Chief Financial Officer
Job Description
We are not looking for a typical CFO. Table stakes is being a competent and experienced CFO capable of helping a growing company scale. Beyond that, we need someone who is deeply passionate about addressing the climate crisis, ready to dig in deeply and understand the myriad scientific factors which affect our approach, and excited to navigate the complexities of a complicated capital stack including philanthropic funding, grants, and project finance.
You’ll be getting in on the ground floor of a climate startup with significant growth potential. You’ll need to be ready to roll up your sleeves and get into the details of our operations, accounting, and finance. While we don’t expect you to live in spreadsheets for long, you’ll need to be very comfortable there.
Ideal location: San Francisco. We are a remote team and candidates in US time zones will be considered.
BACKGROUND
The climate crisis may be the single biggest threat humanity and the biosphere have ever faced. We must do everything we can to meet the challenge head-on. At Vesta we are here to create impact on a planetary scale. Will you join us?
Vesta, PBC is a US-based company and research organization with a mission to turn coastal protection into a carbon negative industry and remove billions of tons of excess atmospheric carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. We do this through the technology we have developed called Coastal Carbon Capture (CCC), which is the practical application of what is known in the scientific literature as Coastal Enhanced Weathering (CEW) of olivine. Enhanced weathering is a nature-based negative emission approach which accelerates the weathering rate of naturally occurring silicate minerals. When ground to the size of beach sand, olivine weathers thousands of times faster than would naturally occur in ultramafic rocks, potentially leading to significant COsequestration from the atmosphere on human timescales.
Our team of scientists, engineers and operators is focused on conducting all the necessary laboratory experiments and field pilots to determine if CCC is a safe, effective, and affordable means of permanently sequestering atmospheric C. We work closely with the coastal protection industry to permit and deploy our field pilots and we engage deeply with coastal communities wherever we plan to work.
Vesta operates in a ‘hybrid’ structure. Vesta itself is a for-profit company (a Public Benefit Corporation), with relationships with 501(c)(3) funds which provide funding for open source research conducted by the company.
RESPONSIBILITIES
- Direct the preparation of all financial statements, including income statements, balance sheets, shareholder reports, tax returns, and governmental agency reports.
- Improve process for building budgets and tracking spend against plan.
- Work with the CEO and rest of the executive team to integrate business and financial strategy with operational planning and execution.
- Support fundraising activities across equity raises, project finance, philanthropic grants, and government grants
- Build out our pitch for project finance capital
QUALIFICATIONS
Personal qualities
- A deep sense of dedication to combating the climate crisis.
- Ability and passion to learn quickly and solve challenges independently and creatively.
- Commitment to productive collaboration.
- Professionalism under all circumstances.
- Meticulous attention to detail.
- Enthusiasm for the Vesta mission and ethos.
- Dedication to fair and equitable treatment of all individuals on the team.
- Desire (not just willingness) to get into the complex and messy details.
Minimum Qualifications
- At least ten years finance and accounting experience
- Experience raising equity capital in venture-backed setting
- At least three years experience as a CFO of a venture-backed company
- Excellent financial modeling skills
- Strong writing skills
Desirable Qualifications
- Experience raising project finance capital
- Banking experience
EDUCATION
MBA strongly preferred
EMPLOYMENT TERMS
- Competitive startup company package including meaningful equity
- Less experienced but otherwise exceptional candidates will be considered for a Director or VP level finance position with the potential to grow into the CFO role
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