Head of Finance

Chef Robotics is on a mission to accelerate the advent of intelligent machines in the physical world. As the rise of LLMs like ChatGPT has shown, AI has the potential to drive immense change. However, we believe AI’s biggest impact will be in the physical world, given that industries like manufacturing, food production, and transportation represent 90% of global GDP. Our goal is to tackle food production, with a goal to put an intelligent robot in every commercial kitchen in the world. We’ve signed multi-year contracts with several large food production and packaging companies and we're backed by investors like Kleiner Perkins, Construct, Bloomberg BETA and Promus Ventures. Our team is smart and super accomplished; you’ll work and learn with engineers and leaders from companies like Cruise, Zoox, Google, Verb Surgical, Tesla, Nuro, Vicarious, Amazon Robotics, Strateos, Built Robotics, Facebook, Plenty, Yelp, and Microsoft.

We are seeking a full-time Head of Finance. This is a highly visible hands-on role, responsible for overseeing the finance and accounting operations, providing technical accounting expertise, and advising senior leadership on financial priorities. You will oversee and contribute to the planning and coordination of all finance and accounting functions, including well-defined budgeting and forecasting processes. Importantly, you will serve as a partner to executive leadership and external investors, through your accurate and timely financial and operational reports and metrics. Responsibilities include:

Financial Management

• Oversee and contribute to the day-to-day operations of the accounting team including Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, Revenue Recognition, Inventory Control & Management, Purchase Order Processing, Payroll, Tax, and Treasury and Equity Management.
• Ensure timely and accurate monthly close process and preparation of financial statements.
• Run the annual budgeting and planning process, and ongoing forecasting process. Monitor progress and changes to keep senior leadership team abreast of the organization’s financial status.
• Manage bookkeeping for the company and responsible for timely filing of Federal & State Income Tax Returns (annual) and Sales & Use Tax Returns (annual & quarterly).
• Help maintain and update company budgets and match against actuals on a monthly basis.
• Coordinate with other teams to ensure timely recording of transactions and the completeness and accuracy of all financial reporting.
• Management of organizational cash flow and cash flow forecasting.
• Help reduce cash burn and keep cash burn low.
• Perform monthly cycle counts and annual count of inventory and ensure inventory counts reconcile with actuals. 

Investor Relations and Fundraising

• Help maintain and update the company financial model.
• Analyze the company's performance and risks and perform the financial planning based on the analysis results.
• Lead investor reporting and relationships for all financial matters.
• Be the financial lead in future fund raising rounds.
• Find methods of acquiring low-cost debt/capital and close low cost debt to pay for robotics as a service.

Build Company’s Financial Infrastructure

• Lead assessment of software and other tools needed for financial management.
• Support people operations with financial resources for benefits, time keeping, PTO, etc.
• Manage all insurance requirements for the company.
• Lead building out the accounting team.
• Update and implement all necessary business policies, accounting practices, and financial controls.
• Ensure effective internal controls and safeguards over company assets, receipt of revenue, payments of authorized expenses, compliance with contractual obligations, and compliance with company policies.
• Prepare analyses and presentation materials as needed by senior management, including reports, forecasts and projections and support for Board and investor presentations and analyses.
• Lead the Finance team to create and maintain financial performance metrics and team OKRs.
• Communicate the metrics and financial analysis to stakeholders to support business decisions.
• Support the business in its continuing growth.

About You

• BA/ BS in Accounting, Finance or Business Administration. CPA is preferred but not required.
• 10+ years of experience in progressive roles, leading and building a finance and accounting organization.
• Supported or led venture capital fund raising rounds.
• Experience with hardware companies with inventory and supply chain. 
• Experience with a recurring revenue model and revenue recognition. 
• Broad-based operational experience covering all aspects of the monthly, quarterly, and annual close, internal, and external audits.
• Familiarity with a startup environment including equity grants and cap table management.
• Experience with integrated systems including payroll, purchasing, payables management, and Billing/Accounts Receivable with a strong understanding of ERPs.
• Strong hands on experience of the full cycle of AP, Order to Cash, and Payroll functions. Broad understanding of business processes and all areas of accounting.
• Experience managing critical projects such as system implementations, ERP system enhancements, and system upgrades.
• Demonstrated organizational skills and excellent oral/written communication skills.
• Strong leadership, team building and interpersonal skills.
• Demonstrated ability to partner productively in a cross-functional capacity.
• Self-motivation and a results oriented approach.