Finance Lead

Looking to join a world-class blockchain development team? Ava Labs makes it simple to deploy high-performance solutions for Web3, led by innovations on Avalanche. The company was founded by Cornell computer scientists, who partnered with Wall Street veterans and early Web3 leaders to execute a promising vision for redefining the way people build permissionless networks. Ava Labs is redefining the way people create value with Web3. Join us as we empower people to easily and freely digitize all the world’s assets on one open, programmable blockchain platform.

As the Finance Lead at Ava Labs, you will help manage and strengthen our 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 our financial practices align with regulatory requirements and business goals. You will partner with the CFO on financial execution and process improvement, with opportunities to contribute to broader strategic initiatives as you grow in the role. Reports to the CFO.

WHAT YOU WILL DO

• Financial Planning & Analysis: Lead financial planning and forecasting across the business. Build and maintain financial models to support budgeting, scenario planning, and departmental decision-making.

• Hands-on Execution and Ownership: Personally drive finance projects from start to finish, including gathering and validating data, building models, investigating variances, and implementing solutions. Proactively identify what needs to be done and follow through to completion, independently resolving challenges and coordinating with others when their input or approval is needed.

• 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 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.

• Cross-functional Collaboration: Serve as a financial liaison among engineering, compliance, business development, legal, and accounting teams. Work with People Operations and Human Resources to align financial processes with workforce planning.

• Performance Management: Track and report key financial and operational metrics. Partner with the Head of Business Operations and Analytics to analyze trends and variances and flag business risks and opportunities.

• Innovation and Process Improvement: Identify opportunities to refine financial processes and systems as the business scales, and recommend changes to existing workflows. Support the CFO in identifying processes that can be automated, planning, and implementation of automation.

• 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.

• Corporate Development and Strategy: Support the CFO on corporate development activity, including entity spinouts, divestitures, and asset sales, and help evaluate, structure, and execute potential investments, acquisitions, or similar strategic transactions as they arise.

• Tax Responsibilities: Support tax planning and compliance efforts, ensuring tax positions align with overall fiscal policy and legal requirements.

• Legal Agreement Review: Collaborate with the legal department to review the financial terms of contracts and agreements.

• Financial Communication: Communicate financial insights and risks clearly to the CFO and relevant stakeholders to support informed decision-making.
  

WHAT YOU WILL BRING

• Education: BA or BS in Finance or Accounting; an MBA from a top-tier school is preferred.

• 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 investment banking, corporate development, and fast-paced startup environments is highly valued.

• Adaptability and Resourcefulness: Comfortable being scrappy and resourceful in a dynamic environment, with sound judgment on trade-offs and prioritization under pressure.

• Technical Skills: Advanced financial modeling and analytics skills, comfortable working with large datasets. SQL or statistics experience is a plus.

• Industry Knowledge: Solid understanding of P&L, balance sheets, cash flow management, and general accounting principles. Familiarity with the regulatory landscape for cryptocurrencies is a plus.

• Communication Skills: Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to work effectively across cross-functional teams, and high integrity.

• Self-Starter with a Hands-on Approach: 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 without relying on a supporting team to execute.

• Leadership and Team Management: Comfortable mentoring or overseeing junior finance team members as the team grows while remaining directly responsible for hands-on execution and delivery.

• Attention to Detail and Strategic Perspective: Strong attention to detail balanced with the ability to see the bigger picture; able to think critically and solve problems under deadlines.

CULTURAL ALIGNMENT

At Ava Labs, we thrive in a high-accountability, high-urgency environment where execution matters more than location. We value individuals who don’t just need structure - but create it. They don’t need reminders - they own the calendar. If you’re ready to lead a finance team at the bleeding edge of crypto innovation, you won’t just keep up - you’ll set the pace. If you’re excited about shaping the financial systems that power the next generation of decentralized technology, this is your moment to lead.

(**This is not a guarantee of compensation or salary, a final offer amount may vary based on factors including but not limited to experience and geographic location.)

WHY AVA LABS?

Ava Labs builds Avalanche, the blockchain platform institutions use to bring finance onchain. Since Avalanche launched in 2020, we have helped exchanges, banks, asset managers and fintechs move from experiments to live products, from tokenized funds and private credit to stablecoin payments and, now, the clearing and settlement ledger for the NYSE’s upcoming tokenized securities platform. Avalanche lets institutions run their own purpose-built networks with the performance, costs and participation controls they need, while staying connected to a broad ecosystem of DeFi protocols, liquidity and developers.

We are a team of experts in engineering, finance, economics, product and law, headquartered in New York City. You will work alongside people who have built at leading banks, exchanges and crypto companies, with the scope to shape how capital markets move onchain over the next decade. Ava Labs is backed by investors including Andreessen Horowitz, Polychain Capital and Initialized Capital.

Ava Labs is committed to diversity in the workplace and we’re proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer. We do not hire on the basis of race, color, religion, creed, gender, national origin, citizenship, age, disability, veteran status, marital status, pregnancy, parental status, sex, gender expression or identity, sexual orientation, or any other basis protected by local, state or federal law. All employment is decided on the basis of qualifications, merit, and business need.