Head of Finance

Palo Alto, CA, United States

About Arc Institute

The Arc Institute is a new scientific institution that conducts curiosity-driven basic science and technology development to understand and treat complex human diseases. Headquartered in Palo Alto, California, Arc is an independent research organization founded on the belief that many important research programs will be enabled by new institutional models. Arc operates in partnership with Stanford University, UCSF, and UC Berkeley.

While the prevailing university research model has yielded many tremendous successes, we believe in the importance of institutional experimentation as a way to make progress. These include:

Funding: Arc will fully fund Core Investigator’s (PI’s) research groups, liberating scientists from the typical constraints of project-based external grants.

Technology: Biomedical research has become increasingly dependent on complex tooling. Arc Technology Centers develop, optimize and deploy rapidly advancing experimental and computational technologies in collaboration with Core Investigators.

Support: Arc aims to provide first-class support—operationally, financially and scientifically—that will enable scientists to pursue long-term high risk, high reward research that can meaningfully advance progress in disease cures, including neurodegeneration, cancer, and immune dysfunction.

Culture: We believe that culture matters enormously in science and that excellence is difficult to sustain. We aim to create a culture that is focused on scientific curiosity, a deep commitment to truth, broad ambition, and selfless collaboration.

Arc scaled to nearly 100 people in its first year. With $650M+ in committed funding and a state of the art new lab facility in Palo Alto, Arc will continue to grow quickly to several hundred in the coming years.

About the position

Arc is hiring a Head of Finance to play an important leadership role in our growth over the coming years. The finance team at Arc is deeply integrated into science and operations, helping steward our resources, plan and execute flawlessly, and collaborate with our academic partners at Stanford, Berkeley, and UCSF. You will work closely with Arc’s founders, our Core Investigators, Technology Centers, and operations leaders to build great tools and systems, manage our financial priorities, and make critical strategic decisions. You will manage a small team and serve on our senior leadership team, reporting to Arc’s COO.

About you

You want to have a real impact. You can apply your skills in many places, but you want to contribute to breakthroughs that could save lives and help people.

You are hands on. You love to roll up your sleeves and get things done. You thrive as a player-coach; no job is too big or small.

You live in the details. You care about getting everything right, even when you’re the only one who notices.

You believe finance is about people. A spreadsheet is only as good as what decision it helps you make. You see yourself as a leader and partner first.

In this position you will

Provide advanced subject matter expertise and guidance regarding all finance-related decisions for an organization in fast growth and with a high level of structural complexity

Manage the finance organization, delivering FP&A and other day to day finance needs

Work closely with our Core Labs and Technology Centers to help them understand their budgets and spend, supporting thoughtful and impactful procurement

Build a long term roadmap for the finance team and set ambitious strategic goals in our quarterly planning process

Lead critical projects including annual non-profit audit, tax filings, annual budget and headcount process, and transactions including investment in spinouts and IP licensing deals

Upgrade Arc’s procurement and pricing strategy to ensure efficient use of our multi-million dollar annual spend

Collaborate with our University Relations and Legal teams to manage external grants to our affiliates and partners

Work with Arc’s donors to provide updates and financial projections to ensure smooth cash flow

Partner with other leaders on our leadership team to set organizational priorities, build a strong culture, and make critical decisions

Job Requirements

Educational background in finance, accounting, economics, or business

10+ years of experience in complicated corporate or academic finance environments with FP&A leadership experience.

5+ years experience as a people manager

Expertise with financial software systems, including implementing, using, and improving an ERP

Strength in modeling for and reporting to stakeholders with minimal finance context

Exceptional communication and interpersonal skills

Comfort working independently in a fast-paced startup environment

Understanding of lab environments and academic or biotechnology operations is a plus

The base salary range for this position is $232,350 to $286,950. These amounts reflect the range of base salary that the Institute reasonably would expect to pay a new hire or internal candidate for this position. The actual base compensation paid to any individual for this position may vary depending on factors such as experience, market conditions, education/training, skill level, and whether the compensation is internally equitable, and does not include bonuses, commissions, differential pay, other forms of compensation, or benefits. This position is also eligible to receive an annual discretionary bonus, with the amount dependent on individual and institute performance factors.

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