Head of Finance, Ava Labs
$208-260k
Smart contracts platform for dApps
Be an early applicant
Smart contracts platform for dApps
201-500 employees
Be an early applicant
$208-260k
201-500 employees
Company mission
To build an open, simple, and democratic internet of finance that enables the world to have a more prosperous future.
Role
Who you are
- Education: An exceptional academic background - an MBA from a top program or a high-performing undergraduate track record, is strongly preferred. This role presents a unique opportunity to combine intellectual rigor with practical execution, offering a platform for continuous learning and professional growth
- Experience: Extensive experience in finance within the digital assets or fintech sector. Proven track record in cryptocurrency management, international payments, and trading platforms. Experience in fast-paced startup environments is highly valued
- Adaptability and Resourcefulness: A 'can-do' attitude capable of being scrappy and resourceful in a dynamic environment. Able to make critical trade-off decisions and prioritize effectively under pressure
- Technical Skills: Advanced financial modeling, analytics, and large-scale data management proficiency. SQL or statistics experience is a plus
- Industry Knowledge: Deep understanding of P&L, balance sheets, cash flow management, and general accounting principles. Familiarity with the cryptocurrency regulatory landscape
- Strategic Thinking: Strong capability to identify financial opportunities and risks and develop responsive strategies
- Communication Skills: Excellent communication abilities, demonstrated experience in a leadership role influencing cross-functional teams, high integrity, and the ability to work collaboratively
- Proactive and Self-Motivated: You don’t wait for instructions. You identify gaps, raise your hand, and solve issues before they escalate. You never ask, “What do you want me to do?” - you propose a solution and own it
- Leadership and Team Management: You lead by example—setting standards, not just managing tasks. You create leverage, not dependency. Your team delivers with autonomy, precision, and speed. You are a multiplier who eliminates drag, unblocks decisions, and ensures the team operates at its highest possible velocity
- Attention to Detail and Strategic Perspective: Exceptional attention to detail without losing sight of the bigger picture. Demonstrates the ability to think critically and analytically, enabling effective problem-solving and decision-making under tight deadlines
What the job involves
- At Ava Labs, we move fast, own our outcomes, and build structure where none exists
- As Head of Finance, you’ll lead with clarity and urgency in a high-accountability environment at the forefront of crypto innovation
- This role is more than oversight - it’s about setting the pace, shaping systems, and driving financial strategy that scales with the future of decentralized technology
- If you're the kind of leader who thrives without hand-holding and builds what others wait for, you’ll feel right at home
- Strategic Financial Leadership: Lead financial planning, risk management, and strategy execution. Develop sophisticated financial models and forecasts to guide strategic decisions across all departments
- Operations and Compliance Oversight: Manage day-to-day financial operations, ensuring compliance with statutory law and financial regulations. Oversee the handling of crypto and fiat transactions, ensuring efficient payments and settlements through close collaboration with the treasury team. Set up and improve systems for expense management, equity and compensation plans, travel arrangements, and accounts payable to streamline financial operations and enhance fiscal control
- Cross-functional Collaboration: Serve as a critical financial liaison among engineering, compliance, business development, product, marketing, legal, and accounting teams. Work closely with People Operations and Human Resources to align financial strategy with workforce planning and organizational development. Foster collaborative efforts to achieve financial and operational synergy
- Performance Management: Design and implement a robust framework for tracking and reporting key financial and operational metrics. Collaborate with the Head of Business Operations and Analytics to proactively analyze trends and variances, address business challenges, and leverage growth opportunities
- Investor Relations and Strategic Communication: Collaborate with the C-suite to prepare and present materials for board meetings and strategic updates. Experience in venture capital fundraising is a plus, although direct fundraising activities are not currently planned. Create visually engaging and digestible financial presentations that simplify complex information for diverse audiences, enhancing communication both within the company and with external stakeholders
- Innovation and Process Improvement: Continuously assess and refine financial processes and systems to increase efficiency and adapt to new business demands and regulatory environments. Encourage creative problem-solving and 'outside-the-box' thinking to enhance financial strategies
- Tax Responsibilities: Play a crucial role in the organization's tax planning and compliance efforts. Ensure that tax strategies are well-aligned with overall fiscal policies and comply with legal standards
- Legal Agreement Review: Collaborate with the legal department to review and approve the financial aspects of contracts and agreements
- Financial Communication: Effectively communicate strategic financial insights and risks to the executive team, enabling informed decision-making
- SUCCESS IN THIS ROLE REQUIRES
- Rock-Solid Reliability: You are someone others can count on, especially in high-pressure situations. When you commit, we can move forward with confidence. Your consistency is a stabilizing force in a fast-moving environment
- Ownership from Day One: You absorb complexity, solve problems, and reduce the burden on others. If the team needs to carry you, this isn’t the right fit
- Startup-Speed Execution: You deliver accurate, decision-ready outputs fast—remote work demands even greater urgency and clarity
- Elite Work Ethic: Like the best operators, you show up early, master the details, and never ship ambiguity
- Mission-Driven Communication: In moments that matter, clarity and responsiveness turn challenges into wins. We’re a team that shows up, especially when it counts
- Raising the Bar: You embody a no-excuses culture of precision, iteration, and data-backed decision-making. This is where high standards meet high velocity
Our take
The highly secure and decentralized nature of blockchain technology makes it an attractive prospect for financial projects - but historically, this has come with a compromise on transaction speed and scalability, with Ethereum and Blockchain speeds barely breaking into double digits per second.
Ava Labs’ open-source platform Avalanche enables companies to launch decentralized applications with all the benefits of blockchain, whilst processing a record-smashing 4,500 transactions per second. The company's strategy has been to tailor its blockchain to specific applications, establishing a reputation in the sector through efficient hard-and-fast use cases with low fees. This has allowed it to operate alongside blockchain giants like Ethereum that hoard large amounts of the DeFi market.
In answering the strong appetite for a cheaper and more scalable blockchain consensus, Ava Labs has found a keen audience, and secured the ability to pursue its goal of opening the space up to more users. The Avalanche platform has become the first to partner with Amazon Web Services, becoming part of a project to bring blockchain technology to government and enterprises. The company also partnered with digital identity verification provider Blockpass, to collaborate towards furthering the safety, security and capabilities of the ecosystem.
Freddie
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
61% employee growth in 12 months
Company
Funding (last 2 of 3 rounds)
Apr 2022
$350m
LATE VC
Sep 2021
$230m
LATE VC
Total funding: $586m
Company benefits
- 401k (non-matching)
- Commuter Benefits
- Comprehensive Insurance
- Short-term/long-term Disability
- Life Insurance
- Happy Hour Fridays
- Team Activities
- Remote-friendly Networking
- Unlimited PTO
- Remote Friendly
- Volunteer Time-Off
Company HQ
Hell's Kitchen, New York, NY
Leadership
Kevin Sekniqi
(COO & Chief Protocol Architect)Former Researcher and Software Engineer at Microsoft and NASA, with a PhD in Computer Science from Cornell.
Emin Gun Sirer
(CEO)Founder of Bloxroute Labs and professor at Cornell for 20 years with a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Washington.
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