SVP of Finance

Avante is the enterprise AI platform for benefits teams. Benefits is one of the most complex, high-stakes functions in any company, and Avante’s purpose-built agents take on end-to-end benefits work, from checking vendor contracts against claims to preparing leadership reports to helping employees use and understand their benefits. Samsung Semiconductor, Real Chemistry, Zscaler and News Corp use Avante today to keep costs in check, support employees across the globe, and get more from their benefits investment. The Role Avante is hiring its first in-house SVP of Finance. This is the senior-most finance role in the company, reporting directly to the CEO, with a seat on the leadership team. We need someone who shows up as a business leader first and a finance leader second, whose instinct is to build, create, and solve. You will be a true partner and challenger to the rest of the executive team, with the judgment to lead cross-functional calls and drive the company forward. You will own finance and the operating backbone of the company (financial planning and analysis, capital strategy, board support, people operations, legal and contracts, and business operations), but operational rigor at this level is expected, not the differentiator. What sets you apart is the ability to shape the big bets and build. What You’ll Do Finance, Planning, and Capital • Own the model, planning, and the numbers. Own forecasting and planning, build FP&A, accounting, and financial systems, and give the leadership team and Board a clear, current read on the business at all times. Define, track, and communicate the metrics that run the business: ARR, NRR, churn, gross margin, cash flow, and LTV/CAC. • Steward capital and own board and investor relations. Act as a steward of capital, tell the ongoing financial and strategic story, engage investor networks, and represent the finance voice at board meetings. • Stand up systems and controls. Put the right systems, oversight, and controls in place to support the next phase of our growth, without slowing the business down. Strategy and Leadership • Work in sync with the CEO and CoS on operational rigor: Bring an independent point of view and lead transformative, cross-functional bets in capital deployment, resourcing, product pricing and how we constitute and run the team. • Turn strategy into operating plans. Translate the CEO's and leadership team's priorities into financial and operating plans, budgets, and targets, then hold the business accountable to them with clear metrics and honest reporting. Operations, Legal, and People • Run the operating backbone. Oversee short-term gaps in the organization; legal and contracts (including managing outside counsel), administration, and business operations. (Go-to-market and revenue operations sit with the CRO). Team and Ways of Working • Use AI as a core part of how you work. We're an AI company. We expect this leader to change everyone’s idea of what is possible in this job because of how they use AI to model, analyze, draft, and build their own workflows. • Build and lead the team. Decide what we hold in-house versus with external partners and contractors, and when, fractionally and full-time. Sequence the hires and develop the people who run finance and operations day to day. What We’re Looking For • Direct experience taking a company through Series A into growth rounds and deploying meaningful capital. • 8+ years operating across functions: FP&A, FinOps, revenue or business operations, investing or diligence, or operating roles in high-growth B2B software. • A track record of influencing decisions well beyond finance, as a business partner, not just a finance operator. • A bias to build, not just to govern. Your instinct is to create and solve, not only to stabilize and control. • Experience with fundraising and investor/board relations. • High ownership, a bias toward action, and comfort operating in ambiguity. • Based in or willing to be in New York, on-site four days a week. Nice to Have • Experience managing finance-adjacent functions such as people operations, business operations, and legal. • Experience moving a finance or operations function from fractional or 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 required; MBA or CPA preferred. The base salary for this role is $225,000–$275,000 + bonus + leadership-level equity. Where you land in that range depends on your experience, your skills, and how well your background fits what the role needs. We also offer: • Equity: Stock options, so you share in what we’re building • Health coverage: Medical, dental, and vision, with employee premiums covered by Avante • Unlimited PTO: Take the time you need to rest and recharge, plus paid company holidays • Retirement: 401(k) • Commuter benefit: $150/month toward however you prefer to get to work Avante is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We’re building a diverse, inclusive team and welcome candidates of all backgrounds. How We Work Our four values aren't aspirational. They translate into concrete operating tenets that shape how we make decisions every day. Beat Yesterday. We re-evaluate our own toolkit every quarter, because the workflows that made you effective three months ago may already be outdated. We act on 70% of the information rather than waiting for certainty. We timebox, execute, and iterate, getting work in front of real people quickly instead of polishing in isolation. And we own our output regardless of how we produced it. AI can get you 80% of the way there. Everything that goes out with your name on it is your responsibility to review, refine, and stand behind. Embrace Type 2 Fun. We take on hard problems and find meaning in the work, even when it's uncomfortable. We assume good intent and follow up directly rather than venting in side channels. We celebrate wins loudly and specifically, naming the actual behavior so the whole team learns what great looks like. We are on by default, because we owe it to each other and to our customers to be available beyond what a regular corporate job would demand. And we do unscalable things today that build scalable advantages tomorrow: every hand-built account play and late-night proposal turnaround earns us the right to scale later. Stay Hungry, Stay Curious. We expect everyone to be the expert on AI in their function before anyone asks them to be. The landscape changes weekly. When you learn something, teach it. Learn enough about adjacent functions to ask good questions. Ask the question you think is too basic, because in complex domains like benefits, the cost of a wrong assumption can be a lost account. And remember: curiosity without urgency is a hobby. Learning has to translate into action on a timeline that matches the opportunity. Act Like an Owner. We say the uncomfortable thing early, raising missed commitments or quality gaps directly with the person within 48 hours. We surface problems when they're small, not the week they become a crisis. Customer-facing work gets priority, always. And we close the loop every time, because over-communication is a feature at our stage, not a bug.