Head of Finance & Business Planning

Satlyt, Inc.; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 340,000; Full time

Job summary

Satlyt, Inc. is seeking a hands-on finance leader to own financial planning, cash visibility, and strategic business analysis. You will work directly with the Founder & CEO and the leadership team to decide where to invest, what we can afford, and the milestones required to fund growth.

You will build and challenge financial models, coordinate accounting support, and explain implications clearly. This role offers a path toward CFO as Satlyt grows and expands its global operations.

Qualifications

• Experience owning financial planning or strategic finance in a growing technology company.
• Strong modeling skills and ability to challenge assumptions with data.
• Understanding of accounting, cash flow, revenue economics, and financial controls.
• Experience supporting fundraising, investor reporting, or financial due diligence.
• Ability to translate financial analysis into actionable business decisions.
• Willingness to roll up your sleeves and work hands-on in a small team.

Responsibilities

• Own financial planning and runway, building an integrated model for revenue, hiring, Opex, and financing.
• Lead annual budgeting and rolling forecasts with leadership; maintain cash forecast and flags on funding needs.
• Oversee monthly reporting, controls, bookkeeping coordination, payroll, tax, and supplier payments.
• Prepare investor reporting, cap table maintenance, and materials for fundraising rounds.
• Evaluate deployment costs, pricing, contract economics, and revenue recognition with leadership.

Skills

Financial modeling

Forecasting

Budgeting

Fundraising

Investor relations

Strategic finance

Cash flow management

Leadership

GAAP accounting

Startup finance

Tools

ERP systems

Cap table management software

Job description

You will own financial planning, cash visibility, and business analysis, working directly with the Founder & CEO and leadership team. You’ll help us decide where to invest, what we can afford, and which milestones our spending needs to deliver.

This is a hands-on role. You should be comfortable building the model yourself, challenging assumptions, coordinating accounting support, and explaining the implications clearly. The role offers a path toward CFO as Satlyt grows.

Satlyt is building virtual AI data centers in space. Our software enables satellite operators to process data and run AI directly aboard spacecraft, reducing dependence on downlinking everything to Earth.

Following our initial Seed closing, we are expanding our engineering and customer delivery teams and scaling deployments across third-party spacecraft. We’re looking for our first dedicated finance leader to help translate that growth into a disciplined operating plan.

• Financial planning and runway

  • Build and maintain an integrated financial model covering revenue, hiring, operating expenses, mission costs, cash flow, and financing scenarios

  • Lead annual budgeting and rolling forecasts with the leadership team

  • Maintain a cash forecast and identify funding needs early

  • Track actual performance against plan and explain material variances

• Commercial and operating decisions

  • Work with engineering and commercial leaders to understand deployment costs, customer onboarding effort, infrastructure costs, and gross margins

  • Evaluate pricing, contract economics, payment terms, and resource requirements

  • Distinguish signed revenue from pipeline, grants, and other contingent opportunities

  • Assess hiring and project investments against runway, delivery capacity, and business milestones

• Financial operations

  • Establish reliable monthly reporting and appropriate spending and payment controls

  • Coordinate bookkeeping, payroll, tax, and other specialist providers across our U.S. parent and Kenyan subsidiary

  • Oversee invoicing, collections, payables, and reconciliation so leadership has an accurate view of available cash

  • Coordinate financial tracking and reporting for grant-funded and government projects

• Investor reporting and fundraising

  • Prepare clear financial reporting for management, the board, and investors

  • Maintain financing records and capitalization information with counsel and our cap-table provider

  • Prepare the financial model, supporting analysis, and diligence materials for future fundraising

  • Help leadership define the operating milestones and capital requirements for our Series A

• Experience owning financial planning or strategic finance in a growing technology company

• Strong financial modeling skills

• Ability to work with incomplete information without creating false precision

• Strong understanding of accounting, cash flow, revenue economics, and financial controls

• Experience supporting fundraising, investor reporting, or financial diligence

• Ability to challenge assumptions constructively and translate financial analysis into business decisions

• Willingness to build processes and do detailed hands-on work in a small team

• Strong communication skills with the ability to explain financial implications clearly to technical and commercial leaders

• Enterprise software experience

• Infrastructure or cloud business experience

• International operations experience

• Government contracting experience

• Grant accounting or government project reporting experience

• Deep technology experience

• Experience working with a venture-backed startup

• Experience preparing a company for a Series A or later institutional financing

• Space industry experience