Head of Finance & Operations

Avante is an AI-native benefits intelligence platform transforming benefits complexity into clarity. For employees, our agent Carly provides personalized, always-on benefits guidance. For benefits leaders, our agent Ava monitors entire programs, surfaces key insights, and delivers strategic intelligence on costs, utilization, and outcomes. We serve enterprise customers like Samsung, Zscaler, and News Corp, and operate on a 4-day in-office schedule (one day remote) from Seattle and New York.

About the role

Avante is hiring its first in-house Head of Finance & Operations. This is the senior-most finance role in the company, reporting directly to the CEO with a seat on the leadership team. We need a business leader first and a finance leader second—someone whose instinct is to build, create, and solve. You will partner with and challenge the executive team, drive cross-functional decisions, and shape the company’s big bets. While operational rigor is expected, what sets you apart is the ability to shape strategy and build scalable systems.

Responsibilities

• Finance, Planning, and Capital
  • Own the financial model, forecasting, and planning; build FP&A, accounting, and financial systems.
  • Provide the leadership team and Board with a clear, current read on the business.
  • Define, track, and communicate key metrics: ARR, NRR, churn, gross margin, cash flow, and LTV/CAC.
  • Steward capital, manage board and investor relations, and represent the finance voice at board meetings.
  • Implement systems and controls to support growth without slowing the business.
• Strategy and Leadership
  • Partner with the CEO and Chief of Staff on operational rigor and cross-functional bets in capital deployment, resourcing, product pricing, and team structure.
  • Translate leadership priorities into financial and operating plans, budgets, and targets; hold the business accountable with clear metrics.
• Operations, Legal, and People
  • Oversee people operations and HR, legal and contracts (including outside counsel), administration, and business operations. (Go-to-market and revenue operations sit with the CRO.)
• Team and Ways of Working
  • Leverage AI as a core part of workflows to model, analyze, draft, and build.
  • Build and lead the finance and operations team, deciding what to hold in-house versus outsource, and sequencing hires.

Requirements

• Direct experience taking a company through Series Seed into growth rounds and deploying meaningful capital.
• 8+ years operating across FP&A, FinOps, revenue/business operations, investing/diligence, or high-growth B2B software.
• Track record of influencing decisions beyond finance as a business partner, not just a finance operator.
• Bias to build and solve, not just govern or control.
• Experience with fundraising and investor/board relations.
• High ownership, bias toward action, and comfort operating in ambiguity.
• Based in or willing to relocate to New York or Seattle; on-site four days a week.

Nice to Have

• Experience managing finance-adjacent functions (people operations, business operations, legal).
• Experience transitioning finance or operations from fractional/outsourced to fully in-house.
• Experience carrying a company from Series A into its growth stage.
• Familiarity with HR, benefits, healthcare, or HR-technology buyers and markets.
• Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Accounting, or related field; MBA or CPA preferred.

Our Values

• Beat Yesterday
  • Act on 70% of the information rather than waiting for certainty; refine as you go.
  • Own your output—AI can assist, but you stand behind everything with your name on it.
• Embrace Type 2 Fun
  • Find meaning in hard work; assume good intent and address issues directly.
  • Do unscalable things today that become scalable advantages tomorrow.
• Stay Hungry, Stay Curious
  • Be the AI expert in your function; learn the product, domain, and business to ask good questions and share insights.
• Act Like an Owner
  • Surface problems early and close the loop—no one should have to ask if their question was seen.

Benefits

• Competitive base salary and meaningful early-stage equity with a path to CFO.
• Full benefits: medical, dental, vision, and 401(k).