Vice President, Finance

Loyal is a clinical-stage veterinary medicine company developing longevity drugs for dogs. Our mission is to help dogs live longer, healthier lives.

We're pioneering a new category of veterinary prescription drugs that proactively and preventatively target the underlying drivers of aging, delaying the onset of disease and preserving quality of life as dogs age. We've already made significant progress in our mission to develop the first FDA-approved drugs to extend canine lifespan: as of early 2026 we've completed two of three major FDA review sections for our lead program, LOY-002, and are targeting submission of the third and final section later this year.

Loyal is a well-funded startup with teams of scientists, veterinarians, engineers, operators, and creatives. You'll help us continue on our path of earning FDA approval for the first lifespan extension medicine for any species, and change what's possible for the dogs we love.

Loyal is hiring a VP of Finance to build and lead the company's finance and accounting infrastructure. This is a hands-on leadership role at a company that has closed a $100M Series C, is advancing three pipeline programs, and is targeting commercial launch of its lead product.

Loyal is a milestone-based operating business. Value is created by hitting scientific, regulatory, and commercial inflection points, and capital must be committed against multi-year R&D cycles long before any one milestone is proven out. The finance function plays a crucial role in company strategy. 

As a key strategic partner to the CEO, you will be instrumental in scaling Loyal into a commercial-stage organization by driving the overall capital strategy, fundraising, board materials, and investor-facing work. You will build and lead the comprehensive finance and accounting function, establishing repeatable disciplines like FP&A and robust board reporting, managing the company's first audit, and owning controllership and close. Equally important, you will build the financial foundation Loyal needs to operate as a commercial organization - revenue recognition, gross-to-net, COGS and inventory accounting, commercial-stage forecasting, and the controls and reporting expected of a revenue-generating business.

The finance infrastructure for commercialization is being built from the ground up. The right person has done this before at a VC-backed biotech or other atoms-based, milestone-based organization, knows what excellence looks like pre- and post-revenue generation, and is ready to do the work (IC + leadership) to get there.

• Reports to the CEO on an interim basis, transitioning to report to the COO.
• Inherits Finance Operations Director and various outsourced service providers.
• Remote, US-based. You must be willing to travel as needed for the company's success (e.g. board meetings, leadership offsites, on-site time with clinical and manufacturing partners)

• Controllership, accounting, and audit. Own the close, the books, and the company's first audit, and stand up the accounting infrastructure required to operate as a revenue-generating business.
• Commercial accounting infrastructure ahead of launch: inventory and COGS tracking, revenue recognition, gross-to-net reserves, and gross margin reporting.
• Internal financial controls — purchase order requirements, contract approval workflows, segregation of duties — documented for audit readiness and pre-IPO scrutiny.
• Multi-state payroll with equity compensation tracked correctly.

• FP&A, financial modeling, and long-range planning. Own the numbers behind every major decision Loyal makes, from program prioritization to fundraising timing.
• Integrated P&L, balance sheet, and cash flow model across pipeline programs, milestone timelines, and capital deployment scenarios.
• Long-range financial plan.
• Rolling cash runway model linked to program spend, headcount, and financing events. 
• Program valuation to support portfolio prioritization, partnering discussions, and Board capital allocation reviews.
• Evaluate and implement an FP&A platform, integrated with QBO and providing department-level visibility.

• Board, capital strategy, and investor relations.
• Quarterly board finance package plus regular updates to executive leadership and the board.
• Shape Loyal's capital strategy with the CEO and board (timing, structure, mix of equity, debt, and non-dilutive financing).
• Populate data rooms, respond to investor and lender diligence, and prepare financial packages for capital partners. Support venture debt facilities and future financing events.

• Treasury, equity administration, and corporate development. Steward the company's capital base and support the deals that shape its future.
• Treasury and cash management.
• Equity administration and the cap table.
• BD and partnering.

• Contracts, vendors, insurance, and risk. Own the company's commercial and risk infrastructure.
• Contract processing workflows, contract repository, and outside counsel relationships. Vendor management and compliance filings.
• Insurance portfolio — D&O, clinical trial liability, product liability, general coverage - reviewed annually and updated at financing events and ahead of commercial launch.

• Team and systems. Build the team and tooling that will carry Loyal into its next stage.

• 10–15 years of progressive finance experience, with at least 5 years in biotech, pharma, or life sciences or another R&D heavy business that builds value by achieving technical milestones. Biotech experience is preferred.
• You bring discipline to milestone-based capital allocation. You can connect spend to scientific, regulatory, and commercial inflection points, frame the trade-offs clearly, and help leadership decide where to lean in and where to hold.
• You are low ego, high integrity, and a clear and concise communicator.
• You actively embrace and seek opportunities to leverage AI and automation tools to streamline financial processes and build a cutting-edge, efficient finance infrastructure.
• You can present financial results, variance narratives, and capital strategy clearly to a board audience. Your written and verbal communication is precise and direct. 
• You have managed people and built teams. You set clear expectations, hold people accountable, and develop talent. 
• You work fluidly across functions — with research and manufacturing stakeholders, program managers, and outside advisors. You earn credibility by knowing the business, not just the numbers.
• You operate with a high degree of autonomy and will be able to thrive reporting into a non-finance executive (CEO or COO). 

• Experience supporting a first commercial launch and establishing the financial infrastructure for a revenue-generating operation.
• Experience at a company that completed an IPO and leading VC fundraises.
• Familiarity with veterinary or animal health regulatory and commercial dynamics.

• You've never managed the finances of an R&D-heavy product.
• You've never had to plan around uncertain, multi-year R&D cycles where cash must be committed ahead of proof.
• You are not willing to work outside of your lines (general company ops) 
• You need perfect information before making a decision.

Salary Range: $250,000 - $350,000

Bringing the first longevity drug to market is an extremely difficult technical and social pursuit. To achieve this we must take bigger bets than the field has historically made, paired with the technical rigor to de-risk them step by step. We plan on both short and extremely long timescales, and we have the conviction to see our vision through to success or failure.

We lean into combining disciplines, expertise, and perspectives not normally adjacent. We design our organization to facilitate cross-pollination and cross-collaboration. We reject silos.

Titles do not determine who has a voice. We push back on each other, ask questions instead of issuing orders, and try to prove ourselves wrong. We are emotionally attached to the outcome, not our personal hypotheses, and welcome being challenged instead of treating it as a threat.

Most of what we're doing has never been done before, so we can't rely on established precedents to guide our way. We move forward to generate clarity, build strategies resilient to the fact that we don't know what we don't know, and design small experiments where we can fail safely, without jeopardizing the bigger mission.

We proactively and consistently share the why behind our strategy - not just the what - because we believe sharing context enables great people to make great decisions.

Our patients are not just numbers. We deeply respect the value of every life, large and small and take our ethical responsibility to the families we treat extremely seriously.