Controller
Mission
About LiveKit LiveKit is building the infrastructure layer for the agentic era of computing. Our platform gives developers everything they need to build, test, deploy, scale, and observe AI agents in production. Founded in 2021, LiveKit powers voice and agentic AI applications for OpenAI, Salesforce, Spotify, Meta, and tens of thousands of other developers, collectively facilitating billions of calls each year.
About This Role
Location: Remote within the United States
We're looking for a hands-on, highly operational Controller to own and scale our accounting function as we move through our next phase of hypergrowth. You will own the accounting function end-to-end: close process, revenue recognition, technical accounting policy, audit and tax management, and financial systems. You'll build and enforce the GAAP foundation that FP&A sits on top of. This role is not about maintaining a mature machine — it's about building one while it's running.
What You'll Do
- Monthly and quarterly close (full ownership — journal entries, reconciliations, flux analysis)
- Revenue recognition policy and execution under ASC 606, including consumption/usage contracts, minimum commits, credit structures, and bundled offerings
- Sales tax compliance: nexus study, Anrok/Avalara implementation, historical VDA process, ongoing accruals
- Deferred revenue waterfall and RPO reporting
- Audit relationship and annual audit execution
- Tax filings (federal, state income; R&D credit; 1099s) — managing external preparers
- Equity accounting: ASC 718 stock comp expense, 409A coordination, option grant journal entries
- Lease accounting: ASC 842 assessment on cloud infrastructure commitments (AWS/GCP CUDs that may qualify as embedded leases)
- Billing system integrity: NetSuite/QuickBooks ↔ Metronome/Stripe reconciliation; ensuring recognized revenue ties to invoiced and collected amounts
- Internal controls: designing and documenting controls sufficient for a first audit and eventual SOC 1/SOC 2 readiness
Who You Are
- CPA required. This person will own the audit relationship and sign off on technical memos.
- 5–9 years of experience: Big 4 Controller or Senior Manager at a VC-backed SaaS company.
- ASC 606 depth — must have personally built or owned rev-rec policy for a SaaS company with usage-based or consumption revenue.
- Subscription-only experience is insufficient given our credit/consumption model.
- First audit experience — either taken a company through its first audit or managed the annual audit process at a Series B/C company.
- Comfortable as the primary counterparty to the auditors, not just a document preparer.
- NetSuite experience — we are on or moving to NetSuite; prior implementation or heavy operating experience required.
- Startup mentality — will be largely solo on the accounting side initially. Must be comfortable building the close process from scratch, writing the accounting policies, and doing the reconciliations themselves before eventually delegating.
Nice to Have
- Experience with consumption or usage-based billing systems (Stripe/Metronome, Recurly, Chargebee, or equivalent) — the rev-rec edge cases in our model (credit expiration, minimum commits, overage treatment) require someone who has seen these before.
- Sales tax implementation experience (Anrok, Avalara, TaxJar) — given the urgency of our sales tax remediation, this meaningfully shortens ramp.
- ASC 842 working knowledge — especially around cloud infrastructure commitments (AWS/GCP CUDs that may qualify as embedded leases).
- ASC 718 and 409A experience at a pre-IPO company with meaningful option grants.
- Experience transitioning work from an outsourced bookkeeping or accounting firm to in-house.
- Prior experience at an infrastructure, API, or developer tools company — not required, but reduces ramp time on the business model.
Our Commitment to You
- An opportunity to build something truly impactful to the world
- Contribute to open source alongside world-class engineers
- Competitive salary and equity package
- Health, dental, and vision benefits
- Flexible vacation policy
Equal Opportunity Employer
LiveKit is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of any characteristic protected by applicable law. If you require a reasonable accommodation during the application or interview process, please contact recruiting@livekit.io.
Compensation Range
$200K - $260K