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. - Ta