Strategic Finance & Business Operations

TL;DR: We're hiring our first Strategic Finance & Business Operations hire to help build the finance function from the ground up and drive high-impact projects across the business. This is a foundational role — you'll be equal parts strategic finance leader and operator, splitting time between strategic finance (50%) and project-based business operations (50%).

You'll report directly to the Head of Finance and work shoulder-to-shoulder with the founders and leadership team. We're looking for someone who combines the analytical rigor of investment banking or private equity with the scrappiness and speed of an early-stage operator. You should be the kind of person who can build a three-statement model on Monday and negotiate a vendor contract on Thursday.

This is not a back-office role. You will be in the room where decisions are made, armed with the data and frameworks to shape them.

Background

Listen Labs is an AI-powered research platform that helps teams uncover insights from customer interviews in hours, not months. We help customers analyze conversations, surface themes, and make faster, smarter product decisions.

Company highlights — entirely product-led:

• World-Class Team: Founded by serial entrepreneurs (previous AI exit), former co-founders, and talent from Jane Street, Twitter, Stripe, Affirm, Bain, Goldman Sachs, and many more Sequoia-backed startups (plus IOI/ICPC backgrounds).

• Hypergrowth: We're a fast-growing team backed by top-tier investors that's grown several-fold in the past year, and we're set on multiplying that again. We move fast, care deeply about craft, and love working with people who take ownership.

• Traction: Rapid growth across segments with enterprise wins at Google, Microsoft, Nestlé, and P&G.

• Performance: Industry-leading win rate driven by a highly differentiated product.

• Market Validation: Consistently winning customers across all segments with over six-figure lands that lead to quick expansions.

• Viral Product: Interviews are shared with tens of thousands of viewers, fueling PLG, organic expansion, and daily inbound from Fortune 500s.

What You’ll Do

• Strategic Finance (50%)

  • Build dashboards and reporting that give leadership real-time visibility into revenue, burn, unit economics, and key operating metrics

  • Support fundraising, investor relations, and strategic transactions (M&A, partnerships) with data-driven analysis and materials

• Business Operations (50%)

  • Take on high-priority, ambiguous projects that move the needle — pricing strategy, market analysis, new market entry, partnership evaluation, sales compensation design, or whatever the business needs most

  • Build operational infrastructure and processes as the company scales from Series B to growth stage — the systems, workflows, and playbooks that don't exist yet

  • Partner cross-functionally with Sales, Marketing, Product, and Engineering to bring financial and analytical rigor to business decisions

  • Drive procurement, vendor evaluation, and cost optimization across the company

  • Identify and solve operational bottlenecks before they become problems — you see around corners

Who You Are

• 2-5 years of experience with a strong foundation in investment banking, private equity, or consulting, followed by experience at a high-growth technology company (Series A-D stage preferred)

• You've built financial models in your sleep. Excel and Google Sheets are extensions of your brain

• You thrive in ambiguity. You don't need a playbook — you write the playbook

• High agency, low ego. You'll build a board deck in the morning and chase down a missing invoice in the afternoon. No task is beneath you

• Exceptional judgment and prioritization. You know the difference between what's important and what's urgent

• Strong communicator who can distill complexity into clear, actionable recommendations for founders and leadership

• SQL proficiency required. Python or BI tools are a plus. Bonus if you know vibe coding

• Comfortable operating with incomplete information and making decisions at speed

• You take ownership of outcomes, not just tasks. When you see a problem, you fix it — you don't wait to be asked

Why This Role

• First strategic finance hire — you will define how this function operates and set th