Finance Director for Series Readiness

Tavern Research:
Director of Finance LOCATION

Chicago, IL, 60606

$169000 - $205000 (Yearly)

Employer-sponsored health insurance offered

Managed a budget of $100,000, Managed a budget of $1,000,000, Raised to a seven figure budget

Tavern Research

Finance

Other

Departmental Staff Manager (overseeing staff within a specific department, and/or reporting to a Department Director. Ex: Deputy Data Director, Regional Organizing Director, GOTV Director)

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Director of Finance

Location: Chicago, IL

Office: 3 days/week in South Loop office

Reports to: Chief Business Officer

About Tavern Research

Tavern Research is a political tech startup building tools and insights to help our customers win elections and make better, evidence-based decisions. We specialize in scaling expert human work, such as content generation and survey research to support thoughtful, data-driven civic engagement. We're a venture-backed, mission-driven, fast-moving, and mostly technical team focused on supporting campaigns and organizations working to strengthen democratic participation.

We are experimental by design and expect every team member to continuously improve how they work using new tools and technology. Everything else is on our website. If you still have questions, let us know when you apply!

About You

You’ve owned the full financial function at a high-growth startup, closing books that hold up under institutional scrutiny and building models that perform in partner meetings. You are fluent in complexity: cycle-driven, lumpy revenue is familiar territory, and you know what a diligence-ready data room looks like. You are not looking for a narrow role. You want to own finance end-to-end, from investor narrative to invoice processing, and you are prepared to lead that work with precision through a Series A close.

You are motivated by mission-driven work and bring a measured, professional approach to environments that operate outside the norm. Political revenue structures, mission-locked governance, and FEC-driven payment timing are well within your expertise. You can walk a prospective investor through our SAFE structure with clarity and confidence.

About the Role

This is Tavern's first dedicated finance hire, and it's a critical one. We're targeting a Series A launch in early 2027, and this role exists to make that process airtight. You'll own the financial model, the data room, the accounting function, and the investor process from warm intros through term sheets and close. By October, you're full-time on Series A preparation.

By Q1 2027, you've helped close a raise that funds our next stage of growth.

This is not a narrow function. You'll be operating across financial planning, accounting, investor relations, and financial operations, all at once, in a fast-moving political tech environment. Beyond fundraising preparation, this role will play an important part in improving Tavern’s financial operating rhythm, helping leadership make smarter decisions around budgeting, hiring, and resource allocation as the company scales.

We value in-person work and expect employees based in Chicago to work regularly from our South Loop office.

Responsibilities

Series A Process

• Own the Series A process end-to-end: data room, financial modeling, diligence, and term sheet negotiation support

• Build and maintain the investor model, unit economics, and KPI dashboard; defend them in partner meetings

• Run a structured, parallel process across a 25–30 firm target list, supporting 30+ partner-level meetings

• Prepare and deliver investor-ready financial snapshots that anchor warm-intro conversations in summer and fall 2026

• Stand up the data room to institutional standards: financials, cap table, customer cohort data, contracts, governance docs, and hiring plan

• Coordinate with Series A legal counsel on our mission-locked SPV structure and explain it credibly to investors

During the fundraise

• Quarterback diligence: triage investor requests,…