The posting
About Us:
Fireworks is the platform for specialized intelligence, enabling companies to build, train, and serve AI models tailored to their own data, workflows, and products. Founded by the team behind PyTorch and backed by AMD, Atreides, Benchmark Capital, Index Ventures, Lightspeed, NVIDIA, Sequoia Capital, and TCV, Fireworks powers production AI with hundreds of state-of-the-art open models across text, image, embedding, audio, and multimodal workloads. Today, Fireworks is a Series D company valued at $17.5 billion, bringing together an ambitious, collaborative team that's building the future of enterprise AI.
About the Role
We are seeking a highly experienced Head of Equity Administration to own and scale our global equity administration function as we prepare for the next stage of growth and potential public-company readiness.
This leader will be responsible for the end-to-end administration, governance, controls, reporting, and employee experience associated with our equity programs. The role will partner closely with Legal, Finance, Accounting, Tax, People, Payroll, Compensation, and senior leadership, and will play a critical role in building the infrastructure, processes, and controls required for a complex late-stage private company and future public company.
The ideal candidate combines deep technical expertise in equity compensation with strong operational judgment, systems experience, attention to detail, and the ability to lead through significant organizational change.
Key Responsibilities
Equity Plan Administration
- Own the day-to-day and strategic administration of the company’s equity compensation programs, including stock options, RSUs, restricted stock, and other equity-based awards.
- Manage the complete equity lifecycle, including grants, vesting, exercises, releases, cancellations, terminations, repurchases, transfers, and settlement.
- Maintain accurate equity records, capitalization data, participant information, and supporting documentation.
- Oversee equity administration platforms, workflows, integrations, and vendor relationships.
- Establish scalable policies, procedures, controls, and service-level standards for equity administration.
IPO and Public Company Readiness
- Serve as a key functional leader in IPO-readiness efforts related to equity compensation and capitalization.
- Assess current processes and implement the systems, controls, governance, and documentation required to operate effectively as a public company.
- Partner with Legal, Finance, Accounting, Payroll, Tax, Compensation, Internal Audit, external counsel, auditors, and other advisors on IPO preparation and ongoing compliance.
- Support preparation for public-company equity administration requirements, including Section 16 processes, insider-related workflows, trading-window administration, Rule 10b5-1 plans, and related controls, as applicable.
- Develop processes to support future employee stock purchase plans and other public-company equity programs, where relevant.
Compliance, Accounting, Tax, and Controls
- Ensure equity administration processes comply with applicable securities, tax, accounting, and corporate governance requirements.
- Partner with Accounting on stock-based compensation reporting, reconciliations, audit support, and financial close processes.
- Partner with Tax and Payroll on equity-related tax withholding, reporting, settlement, mobility, and international compliance.
- Support compliance with applicable requirements including ASC 718, Section 409A, securities regulations, and relevant international equity rules.
- Design and maintain strong internal controls, including controls supporting future SOX compliance.
- Lead regular reconciliations among the equity administration platform, general ledger, payroll systems, HR systems, and capitalization records.
Global Equity Operations
- Oversee equity administration across multiple jurisdictions and ensure local operational requirements are appropriately supported.
- Partner with Legal, Tax, and external advisors to address country-specific securities, tax, payroll, exchange-control, and reporting obligations.
- Establish scalable processes for internationally mobile employees and cross-border equity issues.
- Maintain global equity compliance calendars and operational documentation.
Governance and Board Support
- Partner with Legal and executive leadership on equity governance, board and compensation committee approvals, grant processes, and plan administration.
- Maintain accurate records of board-approved equity activity and ensure timely execution of approved grants.
- Support preparation of equity-related materials for the Board and Compensation Committee.
- Monitor share utilization, equity plan reserves, dilution, burn rate, and other relevant equity metrics in partnership with Finance and Compensation.
Employee Experience
- Serve as a trusted resource for employees and executives regarding equity compensation.
- Develop clear, scalable communications and educational materials to help employees understand their equity.
- Establish efficient processes for employee inquiries, transactions, and issue resolution.
- Partner with People and Compensation teams on equity communications associated with hiring, promotions, refresh grants, liquidity events, and other programs.
Team and Function Leadership
- Build and lead a high-performing equity administration function capable of supporting the company through IPO and beyond.
- Develop operating metrics, service standards, control frameworks, and reporting for the function.
- Evaluate team structure, technology, vendor relationships, and outsourcing opportunities as the company scales.
- Act as the company’s subject-matter expert on equity administration and contribute to broader compensation and corporate-governance initiatives.
Qualifications
- 10+ years of progressive experience in stock administration, equity compensation, legal operations, compensation, finance, or a related field, with substantial direct ownership of equity administration.
- Significant experience supporting a late-stage private company, public company, IPO process, or major capital-markets transaction.
- Deep knowledge of equity compensation vehicles and administration, including stock options and RSUs.
- Strong understanding of equity-related securities, tax, payroll, accounting, and governance considerations.
- Experience with ASC 718 and equity-related financial reporting and controls.
- Familiarity with public-company requirements such as Section 16, Rule 10b5-1 plans, insider trading controls, and SOX environments.
- Experience administering equity programs for a global employee population strongly preferred.
- Demonstrated experience with equity administration platforms such as Morgan Stanley at Work/Shareworks or Fidelity, Carta, E*TRADE, Computershare, or similar systems.
- Strong analytical skills and ability to manage complex datasets and reconciliations.
- Exceptional attention to detail, judgment, organization, and discretion.
- Strong executive communication skills and the ability to partner effectively across Legal, Finance, Accounting, Tax, Payroll, HR, and Compensation.
- Proven ability to build processes and controls in a rapidly scaling environment.
Preferred Qualifications
- CEP designation or similar equity compensation credential.
- Experience leading equity administration through an IPO.
- Experience implementing or migrating equity administration platforms.
- Experience establishing SOX-compliant equity processes and controls.
- Experience launching an ESPP or other public-company equity programs.
- Experience managing equity programs across multiple international jurisdictions.
What Success Looks Like
In the first 12–18 months, the Head of Equity Administration will have:
- Established a highly accurate, scalable, and well-controlled equity administration function.
- Built clear ownership, documentation, and operating procedures across the equity lifecycle.
- Strengthened reconciliations, controls, audit readiness, and cross-functional governance.
- Prepared the equity function for public-company operating requirements.
- Improved the employee and executive experience around equity compensation.
- Created the organizational, systems, and process foundation required to support the company through IPO and continued growth.
Reporting Relationship
This role may report to the General Counsel, Head of People, Total Rewards, Head of Finance, or another senior executive, depending on the company’s organizational structure.
The Head of Equity Administration will work closely with senior leaders across Legal, Finance, Accounting, Tax, People, Payroll, Compensation, and Investor Relations.
Why Fireworks?
- Solve Hard Problems: Tackle challenges at the forefront of AI infrastructure, from low-latency inference to scalable model serving.
- Build What’s Next: Work with bleeding-edge technology that impacts how businesses and developers harness AI globally.
- Ownership & Impact: Join a fast-growing, passionate team where your work directly shapes the future of AI—no bureaucracy, just results.
- Learn from the Best: Collaborate with world-class engineers and AI researchers who thrive on curiosity and innovation.
Fireworks AI is an equal-opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all innovators.
