Controller

Basis AI•New York, NY

32d•$200,000 - $250,000•Onsite

About The Position

Basis is looking for a Controller to build the financial systems and operating foundation for our next stage of growth. You’ll own the integrity of our accounting and help us develop a clear, timely understanding of how the company earns and spends money. This role reports to the Head of Finance. What makes this role unique is that you’ll be the Controller at a company working to automate accounting itself. Basis’s own finance function should be a proving ground for the future we’re building: a place where we apply AI to real accounting work, learn where it creates leverage, and set a high bar for speed, accuracy, control, and judgment. You’ll bring an AI-forward mindset to how the function operates. That means redesigning workflows—not simply layering tools onto old processes—across the close, reconciliations, spend monitoring, reporting, and other core work. You’ll determine where AI can own work, where human review matters, and how the systems remain explainable and auditable as they scale. You’ll be a steward of that operating model. You’ll work closely with Product and Engineering, bringing a practitioner’s perspective to the same problems our customers are trying to solve and turning what we learn internally into better systems, sharper product insight, and a credible example of what an AI-native accounting function can look like. This is a high-ownership role for someone who combines technical accounting depth with systems thinking, curiosity, and strong business judgment. You should enjoy getting into the details while also helping define how a modern finance function operates at an AI company.

Requirements

6-12 years of progressive accounting and finance experience, including meaningful ownership of accounting operations at a high-growth company.
Strong technical accounting knowledge across financial reporting, revenue recognition, accruals, capitalization, equity, and other areas relevant to a fast-growing AI company.
A systems mindset: you can translate messy processes into clear workflows, reliable data, thoughtful controls, and scalable operating rhythms.
Comfortable designing the system, implementing it, reviewing the details, and doing the work yourself when needed.
Experience building systems for accounts payable, procurement, expense management, purchasing approvals, vendor commitments, and spend reporting.
Strong analytical judgment and the ability to explain not only what changed financially, but why it changed and what the business should do about it.
The ability to partner effectively with technical and nontechnical teams, including Engineering, Product, Sales, People, and company leadership.

Nice To Haves

Experience helping an accounting organization evolve from founder-led or highly manual processes into a scalable, well-controlled function.
Experience managing or analyzing cloud, compute, model, data, infrastructure, or other variable technology costs.
Experience building procurement, approval, vendor-management, cost-allocation, or expense systems from scratch that improved visibility without slowing the business down.

Responsibilities

Own the integrity of our accounting and help us develop a clear, timely understanding of how the company earns and spends money.
Redesign workflows across the close, reconciliations, spend monitoring, reporting, and other core work, determining where AI can own work, where human review matters, and how systems remain explainable and auditable as they scale.
Work closely with Product and Engineering, bringing a practitioner’s perspective to the same problems our customers are trying to solve.
Turn internal learnings into better systems, sharper product insight, and a credible example of what an AI-native accounting function can look like.
Build systems for accounts payable, procurement, expense management, purchasing approvals, vendor commitments, and spend reporting.
Ensure leadership receives accurate, timely financial information and trusts the underlying data.
Make the monthly close run on a clear cadence and become faster and more automated month-over-month.
Ensure Basis can clearly understand spend by vendor, team, category, product, customer, and underlying cost driver where relevant.
Establish clear ownership, approval paths, and guardrails for purchasing and commitments that manage risk without creating unnecessary friction.
Ensure commercial agreements flow cleanly into billing, collections, revenue recognition, and reporting.
Develop accounting workflows, integrations, controls, and data that improve with scale instead of becoming increasingly manual or fragile.
Maintain organized financial records, policies, supporting documentation, tax matters, and controls for external scrutiny.