Head of Finance

Warp•South San Francisco, CA

About The Position

Warp Sciences is building automated laboratory infrastructure that combines AI, robotics, and life sciences to help researchers discover medicines faster. The Head of Finance will build the financial and operating foundation for the company’s next stage of growth, owning accounting operations, FP&A, treasury, fundraising readiness, and strategic finance as those needs develop. This is a highly hands-on role requiring the ability to own the books and monthly close, including the general ledger, reconciliations, accruals, and financial statements, while developing systems and controls that make finance faster and more reliable as the company scales. The role translates technical and laboratory progress into plans and decisions concerning hiring, capital expenditures, runway, and financing needs. It also calls for using AI, models, agents, and automation to handle repeatable work while preserving verification, controls, and human accountability. The Head of Finance will partner with the founders and functional leaders on planning, capital allocation, operating models, fundraising, and business operations. Over time, this person will build the finance function and determine which capabilities should remain outsourced, move in-house, or be added as Warp grows.

Requirements

Track record of building or leading finance within a fast-growing, venture-backed company.
Deep, hands-on accounting expertise and ability to own the books and independently complete a high-quality monthly close.
Comfort with FP&A, cash management, and broader financial operations.
Experience building integrated, driver-based financial models and translating uncertain company strategy into a credible operating plan.
Direct experience with institutional fundraising, board reporting, investor diligence, and the financial work required to support a major financing.
Strong strategic judgment and ability to turn financial analysis into clear recommendations.
Ability to move between company-level strategy and detailed execution, including inspecting models, reconciling numbers, negotiating with vendors, and fixing processes.
Experience building scalable accounting operations, close processes, and controls that improve accuracy and reliability without slowing a small, fast-moving company.
Strong product instincts for internal systems, including turning ambiguous manual processes into clear workflows, data models, approval paths, and reliable automation.
AI-native approach to finance, including building or meaningfully redesigning workflows using models, agents, and automation, and explaining how to automate, verify outputs, and preserve human judgment.
Clear communication skills and ability to make complex financial questions understandable to scientists, engineers, operators, board members, and investors.
High ownership, discretion, integrity, and enthusiasm for problems where the right approach is still being defined.

Nice To Haves

Experience in life sciences, robotics, AI, deep technology, laboratories, manufacturing, or another capital-intensive environment.
Experience with laboratory economics, capital equipment, inventory, cost accounting, procurement, or facilities planning.
Experience with venture debt, equipment financing, government grants, R&D tax credits, or other forms of non-dilutive capital.
Experience with cap-table management, equity administration, compensation planning, and 409A valuations.
Experience in commercial finance, partnership economics, pricing, licensing, or new business-model development.
Experience building a finance function from the ground up or transitioning accounting from outsourced providers to an internal team.
Experience building agentic or automated workflows across finance, procurement, or business operations, including evaluation, exception handling, and audit trails.
Investment banking, private equity, strategic finance, or CPA background.

Responsibilities

Build and maintain an integrated long-range financial model linking hiring, laboratory capacity, robotics, compute, facilities, equipment, and operating expenses to company milestones and runway.
Own FP&A, including annual planning, rolling forecasts, scenario analysis, budget-versus-actual reporting, and decision support for founders and functional leaders.
Own the books and execute the monthly close end-to-end, including the general ledger, reconciliations, accruals, financial statements, accounts payable, payroll coordination, tax, audit readiness, controls, and outside accounting partners.
Develop processes and use AI and automation to shorten the close, improve reconciliations, identify anomalies, and maintain audit readiness.
Partner with the founders on capital allocation, headcount planning, major investments, and tradeoffs needed to reach scientific and technical milestones.
Build operating models for cost per experiment, laboratory capacity, equipment utilization, experimental throughput, and the economics of scaling automated science.
Lead future fundraising alongside the CEO and COO, including the financial narrative, operating model, board materials, data room, diligence, cap-table analysis, and process management.
Own treasury, banking, liquidity planning, cash-management policies, insurance, financial risk, and payment controls.
Oversee cap-table and equity administration, including 409A coordination, option-pool planning, dilution modeling, and grant economics in partnership with legal counsel and People.
Build an AI-native finance and business-operations stack connecting source systems and using agents to automate recurring reporting, forecasting inputs, procurement intake, invoice data extraction, approval routing, and other repeatable workflows, with clear controls and human accountability.
Design and lead business operations across procurement and purchase-order workflows, approval matrices, major vendor negotiations, capital equipment, equipment financing, facilities planning, and the company-wide operating cadence.
Build the finance function over time by determining what remains outsourced, what moves in-house, and which capabilities to add as the company grows.