, board-ready risk reports. Our AI call taker synthesizes data to recommend improvements to company policies and training. Every signal lands in one place, so Compliance leaders can spot risk early and fix it before it becomes a problem. The agents do the legwork, and people make every judgment call. More than 2,000 organizations, from Pinterest and Zendesk to the Salvation Army, run their programs on Ethena. That covers millions of employees, from the warehouse floor to desktop workers. Learners give our training a 93% approval rating, 96% of customers renew, and our business is growing quickly with 50%+ YoY revenue growth. Lots of companies call themselves AI-forward. We've actually built the tools to prove it. Come help us build what's next.

How we work

We're a team that values diversity in all its forms and loves adding new perspectives. We ask thoughtful questions, challenge assumptions, and build with empathy - for customers and each other. We're passionate about the work we do, love feedback, and lead with high agency and accountability. When we see something that could be better, we step up to the plate and do something about it. We take our work seriously, but are careful not to take ourselves too seriously. Because doing great work should be fun.

Our workforce is fully remote, and your personal working hours can be based on your own timezone. All team-wide meetings are scheduled to be inclusive of all North American time zones.

Who we're looking for

Ethena is growing fast, and we need a finance leader who's excited to build what comes next. As our Head of Finance, you'll own the full finance function, from accounting and close to forecasting, planning, and board reporting. You'll report to our COO and work closely with her to give our leadership team the data and insight behind our biggest decisions. You'll also give every department head a clear line of sight into their budget. We're looking for someone with a real point of view. You'll spot the risks and opportunities in the numbers before anyone asks and turn complex data into clear and actionable takeaways. You'll be hands-on in the details one day and zoomed out on strategy the next. Along the way, you'll build a high-performing finance team that holds itself to a high bar.

What you'll do

• Partner with the COO to drive smart decisions. You'll keep leadership equipped with a clear, current view of financials, forecasts, and runway. You'll also pull together and synthesize the data behind our biggest calls. You'll flag risks and opportunities early, lay out the levers we can pull, and bring a recommendation on things like a smarter way to deploy spend or a cost that's growing faster than its value. Then you'll turn it into takeaways the exec team can act on.
• Partner with RevOps on revenue and comp plans. You'll work with our Head of RevOps to turn pipeline and attainment data into financial insight on unit economics, retention, and sales efficiency. You'll oversee commission and comp plans.
• Give every department head line of sight. You'll work with each leader so they always know where their budget stands, what's changed, and what tradeoffs they're facing.
• Own planning and forecasting. That covers the annual plan, quarterly reforecasts, the operating model, the cash forecast, and scenario planning for pricing, hiring, and growth.
• Oversee accounting end to end. You'll oversee month-end and year-end close, AR/AP, revenue recognition, and tax, and build a faster, cleaner close as we scale.
• Lead the audit and keep us compliant. You'll own the annual audit and keep us current on tax and regulatory requirements everywhere we operate.
• Manage investor and lender relationships. You'll own board and investor reporting, manage our banking and lending partners, and lead fundraising work from model to data room.
• Level up the finance function. You'll grow and lead the team, decide what to bring in-house versus outsource, and use AI and automation to keep a lean team operating well above its size.

What makes a great candidate

• You cut your teeth in FP&A and have since overseen every part of finance, including accounting, at early-stage and fast-growing SaaS companies.
• You've built and led a finance team, and you've been the person accountable for the numbers, not just a contributor to them.
• You've run an audit, supported a fundraise, and presented directly to a board.
• You're as comfortable reconciling an account as you are presenting a growth plan to the board.
• You have a strong point of view and share it. You come with a recommendation and the math behind it, and you change your mind when the data says you should.
• You can make finance make sense to anyone, from a first-time manager to a board member.
• You're highly autonomous and do your best work when you're trusted to run your function.
• You care about building a team with a culture of excellence, and you know how to hire, coach, and raise the bar.
• You're AI-native. You already use Claude, ChatGPT, or similar tools to automate work, build models, and get to insights faster, and you'd rather build a tool than hire for a task.
• You thrive on a fully distributed team, and move fast without losing rigor.