Head of Finance

MATS (Machine Alignment, Transparency, and Security) Research is an AI safety research fellowship and talent development nonprofit operating at ~$31M annual budget and scaling roughly 2x annually. We run cohorts of 120–175+ fellows across the full spectrum of AI Alignment & Security research with offices in Berkeley, London, and Washington DC. We are mid-build-out of a full C-suite (CEO, CFRO, COO) as the organization professionalizes its operating infrastructure to match its growth trajectory.

MATS (Machine Alignment, Transparency, and Security) Research is an AI safety research fellowship and talent development nonprofit operating at ~$31M annual budget and scaling roughly 2x annually. We run cohorts of 120–175+ fellows across the full spectrum of AI Alignment & Security research with offices in Berkeley, London, and Washington DC. We are mid-build-out of a full C-suite (CEO, CFRO, COO) as the organization professionalizes its operating infrastructure to match its growth trajectory.

The Head of Finance owns MATS's financial operations end-to-end: the org's books, its money in (grants, donations) and money out (payments, stipends, procurement), the plan that ties spend to strategy (budgeting/FP&A), and the controls that keep all of it defensible (audit, risk, treasury). This is the senior operating finance role under the CFRO and runs the function day to day, designs functional processes and systems, sets policies, and informs organizational financial strategy.

This role is right for someone who wants to build financial infrastructure for a nonprofit doubling in size annually — not maintain a steady-state function. Expect to design systems (not just operate them), make judgment calls under real ambiguity (multi-currency, multi-entity, cross-border grant flows), and professionalize processes that have outgrown their current scale. We anticipate this person will be scaling the finance team as well.

You won’t be doing this on your own. We have dedicated internal resources as well as external bookkeepers to support the day to day. This role will be able to advise on the appropriate finance team structure that will support MATS’s into the next leg of its journey, as well as build for sustainability and growth.

Accounting & Controllership

• Day-to-day bookkeeping, month-end/year-end close, chart of accounts, and general ledger integrity across US (and UK, when applicable) entities
• Financial statement preparation (P&L, balance sheet, cash flow) for leadership and Board reporting
• Reconciliations, journal entries, and maintaining a clean audit trail

Budgeting & FP&A

• Build and maintain the annual operating budget in partnership with the CFRO and function leads
• Rolling forecasts and scenario planning (e.g., funding upside/downside cases, cohort-size sensitivity)
• Variance analysis and monthly/quarterly financial reporting to the leadership team and sometimes Board
• Unit economics and cost-per-fellow type modeling to inform program-side resourcing decisions
• Forecast and scope the financial impact of proposed new initiatives
  , including projected costs, resource requirements, and staffing plans, to support leadership decision-making and prioritization.
• Develop and maintain financial models to support planning and forecasting across key operational areas such as headcount, compensation and benefits, tax liabilities, facilities and real estate costs, and other major cost drivers — providing leadership with clear, data-driven insight into current and future financial obligations.
• Partner with cross-functional teams (e.g., People/HR, Operations) to gather inputs and assumptions needed to build accurate, scenario-based models that inform strategic and budgetary decisions.

Grants & Revenue

• Manage the full lifecycle of receiving and accounting for grants and donations: tracking restricted vs. unrestricted funds, allocation of expenses to each grant, donor/grantor reporting requirements, and compliance with funder terms
• Partner with development/fundraising on grant proposal financials and post-award financial reporting

Payments, Payroll & Stipends

• Vendor and contractor payments,…