Strategic Finance

Lorikeet; United States; On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Two-day paid work trial

Flexible hours

Diversity‑friendly hiring

Job summary

Lorikeet, a fast-growing AI-powered customer-support company, is seeking a Strategic Finance member to own financial systems, models, and insights guiding our growth. You will partner with founders, operations, and GTM teams to turn inputs into clean signals, owning forecasts and headcount planning to optimize performance as we scale.

As the sole in-house finance team member, you will set strategy for the finance function and define how we operate—an opportunity to shape a category-defining AI

Qualifications

• 5-7 years of experience in strategic finance, PE, investment banking, or early-stage operating roles.
• Demonstrated ability to partner with leadership to drive financial clarity and decision-making.
• Experience building operating models for SaaS or B2B startups.
• Experience owning board reporting, headcount planning, or annual planning cycles.
• Experience modeling ARR, CAC, burn ratios and SaaS metrics.

Responsibilities

• Own financial models, operating plans, and scenario planning for the business.
• Partner with teams on headcount planning, budgeting, and investments.
• Track revenue, costs, and margin drivers and highlight changes.
• Build and maintain internal dashboards and reporting systems.
• Support pricing, forecasting, and board/investor communications.
• Work cross-functionally to bring financial rigor to product, GTM, and ops decisions.
• Lead strategic initiatives and high-impact projects, like ROI analysis and vendor negotiations.

Skills

Financial modeling

Strategic finance

Headcount planning

Board reporting

Forecasting

Education

CFA

Bachelor's in Finance

Tools

Excel

SQL

Tableau

Job description

About Us

Lorikeet is redefining what customer support looks like — and we're just getting started.

We build AI that handles complex, high-volume support for fintechs, healthtechs, marketplaces, and delivery services. Not chatbot-tier AI. The kind that actually resolves tickets, gives support teams their time back, and raises the bar for what software can do.

We're backed by over $50M USD from QED, Blackbird, and Square Peg, with backing from operators like Claire Hughes Johnson (ex-Stripe COO) and Cristina Cordova (Linear COO), plus founders of Canva, Atlassian, and Airwallex. We're the first company since Canva to be funded at early stage by all three of Australia's top VC funds — which tells you something about the calibre of people who've looked closely at what we're building and said yes.

Our customers include some of the largest telehealth, fintech, and marketplace companies in the US and Australia — many handling over a million support tickets a year. The problems are real, the scale is real, and the work matters.

If you want to build something that genuinely changes how businesses and customers interact — this is the place.

About the role

We're hiring a Strategic Finance member to own the financial systems, models, and insights that guide our business.

You'll work closely with our founders, operations, and go-to-market teams to turn multi-channel inputs into clean signals. That means owning forecasts, partnering on headcount planning, tracking performance against goals, and helping us understand where the business is working and where we can do better. Part strategic advisor, part hands-on operator, you'll help refine the systems that keep us informed and aligned as we scale.

As our only in-house finance team member, you'll have the opportunity to set the strategy for our strategic finance function and define how we do things—a real growth opportunity for someone who wants to drive and build something from the ground up.

About You

• Gets genuinely excited about AI and can communicate its transformative potential to complex businesses. You see what's coming and know how to bring others along.

• Is naturally curious about data and what it reveals. You love digging into numbers not just to report them, but to find the story underneath and figure out what it means for the business.

• Has a builder's mindset — you get energy from creating systems, models, and processes from scratch. You want to design the way we do things, not just inherit them.

• Can translate complex financial analysis into clear, actionable insights for founders, operators, and investors who aren't living in the spreadsheets.

• Is motivated by impact and eager to play a key role at an early-stage, fast-moving startup where your work shapes real decisions.

What you'll do

• Own financial models, operating plans, and scenario planning for the business

• Partner with teams on headcount planning, budgeting, and investment tradeoffs

• Track revenue, costs, and margin drivers—and highlight what's changing

• Build and maintain internal dashboards and reporting systems

• Support pricing, forecasting, and board/investor communications

• Work cross-functionally to bring financial rigor to product, GTM, and operational decisions

• Lead strategic initiatives and special projects—from marketing ROI analysis to vendor negotiations and other high-impact business decisions

• Spot areas where we're flying blind and bring structure to them

The right candidate

We need someone with strong financial instincts who thrives in ambiguity and can influence decision-making cross-functionally. As the only in-house finance team member, you'll have the agency to take initiative on the mechanisms that ensure our growth and success, thoughtfully adapting those mechanisms as business needs change.

You might be a fit if you:

• Have 5-7 years of experience in strategic finance, PE, investment banking, or early-stage operating roles, with a track record of partnering closely with leadership to drive financial clarity and decision-making, or a CFA.

• Have built and maintained operating models used for real-world planning ideally in a SaaS or B2B start up environment

• Have owned or directly contributed to board reporting, headcount planning, or annual planning cycles

• Have demonstrated experience modeling ARR, CAC, burn ratios and other SaaS metrics that actually matter

• Have experience designing internal reporting, dashboards, or planning rituals that stuck

• Have worked cross-functionally to pressure-test investments, run scenario analyses, or improve unit economics

• Are excited by the chance to help build a category-defining AI company

What's unique about this opportunity?

• Low ego, high trust, no tolerance for talented jerks. We work efficiently, keep hours flexible, and actually mean it — because life outside work matters. We're committed to building a diverse team and actively encourage applicants from underrepresented backgrounds. We care far more about user obsession and eagerness to learn than traditional credentials.
• We're Series A and moving fast. You'll have real scope to shape the product and the company — not just execute someone else's vision.
• Promotions happen when you're ready — leadership meets every six weeks specifically to identify and recognize strong performers, so you're never waiting for an arbitrary review window to move up.
• Every person at Lorikeet uses AI in their day-to-day work (current favourite: Claude Code), with unrestricted access and no usage limits. You'll leave with skills that matter for the next decade of work.
• Headquartered in Sydney, with teams spanning the US and UK — which means getting everyone in the same place is something we invest in seriously. We spend the time hacking on ideas, building things together that wouldn't otherwise exist, and making memories that remind you why you joined a startup in the first place.
• We keep it simple: a couple of informal chats to share our story and hear yours, followed by a paid ~two-day work trial. The work trial is genuinely the best part — you'll work on real problems alongside the actual team, get a true feel for how we operate, and we'll both come out of it knowing whether this is the right fit. No trick questions, no take-homes that disappear into a void. Just real work, done together.
• If you're from an underrepresented background and don't tick every box, please reach out anyway. We know firsthand that diverse teams perform better, and we're proud that our team reflects a broad spectrum of identities and lived experiences.