Accounting Lead

ACCOUNTING LEAD – VIRTUE AI

About Virtue AI

Virtue AI sets the standard for advanced AI security platforms. Built on decades of foundational and award-winning research in AI security, its AI-native architecture unifies automated red-teaming, real-time multimodal guardrails, and systematic governance for enterprise apps and agents. Deploy in minutes—across any environment—to keep your AI protected and compliant. We are a well-funded, early-stage startup founded by industry veterans, and we're looking for passionate builders to join our core team.

About the Role

• As the Accounting Lead at Virtue AI, you won't just be managing books—you will be the primary architect of our financial foundation and the engine behind our fiscal scaling.
• You are joining at a pivotal moment as we scale our team to meet the demand for AI security, governance, and adversarial safety.
• As our first dedicated in-house accounting hire, you will have a blank canvas to build the accounting function from the ground up.
• You will partner directly with our founders and leadership team to establish world-class financial operations across every department, from R&D to GTM.

What You’ll Do

• Build the Accounting Machine: Establish our internal accounting "operating system" by transitioning functions from QuickBooks and our outside consultants (Pilot) to an in-house model.
• Full-Cycle Infrastructure: Own the end-to-end setup and management of our initial accounting, order-to-cash (O2C), and payroll functions. This person will help with collections and accounts receivables to ensure that our cash balance is healthy.
• Strengthen Finance process: Lead the preparation for future public markets, including implementing GAAP-compliant processes, robust internal controls, and audit readiness.
• Strategic Partnering: Act as a financial consultant to the leadership team, providing real-time market data on spend, headcount planning, and fiscal trends in the AI sector.
• Process Implementation: Define monthly close loops, create financial rubrics, and train team leads on how to manage their budgets effectively.
• Vendor & Consultant Management: Partner closely with our outside consultants to bring as much work in-house as possible while maintaining high standards of integrity.
• Financial Visibility: Use financial data to track the health of our operations and communicate progress and bottlenecks to the executive team.

Requirements

• Experience: 8+ years of accounting experience, with a significant portion spent in-house at a high-growth startup (Series A through C).
• IPO Track Record: Proven experience navigating IPO readiness, S-1 preparation, or operating within a public-company accounting environment.
• Operational Grit: You have a proven track record of building financial processes and scaling functions from the ground up.
• Full-Stack Versatility: You are equally comfortable managing a complex payroll run as you are architecting a multi-year order-to-cash strategy for enterprise SaaS deals.
• Independence: You are comfortable being a "department of one" and managing multiple high-priority financial roles simultaneously.
• Technical Fluency: You understand the financial nuances of AI/ML software and can credibly "pitch" our fiscal strategy to internal and external stakeholders (nice to have).
• Closing Prowess: You are a "closer" of the books. You know how to navigate complex reconciliations and equity explanations in a highly competitive market.

Nice to Haves

• AI/SaaS Network: An existing understanding of the financial landscapes within the AI safety, cybersecurity, or enterprise SaaS ecosystems.
• Tooling Expertise: Experience transitioning from QuickBooks/Pilot into a broader ERP tech stack (e.g., NetSuite) integrated into a modern software environment.
• Agency & In-House Mix: A background that includes both rigorous public accounting (Big 4) and strategic in-house financial management.

Why Join Virtue AI?

• Unmatched Impact: You will personally build the systems that define the financial future of AI security.
• Direct Influence: Your fingerprints will be on every financial process and team we build.
• Foundational Role: As our first accounting hire, you will have an outsized influence on the company’s trajectory and culture, with the opportunity to build and lead a team as we continue to scale.