CFO
Why You Should Join Our Team
Mission
The CFO will be the financial architect of Smartcat's $20M to $100M ARR journey — owning the full finance function, leading the Series D, and building the financial infrastructure of one of the most compelling AI-native platforms in the market.
Outcomes
Drive enterprise value creation, identifying new revenue streams, business model innovations, pricing and packaging opportunities, and strategic investments that expand Smartcat's growth trajectory while improving long-term profitability and capital efficiency.
Design the financial architecture of an AI-native business, creating the operating model, pricing strategy, unit economics, and performance framework that maximize the long-term value of Smartcat's agentic platform.
Architect Smartcat's financial strategy and operating model, building a world-class AI-first Finance organization spanning Strategic Finance, FP&A, Accounting, Tax, Legal, Treasury, and global business operations to support the company's next stage of scale.
Optimize Smartcat's global corporate structure, ensuring the company's legal entities, capital allocation, tax strategy, and international operations are built to scale efficiently and support long-term growth.
Lead Smartcat's capital markets strategy, preparing the company for its next institutional financing by owning investor relationships, board reporting, financial storytelling, due diligence, and overall investment readiness.
Serve as the executive team’s strategic thought partner, translating financial insights into company strategy and influencing product investment, go-to-market priorities, organizational design, hiring, and capital allocation through data-driven decision making.
How You'll Ramp
By Day 30:
Complete a comprehensive assessment of Smartcat's Finance, Accounting, Legal, Tax, and global operating structure, identifying organizational strengths, capability gaps, and the highest-impact opportunities to scale.
Build trusted relationships with each member of the executive leadership team, developing a deep understanding of their strategic priorities, growth plans, and financial dependencies.
Evaluate existing financial systems, reporting, planning processes, and internal controls, delivering a prioritized roadmap for improvement.
Develop a deep understanding of Smartcat's AI-native business model, pricing strategy, unit economics, and revenue streams.
Establish credibility with the Board and executive team through thoughtful financial insights and strategic recommendations.
By Day 60:
Deliver Smartcat's Annual Operating Plan, aligned across every function and translated into a board-ready financial plan that supports the company's growth objectives.
Establish a rigorous monthly business review cadence with the CEO and executive leadership team, providing actionable insights into company performance, investment decisions, and execution against plan.
Recommend improvements to capital allocation, organizational investment priorities, and operating efficiency based on data-driven analysis.
Present a strategic roadmap for evolving the Finance organization, including organizational design, systems, automation, and AI-first workflows.
Begin developing Smartcat's long-term capital strategy, including financing options, investor positioning, and key value creation milestones.
By Day 90:
Design and implement an optimized pricing and financial model that aligns Smartcat's AI-native platform, go-to-market strategy, and unit economics.
Present a three-year strategic financial plan to the Board, including multiple growth scenarios, capital requirements, profitability milestones, and sensitivity analyses across key business drivers such as ARR growth, customer adoption and expansion, and headcount.
Deliver an executive assessment of Smartcat's capital markets readiness, including investor readiness, financial reporting maturity, governance, and recommendations for future fundraising.
Launch a Finance transformation roadmap that modernizes planning, forecasting, reporting, and decision-making through automation and AI, positioning Finance as a strategic partner to every function.
Establish yourself as a trusted advisor to the CEO and executive team, helping shape company strategy through disciplined financial leadership and data-driven decision making.
What You've Accomplished
You have served as Chief Financial Officer or senior finance executive at a high-growth SaaS, AI, or enterprise software company, helping scale the business from approximately $20M to $100M+ ARR while building the financial foundation for sustained growth.
You are an AI-first finance leader. AI is embedded in how you work every day. You've built automations, orchestrated workflows using AI agents, MCP, APIs, or similar technologies, and continuously leverage AI to improve forecasting, analysis, reporting, and decision-making.
You have consistently created enterprise value, identifying new revenue opportunities, improving business models, optimizing pricing and packaging, and increasing profitability through disciplined capital allocation and strategic financial leadership.
You have developed pricing, monetization, and unit economic strategies for AI, SaaS, or consumption-based products, partnering closely with Product, Engineering, and Go-to-Market teams to maximize customer value and long-term business performance.
You have led Finance across multiple international jurisdictions, navigating global entity structures, tax strategy, transfer pricing, statutory reporting, foreign exchange, and consolidation in a rapidly scaling organization.
You have built a reputation for balancing strategic vision with operational excellence, knowing when to zoom out to shape the future of the business and when to dive into the details to ensure flawless execution.
You have successfully led Series C, Series D, or later fundraising efforts, partnering with founders, investors, and boards to develop compelling financial narratives, manage due diligence, and execute complex financing transactions.
You have been the CEO's closest financial advisor, helping shape company strategy through sound judgment, intellectual honesty, and data-driven insight. You deliver difficult news early, challenge assumptions constructively, and enable faster, better decisions across the business.
You have experience presenting regularly to Boards of Directors and institutional investors, earning credibility through clear communication, strategic thinking, and rigorous financial analysis.
Role Details
What You'll Own
An AI-native Finance organization, transforming Finance through AI, automation, intelligent workflows, and agentic technologies to maximize leverage and improve decision-making.
The global Finance organization end to end, including Strategic Finance, FP&A, Accounting, Tax, Treasury, Financial Reporting, Internal Controls, and financial operations across all legal entities.
The company's Legal function, in partnership with the Head of Legal, including legal budgeting, executive-level vendor relationships, and governance.
The systems and tools that power Finance, from planning and reporting platforms to the AI/automation layer that runs underneath them.
The relationship with the Board, delivering the financial reporting and communication cadence that builds Board confidence.
Company-wide financial operating rhythm — the planning, forecasting, reporting, and business review processes that align every function.
What We're Looking For
A builder at heart. You've intentionally chosen high-growth, founder-led companies where you could create systems, scale organizations, and solve hard problems — building from ambiguity energizes you more than operating within established structures.
An AI-native leader, full stop. Using AI daily isn't a nice-to-have for you — it's how you think and work, and you're excited to build one of the world's first truly AI-native Finance organizations.
Comfortable owning broad scope. You're equally comfortable zooming out to shape strategy and zooming in to close the books correctly — and you want both in one seat.
An exceptional communicator and trusted advisor, able to simplify complex financial concepts for the Board and executive team and earn trust through transparency and sound judgment.
Based in the U.S., with regular collaboration across U.S. and European time zones (the CEO is based in Austin, Texas).