Arketa The Controller at Arketa owns bookkeeping, month-end close, financial reporting, tax, and audit functions. This role starts as an individual contributor with a clear path to Senior Controller leading a small team.
Responsibilities
We're bringing accounting in house, and you'll be the person who owns it. As our Controller and right hand to our VP of Finance, you'll take full ownership of bookkeeping, the month-end close, financial reporting, tax, and audit, raising the bar on accuracy and building the foundation leadership relies on to make strategic decisions.
This role flexes both ways. Day to day, you'll be hands-on in the books, running close and reconciliations yourself. You'll start as an individual contributor for your first 6 to 12 months, with a clear path to Senior Controller leading a small team as the function grows.
You'll join our Finance team as the first in-house accounting hire, working directly with our VP of Finance. Accounting has been supported by outsourced partners up to now, and as Arketa grows we're ready for someone with a true owner's mindset to build the function from the ground up. You'll have high visibility with our leadership team and partner closely with our external auditors and tax advisors. As the team grows, you'll help shape it, with future hires organized by P&L line (revenue and expenses).
Month-end close & financial reporting: Drive a timely, accurate close and produce monthly financial statements that leadership can trust and act on.
Audit leadership: Serve as primary liaison to our external audit firm, prepare schedules, respond to PBC requests, and manage the audit timeline.
Internal controls & GL structure: Design and maintain the control environment, including correct account and department mapping, clean categorization rules, and documentation that will hold up under audit scrutiny.
Tax compliance & coordination: Manage tax filings and coordination with external tax partners, including credits (e.g., R&D) and multi-state considerations.
Payables & receivables: Manage the full AP/AR cycle, including vendor bill pay, employee reimbursements, invoicing, and collections, ensuring nothing sits stale or miscategorized.
Bookkeeping & accounting operations: Own day-to-day bookkeeping alongside higher-level accounting: transaction categorization, journal entries, and general ledger maintenance across our banking, payroll, payments, and accounting systems. Use AI to speed up repetitive, time-consuming work while applying your own judgment to get it right.
What success looks like:
First 30 days: Take ownership of the books from our outsourced partner, learn our systems (banking, payroll, Stripe, Brex, accounting), run your first month-end close, and have audit prep underway for the December kickoff.
First 60 days: Serve as the day-to-day lead with our auditors through fieldwork, delivering schedules and PBC requests on time, while tightening GL mapping and categorization rules.
Qualification
Deep command of core accountingYou use AI to move faster on repetitiveAuthorization to work in the UPrior audit experienceYou Should Apply IfYou're smart
Required
Typically 5+ years of progressive accounting experience. We care more about relevance than tenure, so a strong candidate with 3 to 4 years doing exactly this work is encouraged to apply.
Big 4 (public accounting) training or experience in the accounting function of a large company, ideally followed by a move into a high-ownership, early-stage environment
Deep command of core accounting: month-end close, financial reporting, internal controls, payables and receivables, and tax
A high-ownership mindset and genuine enjoyment of hands-on work
Comfort with ambiguity and building process where none exists
Best-in-class attention to detail and an unwavering commitment to accuracy
You use AI to move faster on repetitive, time-consuming tasks while still exercising your own judgment
Authorization to work in the U.S. without visa sponsorship
Prior audit experience, ideally from the company side (preparing schedules, responding to PBC requests, managing the audit timeline)
Familiarity with Stripe and Brex (or similar tools) and experience managing books across multiple systems without a single unified ERP
You Should Apply If
You're smart, a little bored in your current role, and hungry for a bigger challenge
