Finance & Operations Lead

Simile • Palo Alto, CA

3d • Onsite

About The Position

Pilots don’t train with real passengers. Surgeons don’t practice on real people. Yet, the most consequential decisions in society are often pushed straight to production—entrusted to intuition and luck
Simile is changing that. We have built the first AI simulation of society, populated by generative agents based on real humans. Our research pioneered the field of AI-based simulation, proving it is possible to model human behavior with high accuracy. Today, we are developing a foundation model to predict human behavior in any situation, at any scale. From rehearsing earnings calls to modeling litigation outcomes and testing global policy changes, leading companies use Simile to preview the effect before triggering the cause.
We are backed by $100M in funding led by Index Ventures, with participation from Hanabi, A, Bain Capital Ventures, and AI visionaries including Andrej Karpathy, Fei-Fei Li, Adam D’Angelo, and Guillermo Rauch.
Simile is seeking our first dedicated Finance & Operations hire to build key infrastructure following our $100M Series A.
You will come in with a clear point of view on what best-in-class finance and ops infrastructure looks like at a high-growth startup. You’ll assess where we are, develop your recommendations, pressure-test with leadership, then own end-to-end deployment and ongoing process.
This role is ideal for someone with at least 5–8 years of experience who has worked inside or adjacent to a well-run finance or ops function, has iterated on what good looks like, and is now ready to build one from the ground up and own it.

Requirements

• Experience: Minimum 5–8 years of professional experience, with at least 2 years in a finance or core operations role
• Background: You have seen a well-run finance function up close and you are ready to take that experience and build something best-in-class from scratch
• Technical Expertise: Strong command of finance and accounting fundamentals. A CPA is not required, but strong financial acumen is a must
• Tools: You have a strong foundation across the finance stack and have a perspective of what good looks like. You are comfortable evaluating vendors, making build-vs-buy calls, and getting up to speed quickly on new systems
• Profile: High ownership mentality - you don’t wait to be told what needs fixing, and you don’t hand things back half-done. You can work independently, make judgment calls, and communicate clearly with non-finance stakeholders
• Location: Based in or willing to relocate to NYC or Palo Alto; this is an in-person role

Responsibilities

• Finance Systems & Controls: Assess the current state of our finance and ops infrastructure, develop a prioritized roadmap and recommendations, pressure-test with leadership, then own tool selection, deployment, and ongoing process end-to-end
• Financial Operations: Own the chart of accounts, close process, financial reporting, AP/AR workflows, vendor payment processes, expense management, and banking operations
• External Partners: Coordinate with external accountants, tax advisors, and auditors, owning the relationship day-to-day and managing deliverables
• Compliance & Regulatory: Own multi-state tax compliance, business registrations, corporate filings, insurance renewals, and internal controls appropriate for a Series A company
• People Operations: Own the mechanics of the employee lifecycle: onboarding, offboarding, HRIS, benefits administration, and multi-state payroll processing and reconciliation
• Operational Infrastructure: Identify and eliminate back-office bottlenecks, evaluate and implement tools that improve how we operate, and design processes that are repeatable and scalable as we grow

Benefits

• Compensation packages at Simile include base salary, equity, and comprehensive benefits.
• Candidates will receive health, dental, and vision coverage, along with flexible time off.
• Certain roles may receive role-specific or location-specific supplemental benefits.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level
• Education Level: No Education Listed