VP, Accounting

Better Mortgage•New York, NY

19h•$225,000 - $275,000•Hybrid

About The Position

Better is rebuilding home finance as an AI-native platform—turning a process that once took weeks into something that can happen in seconds. With over $110B in loans funded and $1.2B+ raised, we operate at real scale while rethinking how homeownership works from the ground up. The category hasn’t caught up yet. That’s the opportunity. Better is looking for a VP, Accounting to own the integrity of our financial records, from loan-level accounting on the day a mortgage funds, through the consolidated financial statements we report publicly every quarter. You'll run the close, own the technical accounting for the instruments that define mortgage banking, and own the control environment that lets a company operating at our scale move quickly without ever putting the numbers at risk. This is a build role, not a maintenance role. Mortgage accounting is hard: loans held for sale carried at fair value, mortgage servicing rights, rate lock commitments and the hedges against them, and most lenders run it on manual reconciliations and hand-built spreadsheets. We don't want to run it that way. You'll partner with FP&A, Engineering, Product, and Capital Markets to automate what should be automated, shorten the close, and build accounting systems that scale with the business. This role reports to the Chief Financial Officer and leads a team of 25+ across general accounting, loan accounting, and financial reporting, with team members based in the US and India.

Requirements

Active CPA
10+ years of progressive accounting experience, including time in public accounting (Big 4 or national firm) and time in industry
3+ years in mortgage banking, specialty finance, or financial services accounting, with hands-on exposure to loans held for sale, MSRs, interest rate lock commitments, hedging, and gain-on-sale
Experience as a Controller, Assistant Controller, or Director of Accounting at an SEC registrant, with personal ownership of SEC reporting and SOX 404, not oversight from a distance
5+ years leading accounting teams, including managing managers
Deep technical judgment across ASC 860, 815, 820, 825, and 718, and the confidence to take a position and defend it
A track record of improving a function, not just running it: systems implementations, close acceleration, or automating reconciliations
High degree of integrity, and the judgment to know which issues escalate and which ones you own
Comfort with speed, ambiguity, and a business that changes faster than the accounting literature does

Nice To Haves

Public company transition experience: IPO or de-SPAC
ERP implementation or optimization experience (NetSuite, Workday, Oracle, SAP)
Experience with securitizations, MSR sales or financing, or sub-servicer oversight and servicing accounting

Responsibilities

Owning the monthly, quarterly, and annual close across all legal entities, general ledger, consolidation, intercompany, and chart of accounts, and driving the cycle shorter without loosening control
Leading technical accounting for mortgage banking instruments: loans held for sale under the fair value option, mortgage servicing rights, interest rate lock commitments, TBA and other hedge positions, and loan sale and transfer accounting under ASC 860
Partnering with Capital Markets and Secondary on gain-on-sale, hedge results, and pair-offs, and reconciling the loan origination and servicing systems back to the general ledger at the loan level
Managing repurchase and representation-and-warranty reserves, along with the assumptions, models, and documentation that support them
Owning SEC reporting end to end: 10-K, 10-Q, 8-K, XBRL tagging, and support of the disclosure committee, and serving as the desk of record for Audit Committee accounting questions
Running SOX and internal control over financial reporting: design, documentation, testing, and remediation, and acting as the primary liaison to internal audit and our external auditors
Overseeing regulatory and counterparty reporting: agency seller/servicer net worth and liquidity requirements (Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Ginnie Mae), HUD/FHA audited financials, state licensing filings, NMLS Mortgage Call Reports, and warehouse and MSR facility covenant certificates
Owning accounting for stock-based compensation and equity instruments, leases, fixed assets, payroll, accounts payable, and coordination of the income tax provision
Writing the technical memos: new standard adoptions, financing structures, non-routine transactions, and defending those positions with our auditors
Partnering with FP&A on budget-vs-actual reviews, forecasting, and long-range planning, so decisions are made on timely, accurate financials
Developing and scaling the accounting team across the US and India, and setting the standard for how it operates
Improving the speed and accuracy of the close through automation, and improving data quality at the source by partnering with Operations, Capital Markets, and Engineering

Benefits

Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage, plus HSA and FSA options with employer matching contributions
Pre-tax Dependent Care FSA, plus commuter benefits with employer matching contributions
401(k) retirement savings plan
Flexible PTO program and company-paid holidays
Paid parental leave
Remote and hybrid work arrangement options [role dependent]
Discounted pet insurance and additional perks
PerkSpot employee discount program
SoFi financial wellbeing platform with 1:1 advice
Employee assistance program supporting mental and emotional wellbeing