Finance Manager

ABOUT APOLLO RESEARCH

Apollo Research is an AI safety organization that works on the detection of scheming (e.g., building evaluations), the science of scheming (e.g., model organisms), and scheming mitigations (e.g., anti-scheming and control). We work closely with multiple frontier AI companies. At Apollo, we aim for a culture that emphasizes truth-seeking, being goal-oriented, giving and receiving constructive feedback, and being friendly and helpful.

If you're interested in more details about what it's like working at Apollo, you can read more here.

We're a team of ~35 in London and Europe, we're opening a new office in San Francisco, and we're growing fast.

The Finance team consists of the Head of Finance and an interim transactional processor. You will be Apollo's second full-time Finance hire, reporting to the Head of Finance. You will own financial operations, accounting, reporting, and compliance.

AI is embedded across the business, and Apollo Finance is no different. You will work with the Head of Finance to build a finance function from first principles that scales ahead of the business's growth. You'll be expected to build and leverage AI agents and clean architecture to eliminate, simplify, and automate manual work at scale.

There is no legacy finance function to inherit, so you will build your subfunctions from the ground up. This role is suited to someone who is happy to get their hands dirty in the details of the operation, skilled at handling data, and driven to find more effective ways of doing things.

The manual processing work should reduce significantly as you and the Head of Finance build out the systems, processes, and controls. Initially, your time will be split between:

• Day-to-day transactional processing and bookkeeping, replacing the interim processor (50%)
• Building out new systems, processes, and controls (25%)
• Eliminating, simplifying, and automating existing processes and controls (10%)
• Ad hoc work, e.g., monthly close, reporting, and compliance (15%)

The team is deliberately lean and uses a sophisticated tech stack. This is not a position where you'll be one of many; you'll have significant exposure and be central to how the function evolves as the business scales, with a clear path to Financial Controller.

• Run day-to-day financial operations (Order-to-Cash and Procure-to-Pay):
  • Process and match supplier invoices, card expenses, and bank receipts and payments
  • Prepare supplier payments
  • Onboard customers and suppliers, keeping their metadata up to date
  • Invoice customers and manage collections
• Run accounting and reporting (Record-to-Report):
  • Establish a repeatable monthly close, preparing manual journals and accounting judgments on accruals, prepayments, accrued and deferred revenue, payroll, intercompany, and project accounting
  • Prepare supported reconciliations for every balance sheet account, and maintain a quantified risks and opportunities list
  • Produce a monthly pack that ties to the ledger and reads the way operators run the business: P&L, balance sheet, and cash flow, month and year to date; one headline variance against budget; and department and research-versus-commercial views
• Deliver cash visibility:
  • Prepare the weekly 13-week direct cash forecast, including running scenarios for the Head of Finance and COO
  • Reconcile forecasts to actual bank movements, explain and report variances, and improve the forecasting assumptions week on week
• Support the Head of Finance in building effective systems, processes, and controls:
  • Eliminate, simplify, and automate manual work, processes, and controls at scale, leveraging AI agents and automation
  • Document critical workflows so they do not depend on one person
  • Manage the finance tech stack, and support the…