VP of Finance

Fathom

10d

About The Position

Fathom is a PLG SaaS business at scale. We just hit our first cash-flow-positive month, our AI inference costs are a meaningful and fast-changing line on the P&L, and our pricing, packaging, and unit economics decisions are some of the highest-leverage choices the company makes. There is real, urgent strategic finance work to be done here — and almost none of it looks like traditional controllership. We need someone who can be the financial brain of the company: own the operating model, build a credible point of view on unit economics in a PLG business, partner with the CEO on pricing and packaging, manage AI/COGS as a first-class line item, and be the trusted second opinion on every meaningful financial decision. We do not need someone to build a finance team. The interesting work here is high-leverage and AI-enabled. Our existing vendors (Pilot for accounting, Sphere for tax, Rippling for payroll, Pulley for cap table) handle the things they should handle. This is a hire-of-one, possibly hire-of-two if the right second person comes along, and we expect it to stay that way.

Requirements

Experience in finance within a PLG business, with strong opinions on modeling self-serve revenue, expansion, and the funnel.
Focus on leverage, not headcount, and pride in shipping impact as a one-person function using AI tooling, vendor relationships, and good systems.
Pragmatic approach, focusing on real, meaningful impact rather than revisiting revenue recognition or restructuring the chart of accounts.
Ability to serve as the CEO's 'numbers brain,' acting as a trusted second opinion and reframing decisions with the right unit economics.
Hands-on approach, including building models, writing SQL, and analyzing cloud bills.
Fluency with AI tooling and active use to compress workload.
Low-ego and easy-going personality, leading through actions.
Ability to discern when to add process and when not to, understanding how the company operates before adding structure.
Test-and-learn mindset, balancing the discipline of numbers with the willingness to run experiments.
Experience managing vendors like Pilot for accounting, Sphere for tax, and Rippling for payroll.

Nice To Haves

Direct experience modeling and managing AI inference costs as a P&L line item.
Background partnering with product on pricing and packaging at a PLG company.
Publicly shared opinions or written about strategic finance, unit economics, or operating models.

Responsibilities

Own and maintain the company's 3-statement operating model, built for a PLG business — bottoms-up by product surface and self-serve cohort.
Manage GTM finance, including marketing spend ROI by channel, customer profitability analysis by segment, renewals and expansion forecasting, and sales productivity analysis.
Own unit economics, cohort analysis, and pricing, including LTV, CAC, payback, gross margin by cohort, NRR, GRR, and financial modeling for pricing and packaging changes.
Manage AI/LLM cost, including forecasting inference cost as a function of usage, model mix, and product decisions, and partnering with engineering on optimization opportunities.
Manage Cloud/COGS, including GCP cost analysis, COGS forecasting, and gross margin engineering.
Lead strategic finance projects, such as build-vs-buy analysis, market sizing, scenario modeling, international expansion math, and comp band design support.
Define KPI definition and reporting standards, including financial metrics that matter and standardizing internal and external reporting.
Act as the CEO's financial advisor, providing a trusted second opinion on financial decisions and helping draft financial narratives for the board, investors, and acquirers.
Manage the 13-week cash forecast.
Oversee headcount planning and comp modeling.
Conduct sales productivity analysis.
Coordinate 409A valuations.
Manage Wefunder / SPV investor communications.
Perform comp benchmarking, commission plan design and modeling.
Help draft the board financial narrative.