Lead FinOps | AI | $250k - $300k

Lead Fin Ops | AI | Salary: $250K - $300K + Equity + Bonus

Zanda is an executive search firm dedicated to high-growth startups and scale-ups, helping them build out senior leadership at critical inflection points. We work hand-in-hand with venture capital investors, founders, and executive teams to place permanent and interim leaders who can shape a company's trajectory.

We're partnering with a fast-scaling AI company headquartered in the US, building at the frontier of next-generation compute and infrastructure. Backed by top-tier investors and moving quickly from early-stage to growth-stage, the company has built strong technical credibility and is now investing heavily in the operational and financial backbone needed to support its next chapter. Finance sits at the center of that story, and this hire will play a pivotal role in shaping how the business plans, forecasts, and scales.

You'll lead the company's FP&A function end-to-end, driving financial planning, forecasting, modeling, budgeting, and reporting for a fast-moving, engineering-led organization. This is a working-manager role rather than a purely strategic one. You'll shape the company's financial processes, systems, and internal controls, bringing the discipline and accountability the business needs without slowing down a fast-moving engineering culture.

Partnering closely with cross-functional leaders, you'll bring financial clarity to decisions around hiring, purchasing, and team development, positioning finance as a partner rather than a blocker. You'll also contribute to the company's capital and equity strategy, including debt facility considerations, and support investor relations by making sure Board and investor reporting is accurate and on time.

As the finance function scales alongside the business, you'll translate complex financial data into insights that non-financial leaders can act on, present on financial health to the wider company as needed, and mentor and develop the team around you as it grows.

• 10+ years of experience in relevant finance roles
• Bachelor's degree in Finance, Accounting, Economics, or a related field
• Startup experience and fluency in modern Fin Ops practices and systems
• Experience leading a team, or serving as a right hand to a CFO or senior finance leader
• Comfortable operating with both strategic oversight and hands-on tactical execution
• MBA, CPA, or CMA a plus
• Experience supporting an engineering-driven or AI-native organization a plus