Financial Strategy and Operations, Associate

About the role

Aaru is seeking a Financial Strategy and Operations Associate to build the analytical and operational backbone of the company. The role involves financial modeling, forecasting, pricing frameworks, strategic materials, and process design, SOPs, and automations.

Responsibilities

• Support month-end close processes and build and maintain financial models covering revenue forecasting, cost structure, cash flow, and scenario planning across Aaru's contract mix.
• Produce financial and strategic materials for leadership, internal reporting, and investor communications.
• Map and systematize core operational workflows within the finance function, from partner onboarding and billing to renewals management.
• Design and implement SOPs and playbooks that reduce reliance on tribal knowledge and allow the Finance and Operations team to operate consistently as it scales.
• Identify and deploy AI and automation tooling to eliminate manual work and extend team capacity.

Requirements

• 3 to 6 years of experience, with a foundation in investment banking at a top-tier firm, followed by hands-on experience in a finance or operations role at a high-growth startup.
• Analytically rigorous: build clean models and know what good forecasting looks like.
• Experience designing or improving operational processes and translating messy, manual workflows into clean, documented systems.
• Technically resourceful, know how to leverage AI and aim for automation.
• Can build functional internal tools and workflows without engineering support.
• Operate with high ownership in an unstructured environment, identifying what is broken, proposing a fix, and shipping it without needing to be handheld.
• Communicate with precision and can translate complex financial or operational analysis into clear outputs for a founder or executive audience.

Qualifications

• Strong candidates may also have experience structuring or modeling non-standard commercial arrangements such as usage-based pricing, milestone billing, multi-tranche contracts, or custom enterprise deals.
• Experience with an MBA from a top-tier program or a computer science/engineering background.
• Prior exposure to billing operations or revenue recognition in a multi-contract environment.
• Experience supporting fundraising processes, investor reporting, or board materials at a high-growth company.
• A genuine interest in AI and substantive engagement with how the technology works, not just what it does.

Location

This role is based in New York City. Aaru is an in-person company, working 5 days a week in office. Candidates are expected to be located within the New York City metropolitan area or open to relocation.

Benefits

At Aaru, we take care of our people. In addition to a competitive base salary and equity participation, we offer comprehensive medical, vision, and dental coverage, visa sponsorship and relocation support, and various other benefits and perks.