Head of Accounting

ABOUT CARTESIA Our mission is to architect AI that learns from and interacts with the world like humans do. We're pioneering the model architectures that will make this possible. Our founding team met as PhDs at the Stanford AI Lab, where we invented State Space Models or SSMs, a new primitive for training efficient, large-scale foundation models. Our team combines deep expertise in model innovation and systems engineering paired with a design-minded product engineering team to build and ship cutting edge models and experiences. We're funded by leading investors at Index Ventures and Lightspeed Venture Partners, along with Factory, Conviction, A Star, General Catalyst, SV Angel, Databricks and others. We're fortunate to have the support of many amazing advisors, and 90+ angels across many industries, including the world's foremost experts in AI. About the Role Cartesia is hiring a Head of Accounting to build out the financial operations and prepare the company for long term strategic milestones. This is a foundational hire and the first dedicated accounting leader at Cartesia. You will stand up the business processes, financial controls, and regulatory infrastructure that allow the company to scale with institutional rigor through growth stage fundraising, formal audit processes, and the reporting sophistication required for public company readiness. You will own core workflows end-to-end initially and eventually build an accounting team underneath you. Your Impact - Own the full accounting and FinOps scope: Accounts Receivable / Payable, monthly close, audit readiness, tax compliance, equity administration, treasury, payroll, regulatory filings, and ERP oversight - Drive monthly close with precision and speed. Implement the processes, controls, and tooling needed to close reliably at growth-stage scale - Own ASC 606 revenue recognition end to end, ensuring accuracy across contract structures and geographies as our revenue model evolves - Lead audit readiness: build the controls and documentation so that we are proactively ready for formal audits - Manage the tax compliance relationship for US Federal, State, and International filings. Own the oversight, timelines, and quality assurance - Administer equity via Carta, including cap table accuracy, 409A valuations, option grants, and employee-facing equity support - Oversee treasury and cash management; ensure forecasting and controls match our growth trajectory - Own ERP and financial systems. Evaluate, implement, and optimize the stack as complexity increases - Run payroll and ensure compliance across all active jurisdictions - Build the operational playbooks and team structure required to scale the finance function from Series B through the next stages of company growth What You Bring - 3–5 years in Big 4 audit, followed by progressive accounting leadership experience at a growth stage SaaS or AI native company where you were one of the first dedicated accounting hires and helped stand up the FinOps function from scratch. You know what institutional rigor looks like and how to apply it in a fast moving environment. - CPA required - Deep ASC 606 fluency. You have owned revenue recognition end to end and can navigate complex contract structures without outside help - Owned at least one Big 4 audit end to end. You know what auditors look for before they ask, and you build process and reporting toward it proactively - Carta administration experience, including cap table management, 409A process, and equity operations are not new territory for you - Hands-on operator: you are comfortable getting into the details, running the work yourself, and building process before delegating it - High agency. You ou identify what needs to happen, make it happen, and write up what you learned in a way that is useful to the people around you - Strong written communication; your memos, reconciliations, and board-ready summaries are clean on first draft Nice to Have - Experience managing a tax comp