Manager, Payables & Operations

Position: Manager, Payables & Spend Operations
About Varda Low Earth orbit is open for business. Varda is accelerating the development of commercial space infrastructure, from in-orbit pharmaceutical processing to reliable and economical reentry capsules. Varda’s W-Series vehicles are built, designed, and operated by Varda in-house, including the pharmaceutical processing payloads, the capsules, the C-PICA heat shields, and the satellite buses.

From life-saving pharmaceuticals to more powerful fiber optics, there is a world of products used on Earth today that can only be manufactured in space. Varda is accelerating innovation in the orbital economy by creating both the products and infrastructure needed so space can directly benefit life on Earth. Our mission is to expand the economic bounds of humankind.  Our team is uniquely suited to accomplishing this goal, with leadership and staff comprised of veterans from SpaceX, Blue Origin, major pharmaceutical companies and Silicon Valley.

Varda was founded in January 2021 by Will Bruey and Delian Asparouhov with significant backing from world class investors including Khosla Ventures, Lux Capital, Founders Fund, Caffeinated Capital, General Catalyst, and Also Capital.  Varda is headquartered in El Segundo, California, where we have offices and a production facility where our vehicles, equipment, and materials are built, integrated, and tested. Varda also has offices in Washington, DC and Huntsville, AL.

Join Varda, and work to create a bustling in-space ecosystem.

About This Role The Manager, Payables & Spend Operations owns how Varda pays for things. You will run and rebuild accounts payable, own the corporate card program, and stand up expense and travel operations—then lead the small team that operates them.

This role is deeply hands-on. You will sit at the intersection of Finance, Supply Chain, Engineering, and Pharma Operations, and you will be the person people call when a vendor needs to get paid, or a card needs to get coded. You will partner closely with Supply Chain on procure-to-pay, understand direct hardware and lab spend well enough to code it correctly, and help evolve the processes behind a spend footprint that is growing fast.

This is a full-time, exempt position in El Segundo, CA.Responsibilities Accounts Payable Own end-to-end AP: invoice intake, coding, PO matching, approval routing, and posting in Business Central.

Run the payment cycle (ACH, wire, check) with dual-approval controls and own month-end close, accruals, and subledger reconciliation.

Manage CIP tracking, balance sheet coding, and fixed asset handoffs for capital and engineering spend.

Maintain vendor master data, 1099 readiness, and the open invoice and receiver queues.

Supply Chain Partnership Serve as Finance's counterpart to Supply Chain on the procure-to-pay flow: PO structure, receiving, inspection holds, and three-way match.

Understand hardware and pharma R&D spend well enough to code it correctly—spacecraft components, machined parts, lab reagents, blanket POs—without asking.

Bring aging and exception data to Supply Chain so fixes are driven by evidence.

Corporate Card, T&E & Travel Own the corporate card program: provisioning, limits, policy, compliance, and month-end GL coding.

Operate employee expense reimbursement and lead the future stand-up of a formal travel program.

Controls, Systems & Team Write and maintain AP, card, and T&E policies; own audit support and cost pool accuracy across pharma and defense.

Build spend visibility and automate coding, matching, and exception handling to reduce manual work.

Lead and develop a small AP team with clear ownership, cross-training, and documented workflows.

Basic Qualifications7+ years in accounts payable or procure-to-pay; 2+ years managing people.

Bachelor's…