The posting
About Warp
At Warp Sciences, our mission is to help the world discover new medicines faster—and build the capacity to do it here in America. We bring AI, robotics, and life sciences together in automated labs that design, run, and learn from experiments, with each experiment making the next one better. We’re not developing drugs of our own. We’re building the infrastructure for the people who do.
We’re looking for a Head of Finance to build the financial and operating foundation for Warp’s next stage of growth. You’ll be directly responsible for the integrity of our books, the monthly close, accounting operations, and the systems and controls that help finance support the rest of the company. You’ll also own FP&A, treasury, fundraising readiness, and strategic finance as those needs develop.
Finance at Warp should help the company move faster. You’ll turn inputs from chemistry, AI, robotics, software, and laboratory operations into clear plans and decisions. You’ll build models that connect technical progress to hiring, capital expenditures, runway, and future financing needs.
This is a highly hands-on role for an AI-native finance leader. You should be able to close the books yourself today—owning the general ledger, reconciliations, accruals, and financial statements—while building the systems that make finance faster and more reliable as Warp grows. You’ll also move between a long-range financial model, a board presentation, a major equipment decision, and an automated finance workflow. You’ll treat AI as a core operating layer—using models and agents to gather information, perform analysis, execute repeatable work, and surface the decisions that require human judgment.
What You’ll Do
- Build and maintain Warp’s integrated long-range financial model, connecting hiring, laboratory capacity, robotics, compute, facilities, equipment, and operating expenses to company milestones and runway.
- Own FP&A, including annual planning, rolling forecasts, scenario analysis, budget-versus-actual reporting, and decision support for the founders and functional leaders.
- Own Warp’s books and execute the monthly close end-to-end, including the general ledger, reconciliations, accruals, financial statements, accounts payable, payroll coordination, tax, audit readiness, controls, and management of outside accounting partners. Build clear processes and use AI and automation to shorten the close, improve reconciliations, identify anomalies, and keep the company audit-ready as it scales.
- Partner with the founders on capital allocation, headcount planning, major investments, and the tradeoffs required to reach Warp’s scientific and technical milestones.
- Build Warp-specific operating models, including cost per experiment, laboratory capacity, equipment utilization, experimental throughput, and the economics of scaling automated science.
- Quarterback future fundraising alongside the CEO and COO, including the financial narrative, operating model, board materials, data room, diligence, cap-table analysis, and overall process management.
- Own treasury, banking, liquidity planning, cash-management policies, insurance, financial risk, and payment controls.
- Oversee cap-table and equity administration, including 409A coordination, option-pool planning, dilution modeling, and grant economics in partnership with legal counsel and People.
- Build an AI-native finance and business-operations stack that connects source systems and uses agents to automate recurring reporting, forecasting inputs, procurement intake, invoice data extraction, approval routing, and other repeatable workflows—while maintaining clear controls and human accountability.
- Design and lead high-leverage business operations across procurement and purchase-order workflows, approval matrices, major vendor negotiations, capital equipment, equipment financing, facilities planning, and the company-wide operating cadence.
- Build the finance function over time, determining what should remain outsourced, what should come in-house, and which capabilities Warp should add as it grows.
What We’re Looking For
We care more about what you’ve built and owned than your title or number of years of experience.
- A track record of building or leading finance within a fast-growing, venture-backed company.
- Deep, hands-on accounting expertise, including the ability to own the books and complete a high-quality monthly close independently. You should also be comfortable with FP&A, cash management, and broader financial operations.
- Experience building integrated, driver-based financial models and translating an uncertain company strategy into a credible operating plan.
- Direct experience with institutional fundraising, board reporting, investor diligence, and the financial work required to support a major financing.
- Strong strategic judgment and the ability to turn financial analysis into a clear recommendation.
- Comfort moving between company-level strategy and detailed execution. You’re willing to inspect the model, reconcile the numbers, negotiate with a vendor, and fix a broken process yourself.
- Experience building scalable accounting operations, close processes, and controls that improve accuracy and reliability without slowing down a small, fast-moving company.
- Strong product instincts for internal systems: you can turn an ambiguous manual process into a clear workflow, data model, approval path, and reliable automation.
- An AI-native approach to finance. You have built or meaningfully redesigned workflows using models, agents, and automation, and you can explain what should be automated, how outputs should be verified, and where human judgment must remain.
- Clear communication and the ability to make complex financial questions understandable to scientists, engineers, operators, board members, and investors.
- High ownership, discretion, integrity, and excitement about problems where the right approach is still being defined.
Helpful, but Not Required
Experience in any of the following is a plus:
- Life sciences, robotics, AI, deep technology, laboratories, manufacturing, or another capital-intensive environment
- Laboratory economics, capital equipment, inventory, cost accounting, procurement, or facilities planning
- Venture debt, equipment financing, government grants, R&D tax credits, or other forms of non-dilutive capital
- Cap-table management, equity administration, compensation planning, and 409A valuations
- Commercial finance, partnership economics, pricing, licensing, or new business-model development
- Building a finance function from the ground up or transitioning accounting from outsourced providers to an internal team
- Experience building agentic or automated workflows across finance, procurement, or business operations, including evaluation, exception handling, and audit trails
- Investment banking, private equity, strategic finance, or a CPA background
Example Problems You Might Work On
- How should Warp allocate capital across chemistry, AI, robotics, software, laboratory capacity, and facilities to reach its next major milestone?
- What will it cost to increase experimental throughput by 10×, and which constraints will appear first?
- How do we connect scientific and engineering progress to headcount, capital spending, runway, and future financing requirements?
- When should Warp purchase, lease, finance, outsource, or build a major piece of laboratory infrastructure?
- How should we streamline purchasing and purchase-order workflows so employees can move quickly while each request reaches the right approvers and leaves a clear audit trail?
- Which parts of the close, forecasting, procurement, and board reporting can agents own end-to-end, and what evaluation and human controls make those workflows trustworthy?
What Success Looks Like
Warp has a trusted financial operating system. Leadership understands actual performance, future commitments, runway, and the consequences of major decisions. Routine workflows are automated, verifiable, and easy to audit, while employees can move quickly within clear approval rules. The company allocates capital confidently, scales its laboratories thoughtfully, and enters its next financing with credible numbers, clear operating metrics, and a compelling financial narrative.
Equal Employment Opportunity Warp is an equal opportunity employer. We consider qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, ancestry, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding, and related medical conditions), gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, age, physical or mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, marital status, military or veteran status, reproductive health decision-making, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.
Reasonable Accommodations Warp provides reasonable accommodations to qualified applicants with disabilities in accordance with applicable law. If you need an accommodation during the application or interview process, please contact [email protected]
Fair Chance Hiring Warp considers qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records in accordance with the California Fair Chance Act and other applicable laws.
General Notice This job posting describes the position generally and does not constitute an offer of employment or an employment contract.
