The posting
Tern spent years becoming the place travel advisors do their work. Now we're becoming part of how the industry actually transacts. That's a different kind of company, and it needs a different kind of finance function. This is an important bet, and if we get it right, the path to a genuinely large, successful business is clear. It only works if the books and the processes are right from day one- this is your job. If this sounds like a challenge you want to take on, let's talk.
ABOUT TERN
Tern is a venture-backed software company on a mission to reshape the $127B travel agency industry by giving power back to the entrepreneurs who built it.
Nearly 98% of travel agencies are small businesses. These businesses have been chronically underserved by technology. We're here to change that. Our platform helps travel advisors run more efficient, professional, and profitable operations, giving them the modern infrastructure they need to lead the next chapter of travel.
But the impact goes beyond business. Travel advisors help clients move more intentionally through the world. When a traveler works with an advisor, they're more likely to avoid overtouristed hotspots and more likely to spend their dollars in places where they can do real good. That's the kind of travel we want more of.
At Tern, we believe in small business. We believe in the power of travel. And we're building the future of both.
FINANCE LEAD
This role sits at the center of a rapidly expanding travel, fintech, and SaaS company. Our books need to evolve with our business as revenue is no longer just subscriptions running through Stripe. Someone has to decide how all of that gets recognized, build the close that produces it, and make the P&L legible to a leadership team and a board still looking at a SaaS company.
Tern has never had a dedicated finance and accounting hire. Bookkeeping is outsourced and the chart of accounts was built for a software company. Every decision about how this new business gets recorded is still unmade.
You're that person. You'll set the revenue recognition policy, build out our monthly close process, restructure the P&L into the businesses we actually run, own commission payouts, and own the burn. You'll report to our Chief of Staff, who covers finance today and will stay close on supplier economics and the investor-facing work, so you'll have a real partner on the finance side. The accounting is yours outright. You'll be the authority for the company, which means the questions come to you, both internally and externally.
WHAT YOU'LL DO
- Restructure the P&L so it describes the businesses we actually run, with unit economics per transaction, and own the model that comes out of it
- Set Tern's revenue recognition policy across all business verticals
- Oversee the month-end close process
- Own the burn: the policy, the categorization, and the gap between the P&L expense line and what actually leaves the bank
- Write the accounting requirements our payment and operations products have to meet, and work with our Finance Product Lead and engineering to get them built
- Map and close the tax exposure that comes with new business lines
- Be the accounting SME for Tern internal and our Users
WHAT YOU HAVE
- Deep accounting expertise: You've owned the technical accounting at a company where the answer wasn't in a playbook. You can reason from the standard rather than from precedent, and you're the person others come to when nobody knows how something should be booked.
- Built the function: You've been the first or earliest accounting hire at one or two startups. You built the chart of accounts, the close, and the controls rather than inheriting them.
- Revenue recognition judgment: You've made a gross-vs-net call under ASC 606 and lived with it, ideally at a company that was or became the merchant of record. You can reason through the principal-vs-agent test, not just recite it.
- Payments and marketplace accounting: You've accounted for money that flows through the company rather than to it- held funds, payouts, chargebacks, interchange, processing fees.
- Requirements writing: You've told an engineering team what the ledger needs and had it built. You can hold that line without needing to own the roadmap.
- Close ownership: You can spot a wrong close by looking at it. You've owned month-end, not just reviewed the output.
- Pace: You operate without a defined process and without waiting for one. You pick up unowned work.
BONUS POINTS
- Travel tech experience, or any industry where commissions, supplier statements, and trust accounting are normal
- CPA
- You've been part of an institutional fundraise and know what diligence does to a set of books
- You've replaced an outsourced bookkeeping firm and brought the function in house
- Multi-entity or multi-currency experience
WHAT WE VALUE @ TERN
🌱 We're always leveling up.
Whether you're deepening your craft, learning from a teammate, or embracing a new challenge, growth is core to our identity.
🧭 We act with optimistic agency.
We take initiative, seek clarity, and move forward, even when the path isn't obvious. Through every peak and valley, we lead with curiosity, laughter, kindness, and resolve.
💪 We expect operational excellence.
We ship value to our users every single week. We believe that compounding habits lead to sustainable productivity, consistency, and mutual trust.
OPERATING PRINCIPLES: 👂 We deeply understand our users.
At every level of the organization, we obsess about understanding those we serve and the industry we operate in.
➕ We embrace the power of and, and not now.
We challenge trade-offs by asking better questions. We break hard problems into small pieces and tackle them with intention. We also know to make the hard call to say "not right now".
📣 We speak up and move forward.
Everyone at Tern has a voice and a responsibility to use it. We invite healthy tension, share dissenting views early, and challenge each other with curiosity, not ego.
🏃 We move fast and sweat the details.
Velocity matters and relentless progress beats perfection every time. But speed isn't chaos: we stay aligned, own our outcomes, and care deeply about quality.
🤣 We take the work seriously, but not ourselves.
We hire kind, driven people who elevate the room. If you've got a big ego or take yourself too seriously, you won't last.
WHY JOIN TERN?
- Be part of a mission-driven team transforming the travel planning space
- Work with a supportive, curious, and creative team
- Influence and shape our user success strategy from the ground up
- Competitive salary, equity, and benefits package
Tern is committed to building a team that represents people from many different backgrounds and life experiences, reflecting our worldview coinciding with the users and customers we serve across the world. We prefer that you apply, so think of our postings as the start of the conversation. Take the chance, you may be a wonderful add to our Tern team, even if you don't fully match every requirement on the job description.
