Head of Finance & Operations - San Francisco Bay Area
Flagright
Accounting & Finance, Operations
San Francisco, CA, USA
Flagright
AI-native AML compliance platform for fintechs & banks
Head of Finance & Operations - San Francisco Bay Area
About the role
About Flagright:
Flagright is an AI operating system for financial crime compliance used globally by Fortune 500 companies, large banks, fintechs, and fast growing startups. Flagright enables real-time risk detection, automated investigations, and intelligent decisioning, helping compliance teams operate at their full potential in the fight against financial crime.
We operate as a lean, high-performance team with high individual ownership and direct access to leadership.
Role overview:
The Head of Finance & Operations will take ownership of Flagright’s financial, HR, and legal operations globally, spanning our offices in the US, UK, India, and Singapore. This is a hands-on, operational role for a generalist with strong finance & legal expertise who thrives in high-growth environments and is excited to take on significant responsibilities while building and optimizing processes to support rapid scaling.
People who thrive at Flagright:
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Take ownership and operate with urgency
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Are resourceful and solution-oriented
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Learn quickly and adapt to changing priorities
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Have strong opinions and can defend them
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Want to work with no-BS people building something important
People who struggle here:
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Need extensive hand-holding
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View high expectations as “unreasonable”
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Actually prioritize work-life balance
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Can’t handle ambiguity
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Prefer consistent routine over fast-changing priorities
Key responsibilities:
Finance
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Prepare and manage investor updates, Board meetings, and monthly consolidated management accounts spanning 4 entities across US / UK / India / Singapore
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Lead financial planning and analysis (FP&A), including budgeting, forecasting, and variance analysis
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Develop and maintain detailed financial models to support strategic decision-making and operational planning
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Oversee accounts payable and enforce accounts receivable processes to maintain smooth cash flow operations
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Collaborate with external accountants and tax experts to optimize accounting and tax strategies, ensuring compliance and efficiency
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Implement inter-company pricing measures, including managing transfer pricing documentation and compliance
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Oversee external auditors for a yearly audit across 4 global entities
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Contribute to pricing and deal desk operations
Operations
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Lead the HR function, setting clear standards for policies, execution, compliance, employee experience, and operational discipline
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Manage and mentor the HR team, ensuring strong ownership across onboarding, offboarding, employee documentation, payroll coordination, benefits, and HR systems
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Build scalable people processes across multiple jurisdictions, partnering with external counsel and advisors where needed
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Partner with leadership on performance management, compensation reviews, promotions, role changes, workforce planning, and organizational design
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Establish people dashboards, reporting cadences, and operating rhythms to give leadership visibility into headcount, hiring, retention, performance, and people risks
Legal Operations
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Partner with leadership and sales on commercial negotiations and MSAs, balancing speed, risk management, and business priorities
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Liaise with external lawyers to manage contracts, mitigate risks, and ensure global compliance
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Manage an internal legal team working across employment, commercial, corporate, insurance, regulatory, and cross-border matters
Who we are looking for:
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10+ years of professional experience, with a solid background in Finance (must have) and HR and Legal operations (preferred) in a high-growth environment
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Must have prior experience in a SaaS start-up or scale-up environment
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Experience operating across multiple entities, jurisdictions, currencies, and time zones, with an understanding of cross-border finance and multi-entity accounting, as well as HR, legal, tax, and compliance considerations
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Strong working knowledge of SaaS business models, including ARR, retention, gross margin, CAC/payback, burn, runway, cash forecasting, and investor-facing operating metrics
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Comfortable being both strategic and hands-on: able to advise leadership while also diving into models, contracts, payroll issues, vendor workflows, and operational details when needed
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Proven people-management experience, ideally managing distributed or offshore teams, with high standards for ownership, responsiveness, and execution - note that the team reporting to this role is based in the Philippines
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Based in the Bay Area with right to work in the USA (visa sponsorship not available). This is a fully in-person role, based in our Santa Clara office.
What we offer:
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Leadership position with direct impact on how Flagright runs and grows globally
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High-bar environment focused on execution, learning, and continuous improvement
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Health insurance through Kaiser Permanente in California
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Equity from day 1 at a Y Combinator startup
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Housing subsidy if you live within 1 mile of our office
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Work alongside a highly competent, top-tier team, including professionals from Y Combinator, ex AWS, and Palantir
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Enjoy a low-bureaucracy environment, minimal meetings, and an asynchronous communications culture
About Flagright
Flagright provides transaction monitoring and AML compliance solutions. Flagright offers an AI-native, no-code platform enabling financial institutions to efficiently and effectively combat financial crime while staying compliant with the ever-evolving regulatory landscape. Trusted by 100+ financial institutions globally, including UniCredit, GoCardless, and B4B Payments, Flagright sets the bar as the modern standard for financial crime compliance.
Founded in 2021, Flagright is headquartered in San Francisco, with offices in London, Singapore and Bangalore.