Director, Corporate Accounting

Who We Are Lightning AI is the company behind PyTorch Lightning. Founded in 2019, we build an end-to-end platform for developing, training, and deploying AI systems—designed to take ideas from research to production with less friction. Through our merger with Voltage Park, a neocloud and AI Factory, Lightning AI combines developer-first software with cost-efficient, large-scale compute. Teams get the tools they need for experimentation, training, and production inference, with security, observability, and control built in. We serve solo researchers, startups, and large enterprises. Lightning AI operates globally with offices in New York City, San Francisco, Seattle, and London, and is backed by Coatue, Index Ventures, Bain Capital Ventures, and Firstminute. WHAT WE’RE LOOKING FOR We are looking for a Director, Corporate Accounting to own and scale critical accounting operations as Lightning grows. You will be responsible for supporting accurate financial reporting, improving close processes, strengthening internal controls, and building scalable accounting workflows across the business. This role will partner closely with Finance, FP&A, People Operations, Sales Operations, Legal, and external advisors to ensure accounting operations are accurate, compliant, and built for scale. This is a high-impact role for someone who combines strong technical accounting knowledge with an operational mindset. You will help manage core accounting activities, payroll accounting, commissions accounting, reconciliations, journal entries, close-related processes, and cross-functional accounting operations. The accounting scope is broad, leadership visibility is high, and the work directly supports financial accuracy, operating discipline, audit readiness, and long-term business scalability. This is a hybrid role based in either New York City or San Francisco with in-office requirements of 2 days per week. The salary range for this role is $200,000–$220,000 . WHAT YOU'LL DO Lead and build the Corporate Accounting team Hire, develop, and lead a team of 6+ across workstreams including revenue accounting (ASC 606), period-end general ledger close, fixed assets, and AP and AR operations Establish team operating cadences — close calendars, review meetings, escalation paths, and performance management Develop and mentor the team, building the bench needed as the business scales Own the close across three legal entities Own the monthly, quarterly, and annual close across all entities, delivering stand-alone trial balances and a clean consolidation Build the close playbook, calendar, and review controls, currently undocumented Stand up the intercompany framework, elimination process, and consolidation cadence across the group Deliver the first-year audit Serve as primary internal owner of the first-year audit, partnering with a Big 4 accounting firm Reconstruct subsidiaries' financial reporting pre- and post-merger, in partnership with external advisory teams Manage data requests, audit deliverables, and audit liaison support across accounting workstreams Partner with Tax, Treasury, and Strategic Finance on cross-functional audit areas Manage consultant transition and efficiency Lead the structured transition of close work from consultants to a permanent in-house team Document every process before release, and define the scope of managed services while internal hires onboard Ramp consultant load down to under 10% of finance capacity before year-end as full-time hires become productive Technical accounting and complex transactions Lead accounting memos under ASC 805 (purchase accounting), ASC 606 (revenue recognition for AI compute and infrastructure arrangements), ASC 842 (data center and equipment leases), ASC 360 (impairment), and ASC 350 (goodwill) Stay current on accounting developments relevant to AI infrastructure, including evolving guidance on cloud arrangements, data center leases, and capacity contracts Operational accounting and systems Oversee