Business Operations and Finance Lead

Business Operations and Finance Lead at Mentra (W25) Building the open source smart glasses operating system. San Francisco, CA, US Full-time US citizen/visa only 3+ years Mentra is building MentraOS, the open-source OS for smart glasses. It's like Android for smart glasses. Smart glasses hardware is finally ready, and we're building the software ecosystem to unlock the next personal computer. Our team (ex. MIT, Tsinghua, JITX (YCS18), University of Toronto) has been building smart glasses for over 6 years. The hardware was never ready, but breakthroughs in micro-optoelectronics has give us lightweight, all-day wearable smart glasses and put us on the precipice of the next personal computing revolution. But the software still sucks. The apps still suck. We're building MentraOS to change that. It's a fully open source operating system for smart glasses that unlocks this new interface for devs and brings their apps into the hands (and on the faces) of users. This is not another B2B SaaS. We're going to eat Apple and Google's lunch. Help us architect the OS for the next personal computer. About the role Business Operations and Finance Lead @ Mentra Mentra is building the operating system and hardware platform for enterprise smart glasses. We recently shifted our focus entirely to the enterprise market. Customers are preparing deployments involving tens of thousands of units over the next eight months, building on the thousands of Mentra Live glasses shipped since our launch in February. We are a fast-moving team of more than 10 people across San Francisco and Shenzhen. We are hiring an exceptional Business Operations and Finance Lead to take hands-on ownership of the critical operational, financial, and administrative work that keeps Mentra organized, accountable, and moving forward. This is a hands-on ownership role. You will coordinate with many people, but your primary responsibility is personally ensuring that the work is completed accurately and on time. This position is ideal for someone who takes ownership, meets demanding deadlines, and ensures that every commitment is followed through to completion. What You Will Own Shipping, freight, customs documentation, inventory, fulfillment, procurement, and RMAs Accounts payable and receivable, invoicing, collections, payments, account reconciliations, bookkeeping, and monthly-close support Payroll, benefits, employee onboarding and offboarding, HR administration, and compliance Insurance, corporate registrations, office operations, travel, vendors, and subscriptions Coordination with factories, suppliers, freight forwarders, customs brokers, and logistics partners Tracking company commitments, deliverables, and deadlines across multiple functions Maintaining accurate operational, financial, and administrative records Identifying risks early, escalating issues clearly, and driving them to resolution Building practical systems, checklists, and automations that make operations reliable, efficient, and repeatable What We Are Looking For The right person is exceptionally organized, dependable, emotionally intelligent, and relentless about closing loops. You must be capable of managing many competing responsibilities without allowing deadlines, commitments, or important details to fall through the cracks. You should have: Strong practical bookkeeping skills, including accounts payable, accounts receivable, invoicing, collections, account reconciliation, and monthly-close support Experience maintaining accurate financial records Familiarity with QuickBooks and financial platforms such as Ramp and Mercury Experience administering payroll and employee benefits through systems such as Gusto A practical understanding of purchasing, inventory, freight, customs, fulfillment, and product returns The ability to coordinate international shipments and work effectively with factories, suppliers, freight forwarders, and customs brokers Exceptional organization, prioritization, and deadline-management skills Strong written and verbal communication Excellent interpersonal skills and the ability to work effectively with founders, employees, customers, accountants, factories, vendors, and logistics partners The judgment to recognize risks before they become serious problems The discipline to document processes, maintain accurate records, and verify that commitments have been completed The confidence to follow up, ask direct questions, and hold people accountable for required information and deadlines The flexibility to shift between different responsibilities as the company’s priorities evolve A willingness to personally perform the work required to achieve the result Experience with hardware companies, fast-moving startups, international logistics, U.S.–China operations, QuickBooks, Gusto, Ramp, or Mercury would be especially valuable. What Success Looks Like Success means that invoices are issued and collected, vendors are paid, shipments arrive, inventory is accurate, payroll is completed, records are current, and company deadlines are met. You will be expected to know: What needs to happen Who is involved When it is due What information or action is still outstanding Whether the commitment has actually been completed When a problem arises, you will take ownership and follow it through until it is resolved. When a deadline is at risk, you will communicate it early and drive the necessary action. The company should not be surprised by missed commitments or unresolved operational issues. Why This Role Matters Mentra is entering a period in which disciplined execution will determine our success. We will face demanding customer commitments, production schedules, shipping requirements, financial deadlines, and operational challenges simultaneously. This role will be foundational to ensuring Mentra meets those commitments. You will help create the organizational discipline and operating structure required for the company to scale successfully. The importance of this position comes from its ownership, reliability, and impact—not from managing a large team or the promise of a future executive title. The right person will become essential to Mentra’s success by ensuring that critical work is organized, completed correctly, and delivered on time. If you are an exceptional doer who takes pride in organization, accuracy, meeting deadlines, and closing every loop, we want to hear from you. Technology MentraOS is the operating system for smart glasses. It runs third party apps locally (as Android apps on an Android phone or tiny Android compute puck) or in the cloud. Smart glasses need to be super lightweight and low-power. So they use MCUs with low power wireless protocols (BLE) and offload all the compute elsewhere. The connect to a phone/compute puck (we're building a custom compute puck in Shenzhen right now). The phone/compute puck is running an always-on process that connects to the glasses, receives data from them, and pushes data to them. The phone/compute puck is basically a relay to the cloud, where most of the magic happens. Transcriptions, LLMs, visual AI, etc. all happens in the cloud. Third party apps can subscribe to context (audio, video, transcripts, locations, etc.) and can push proactive data (AI insights, translation, notifications, etc.). The MentraOS-SDK has an Android (edge) and web (cloud) native integration so third parties can write smart glasses apps that run anywhere. We are a team of deeply technical nerds solving massive problems for the next generation of computing. None of this is remotely easy. Join if you want to help architect the software ecosystem of the next personal computer. #J-18808-Ljbffr Mentra Labs, Inc.