Head of Finance | $20M+ Series A | High-Growth AI

Ember Search has been retained by a rapidly scaling Series A AI company in NYC to hire their first VP of Finance.

The company has gone from effectively zero to approaching $10M in ARR in roughly 12 months, while already winning blue-chip enterprise customers across some of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world.

The business is using AI to modernize how pharma companies commercialize new therapies. Today, much of this market is still dominated by large traditional agencies, consultancies, and highly manual workflows. The founders estimate the broader pharma commercialization market at approximately $150B, and believe there is currently no direct AI-native competitor offering the same proposition.

The company recently raised $20M+ in Series A funding from top-tier institutional investors and has 4+ years of runway at its current burn rate, giving it significant capital to continue investing aggressively into growth.

They’re now looking to hire their first in-house finance leader to work closely with the founders, help them make better decisions, and play a pivotal role as the company enters its next stage of explosive growth.

The leadership team wants finance helping determine where capital gets deployed, which customers and growth initiatives deserve greater investment, how quickly the company should scale, and how to turn its recent momentum into repeatable growth.

There is also a clear opportunity for this person to grow toward CFO as the company scales.

Why this role is compelling

• From roughly zero to approaching $10M ARR in ~12 months
• $20M+ Series A with 4+ years of runway at current burn
• Blue-chip enterprise customer base across global pharma
• Operating in an estimated $150B market still dominated by legacy service providers
• Founders believe there is currently no direct AI-native competitor offering the same solution
• Clear path to grow into the CFO seat over time

What you’ll own

• Build the financial infrastructure, forecasting cadence, operating model, and management reporting
• Partner with the founders on capital allocation and investment decisions
• Develop visibility into customer-level margins, unit economics, and revenue quality
• Partner with Sales leadership on quota attainment, pipeline economics, and GTM productivity
• Build stronger marketing attribution and ROI measurement
• Help determine how aggressively the company invests across headcount, product, and growth
• Support board reporting and future fundraising, including potential Series B preparation

Ideal profile

• Roughly 7–10+ years of experience across strategic finance, FP&A, investment banking, private equity, or related disciplines
• Experience within a Series B+ enterprise SaaS and/or AI startup strongly preferred
• Ideally has seen both later-stage scale and earlier-stage execution
• Could be a current VP of Finance, or a strong Finance Director / Senior Director at a Series C/D business ready to step into the #1 finance seat
• B2B / enterprise experience strongly preferred
• Comfortable operating across both strategic and hands-on work
• Commercially minded and growth-oriented, with the ability to turn financial data into decisions
• Comfortable building rather than inheriting an established finance organization