Vice President of Finance (San Francisco)

Key Responsibilities

• Reporting directly to co-founder Jeff Wang, the VP Finance will be Exa’s first dedicated finance leader and a key member of the executive leadership team, driving financial strategy, operational rigor, and business insight across the organization.
• This role requires a strategic thinker with strong leadership capabilities, exceptional financial acumen, and a proven track record in building financial infrastructures to support hyper growth.
• Equally important is the ability to operate as a true business partner—someone who can translate complex financial data into clear strategic insights, partner closely with GTM and product leadership, and communicate with precision and confidence to the founders, board, and investors.
• With its Series C just closed and revenue scaling rapidly, Exa needs a leader who brings rigor to both compute-driven unit economics and top-line growth, while building the finance function from 0 to 1.

Build the Finance Function

• Establish internal controls, systems, and processes to support scale and audit readiness.
• Bring core accounting and finance operations in-house.
• Hire and develop a high-caliber finance team from the ground up.

Financial Planning & Analysis / Financial Operations

• Build and own financial models and forecasting suited to a consumption-based API business.
• Own company-wide budgeting and scenario planning.
• Establish and refine FP&A processes that give leadership real financial visibility and support fast, data-driven decisions.
• Ensure the integrity of financial reporting and compliance with applicable regulations.

Strategic Finance

• Serve as a key strategic partner to the leadership team on all financial decisions—from pricing and unit economics to capital allocation.
• Partner with GTM on pricing, packaging, and strategic deal-making.
• Partner with Engineering on infrastructure and product decisions that carry unit-economic implications.
• Own capital allocation strategy and treasury.

Fundraising & Investor Relations

• Own investor reporting and board communications.
• Prepare Exa for future financing events - Series D and beyond.

Qualifications

• Experience leading institutional fundraising.
• Hands-on experience managing compute costs in an infrastructure, AI, or usage-based business.
• Operator mentality: moves fast, builds from scratch, and thrives in ambiguity.
• Bachelor’s degree in finance, accounting, or a related field.
• Strong commercial instincts - ability to partner closely with GTM leadership on revenue strategy, pricing, and unit economics.
• 8-15 years of finance experience, with meaningful time at a high-growth technology company.
• Low ego, high accountability - a collaborator who earns trust through execution.
• Exceptional communicator - concise, direct, and able to distill complex financial data into clear executive and board-level insights.
• Track record building a finance function at a scaling startup - you’ve seen what great looks like and how to build it.
• Strategic finance background: IB, PE, venture capital, or growth-stage operator experience.
• Deep fluency in financial modeling and FP&A for API/consumption-based business models.