Senior Manager, Corporate Accounting Operations

Anthropic•San Francisco, WA

20h•Hybrid

About The Position

We are looking for a Corporate Accountant to join Anthropic's Corporate Accounting Operations team. Reporting to the Director of Accounting Operations, you will lead a team of accountants while staying hands-on — reviewing and preparing close materials, setting technical standards, and owning your own portfolio of accounts through close. This is a build role. You will write and own the policies and SOPs your team operates against, design the controls framework, and continuously improve the processes underneath it — including using Claude and other tools to automate work that doesn't need to be manual. We are looking for someone who has done this before: built accounting infrastructure from scratch in high-growth environments and wants to do it again at one of the most important companies in the world.

Requirements

Hold an active CPA licence
Have around 10 years of progressive accounting experience, combining public company experience (in audit or in-house) with time at a high-growth or startup environment
Have a Big 4 audit background — a strong signal of technical depth and audit-readiness standards
Have managed or meaningfully coached more junior accountants and are ready for a role with direct reports
Are comfortable owning accounting policies and SOPs end-to-end: writing them, maintaining them, and being accountable for how the team applies them
Can move fluidly between reviewing your team's work and doing the work yourself — equally comfortable in a reconciliation spreadsheet and a review meeting
Have experience designing and operating controls in a SOX environment
Thrive in ambiguity and can structure work, reach defensible conclusions, and document them clearly even when the answer is not obvious
Are energised by building from scratch rather than maintaining what already exists
Have a clear point of view on how AI tools can eliminate low-value accounting work — and want to put that into practice
Communicate clearly with non-accounting partners and can explain a complex position in plain language

Nice To Haves

Have public company accounting experience, including exposure to financial reporting cycles
Bring deep expertise in two or more specialty areas: ASC 842 lease accounting, ASC 718 stock-based compensation, commissions accounting, payroll accounting, or fixed asset accounting
Have led or played a significant role in an ERP implementation — particularly in a high-growth environment where accounting requirements were evolving mid-project
Have experience building accounting infrastructure from the ground up: chart of accounts design, allocation methodology, or close cadence structure
Bring familiarity with AI or infrastructure-heavy business models where cost attribution and capitalisation decisions are complex
Have managed accounting through significant organisational change — new entity setup, geographic expansion, or business model evolution

Responsibilities

Close Operations
Own a portfolio of accounts through month-end and quarter-end close — including reconciliations, journal entries, and variance commentary
Drive close acceleration by identifying bottlenecks and implementing process changes that reduce cycle time without sacrificing accuracy
Ensure all close deliverables are consistently audit-ready, with clear documentation of positions and supporting evidence
Oversee SOX control preparation and execution across your accounts; review control evidence and own timely remediation of any gaps
Technical Accounting & Policy
Write, own, and maintain technical accounting policies and SOPs across your domain — drafting, evolving, and operationalising them as the business changes
Review technical accounting memos prepared by your team; ensure conclusions are well-supported and consistent with US GAAP
Collaborate with Technical Accounting on new or evolving standards and translate guidance into procedures the team can execute
Own external audit responses within your domain; ensure timely delivery of supporting schedules and audit-ready workpapers
Process Improvement & Automation
Identify repetitive, rules-based tasks across the team's workflows and build scalable solutions — including leveraging Claude — to automate or replace them
Document workflows and controls in a way that supports knowledge transfer, audit evidence, and system scalability
Contribute to ERP and systems implementations, translating accounting requirements into clear specifications and test criteria
Cross-Functional Partnership
Partner with Finance & Strategy, Tax, People Operations, Procurement, and Facilities to keep accounting aligned with business activity in real time
Translate complex accounting positions into plain language for non-finance stakeholders
Support new entity setup and geographic expansion by establishing accounting processes for new jurisdictions as Anthropic grows
Team Leadership & Review
Coach and develop a team of highly agile performers - providing timely, specific feedback that raises the technical and operational bar over time
Hire and onboard accountants as the team grows; set clear expectations and build a culture of precision and continuous improvement
Serve as the first escalation point for complex transactions and accounting judgments across your team's workstreams
Areas of experience include:
Close management and acceleration; process improvement; SOX control design and operation
Real estate and lease accounting (ASC 842); fixed assets, capitalisation policy, and depreciation
Payroll accounting; stock-based compensation (ASC 718); commissions (ASC 340-40); contingent worker accounting
Cash and investments; debt accounting; IDSE, Intangibles, prepaids, accruals, and period-end cut-off controls