Finance Lead

As the Finance Lead at Ava Labs, you will help manage and strengthen financial operations within the rapidly evolving cryptocurrency industry. This is a hands-on role requiring a self-starter who takes ownership from identifying a need through delivering the result. You will work closely with the CFO and cross-functional teams to drive financial clarity, maintain efficient operations, and ensure financial practices align with regulatory requirements and business goals. Reports to the CFO.

What you'll do

• Lead financial planning and forecasting across the business, building and maintaining financial models to support budgeting, scenario planning, and departmental decision-making.
• Personally drive finance projects from start to finish, including gathering and validating data, building models, investigating variances, and implementing solutions, independently resolving challenges and coordinating with others when their input or approval is needed.
• Manage day-to-day financial operations, ensuring compliance with statutory law and financial regulations, and oversee the handling of crypto and fiat transactions in close collaboration with the treasury team.
• Maintain and continuously refine existing systems for expense management, equity and compensation plans, travel arrangements, and accounts payable.
• Serve as a financial liaison among engineering, compliance, business development, legal, and accounting teams, and work with People Operations and Human Resources to align financial processes with workforce planning.
• Track and report key financial and operational metrics, partnering with the Head of Business Operations and Analytics to analyze trends and variances and flag business risks and opportunities.
• Identify opportunities to refine financial processes and systems as the business scales, recommend changes to existing workflows, and support the CFO in identifying and planning automation efforts.
• Collaborate with the C-suite to prepare and present materials for board meetings and strategic updates, and create visually engaging financial presentations for diverse audiences.
• Support the CFO on corporate development activity, including entity spinouts, divestitures, and asset sales, and help evaluate, structure, and execute potential investments, acquisitions, or strategic transactions.
• Support tax planning and compliance efforts, ensuring tax positions align with overall fiscal policy and legal requirements.
• Collaborate with the legal department to review the financial terms of contracts and agreements.
• Communicate financial insights and risks clearly to the CFO and relevant stakeholders to support informed decision-making.

What you bring

• A BA or BS in Finance or Accounting.
• Extensive experience in finance within the digital assets or fintech sector, with a proven track record in cryptocurrency management, international payments, and trading platforms.
• Advanced financial modeling and analytics skills, comfortable working with large datasets.
• A solid understanding of P&L, balance sheets, cash flow management, and general accounting principles.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to work effectively across cross-functional teams and high integrity.
• A demonstrated ability to turn ambiguous requests into concrete deliverables with minimal supervision, willing to roll up your sleeves and perform detailed work yourself, take initiative without waiting for direction, and deliver results independently.
• Strong attention to detail balanced with the ability to see the bigger picture, and the ability to think critically and solve problems under deadlines.
• Comfort being resourceful and adaptable in a dynamic environment, with sound judgment on trade-offs and prioritization under pressure.

Nice to have

• An MBA from a top-tier school.
• Experience in investment banking, corporate development, and fast-paced startup environments.
• SQL or statistics experience.
• Familiarity with the regulatory landscape for cryptocurrencies.
• Experience in venture capital fundraising.
• Experience mentoring or overseeing junior finance team members.

About Ava Labs

Ava Labs was founded by Cornell computer scientists, partnered with Wall Street veterans and early Web3 leaders to build Avalanche, a high-performance blockchain platform. The company has offices in New York City and Miami and received early-stage funding from Andreessen Horowitz, Initialized Capital, and Polychain Capital, with angel investments from Balaji Srinivasan and Naval Ravikant.