First Finance Hire

The role

This person will own the financial operating system end to end. You will manage the books, close process, financial model, and cash forecast while supporting strategic decisions as the company scales.

What you will do

• Own the quality of the books and close process
• Build a trusted view of where money is going
• Take over the financial model and cash forecast
• Manage accounting and finance vendors
• Improve all systems and controls
• Lead audit readiness
• Allocate capital
• Model major investments
• Negotiate important relationships
• Support key decisions as the company grows

Required qualifications

• Financial generalist who combines operational rigor with strong financial judgment
• Sophisticated enough to understand the entire financial picture
• Hands-on enough to personally chase down an invoice, manage an accounting firm, negotiate a vendor renewal, or rebuild a cash forecast

Nice to have

• Meaningful experience inside a startup
• Early finance hire or second-in-command at a high-growth technology company
• Strategic finance background after rigorous training in banking
• Started in accounting and grown into a broader role

About the company

Chai Discovery builds the computer-aided design suite for molecules. The company trains frontier models that learn the underlying foundations of biochemical structure and interaction.