Business Operations Lead

Seneca is seeking a Business Operations Lead to run strategic finance, accounting, contracts, insurance, compliance, purchasing, payroll and benefits, and the office. Right now those things are spread across an outside accounting firm, a payroll vendor, outside counsel, a fractional Head of Ops and the CEO. As we continue to scale, we are seeking someone who can up-level this organization both in terms of our daily operations and in key moments like M+A, equity and debt financings, key partnerships etc.

This role reports to the CEO with tight partnership. There will be opportunity to hire and/or bring in additional outside resources over the next twelve months.

• You run the finance function. Both FP&A and accounting.

• Partner with teams to ensure they pick the right strategies for both cost and revenue optimization as Seneca scales.

• Own the monthly close with our outside accounting firm.

• Get the accounting right for a hardware company moving into production: inventory, BOMs, capitalized R&D, fixed assets, and revenue recognition on multi-year contracts with agencies and utilities.

• Handle invoicing and collections, including milestone billing on government and utility contracts.

• Figure out the right policies for expense management and suggest our monthly budget – keeping us tracking to it.

• Keep the budget and board package current.

• Own contracts. Work with outside counsel on customer agreements, supplier terms, NDAs, and government contracting paperwork. Know what we have signed and what it commits us to.

• Own insurance, including aviation and product liability. For a drone company this is real work.

• Keep the compliance calendar: corporate filings, state registrations, export controls, and the requirements that come with selling to public agencies.

• Run purchasing so engineers can get what they need fast and we still know where the money went: approvals, corporate cards, expense policy, vendor setup.

• Negotiate large vendor and supplier agreements.

• Partner with outside lawyers on where to draw the lines on NDAs, partnership agreements, and any other day to day legal questions.

• Oversee payroll, benefits, and the HRIS through our vendors.

• Help us continue to drive exceptional recruitment.

• Own compensation and equity: bands, offers, grants, refreshes, and the promotion process, with the CEO.

• Make sure the basics are covered: I-9s, multi-state registrations, handbook, required trainings. Bring in outside HR counsel when a situation calls for it.

• Be someone employees can come to in confidence when something is wrong.

• Own the finance and ops systems (Ramp, Rippling, Carta, QuickBooks) and decide when to replace one.

• Run the Sausalito office: lease, facilities, IT and security basics, equipment. There are others in the loop here, but you have the opportunity to formalize facilities.

This is a high visibility / high upside role for a candidate who wants to be an early strategic partner to an experienced CEO in a high impact, high growth startup. You’ll often partner with the CEO, so a history of excellence is valued.

• Experience in strategic finance or private equity and/or investment banking

• You have run finance and operations at a venture-backed startup, ideally one that builds hardware, through a period of real growth.

• You understand accounting well enough to manage an outside firm and catch their mistakes: GAAP, revenue recognition, inventory, capitalized R&D.

• You are a generalist and you like operating. You fix things rather than write about them.

• You love to design scalable operational processes, including automating manual workflows, identifying future bottlenecks, and evaluating tools, partners, and vendors for long-term scalability

• You handle confidential information with care.

• You write and speak plainly, and you can explain business concepts to anyone.

• You want to work in person in Sausalito.