Foundation models transformed text and images. Structured data - the largest and most consequential data format in the world - stayed untouched. Tables run every clinical trial, every financial model, every scientific experiment, every business decision, and no one had built a foundation model that truly understood them.
Until now. What LLMs did for language, we're doing for tables. The next modality shift in AI is happening, and we're hiring the team that makes it.
Momentum. We pioneered tabular foundation models and are now the world-leading organization in structured-data ML. Our TabPFN v2 model was published as a Nature cover story and set a new state of the art for tabular machine learning. Since release we've scaled model capabilities 20x+, passed 3.5M+ downloads and 7,500+ GitHub stars, and are seeing accelerating adoption across research and industry - from detecting lung disease with Oxford Cancer Analytics to preventing train failures with Hitachi to improving clinical-trial decisions with BostonGene.
The hardest work is ahead. We're scaling tabular foundation models to millions of rows, thousands of features, real-time inference, and entirely new data modalities, while building the infrastructure to run them in production across some of the most demanding industries on earth. These are open problems no one else is working on at this level.
Our team. We're a small, highly selective team of 30+ engineers, researchers, and GTM specialists, with backgrounds spanning Google, Apple, Amazon, DeepMind, Meta, Microsoft Research, G-Research, Jane Street, Goldman Sachs, and CERN. We're led by Frank Hutter, Noah Hollmann, and Sauraj Gambhir, and advised by world-leading AI researchers including Bernhard Schölkopf and Turing Award winner Yann LeCun. We ship fast, do top-tier research, and hold each other to an extremely high bar.
What's next. In 2025 we raised €9m pre-seed led by Balderton Capital, backed by leaders from Hugging Face, DeepMind, and Black Forest Labs. The next phase of growth is here, which makes this an ideal time to join.
Your Mission
Own the numbers behind Prior Labs. As our first dedicated finance hire, you will work with the founders to establish process and become the person leadership trusts
Build and own our core company financial model: revenue, costs, cash, and P&L, with annual budgets, rolling forecasts, and scenario and sensitivity analysis leadership can act on.
Stand up our operational and SaaS metrics layer: ARR, usage, unit economics, gross margin, burn, runway, and retention, so we always know where the business stands.
Run spend, cash discipline, and light financial controlling: budget versus actuals, vendor and cost decisions, a live cash picture, simple controls and monitoring, and early flags when we drift off plan.
Turn financial data into decisions leadership trusts: regular reporting for our board, investors, and parent company, with the drivers explained and a clear recommendation attached.
Be the reliable finance point of contact between a fast-moving startup and SAP's group planning cadence.
Set up finance foundations that scale: the right tooling, clean data feeds, automation of the repetitive work, and good judgment about where AI helps in finance and where it does not.
What we're looking for
You have built and owned a core company financial model end to end for an AI lab, Deep Tech.
You have built a finance or FP&A function from near-zero inside a small, early-stage, ambiguous company. You are comfortable building an auditable model from a short brief.
You have owned annual budgets, rolling forecasts, and budget-versus-actuals across a company and reporting directly to Founders
You are fluent in driver-based FP&A and comfortable building an auditable model from a messy brief.
You understand the accounting close well enough to oversee it, and you know when speed beats rigour on a small team.
You have good judgment about using AI and automation in finance: where they save real time, and where a human check has to stay.
Experience coordinating an external accounting partner and running light financial controls and monitoring.
Nice to have
A track record of board, investor, or exec reporting
Experience building and tracking SaaS or consumption metrics from raw data.
Experience standing up finance tooling, automation, and processes from scratch.
We are scoping this role around ownership rather than years on a CV. A strong mid-level operator ready to step up is as welcome as a seasoned senior manager.
Life at Prior Labs
We're a small, ambitious team solving one of the hardest problems in AI, and we're just getting started. You'll work closely with world-class researchers and builders who care deeply about the quality of their craft, the impact of their work, and the people they work with.
We move fast, we think rigorously, and we take the time to do things right. If you're excited by hard problems, motivated by real-world impact, and want to be part of building something that matters, we'd love to hear from you.
We're building our teams in Berlin, Freiburg, and New York and we believe that when you're working on something as hard and exciting as TabPFN, being in the same room matters. Most of our roles are based in one of our offices but great people come from everywhere, and in exceptional cases we're open to remote. This usually involves frequent travel to one of our offices and the whole company comes together regularly for offsites to think, build, and celebrate together.
Our Commitments
We believe the best products and teams come from a wide range of perspectives, experiences, and backgrounds. That's why we welcome applications from people of all identities and walks of life, especially anyone who's ever felt discouraged by "not checking every box."
We're committed to creating a safe, inclusive environment and providing equal opportunities regardless of gender, sexual orientation, origin, disability, or any other trait that makes you who you are.
We care about how your data is handled. Read our Recruiting Privacy Notice to see exactly what we collect, why, and how long we keep it.
Skills Required
- Built and owned a core company financial model end-to-end for an AI lab or deep tech company.
- Built a finance or FP&A function from near-zero inside a small, early-stage, ambiguous company.
- Owned annual budgets, rolling forecasts, and budget-versus-actuals and reported directly to founders.
- Fluent in driver-based FP&A and able to create an auditable model from a messy brief.
- Understands the accounting close well enough to oversee it and balance speed versus rigor.
- Good judgment about using AI and automation in finance: where to automate and where human checks remain.
- Experience coordinating an external accounting partner and running light financial controls and monitoring.
- Track record of board, investor, or executive reporting.
- Experience building and tracking SaaS or consumption metrics from raw data.
- Experience standing up finance tooling, automation, and processes from scratch.
What We Do
Prior Labs is building breakthrough foundation models that understand spreadsheets and databases - the lifeblood of science and business. While foundation models have transformed text and images, tabular data has remained largely untouched. We're tackling this opportunity to revolutionize how we approach scientific discovery, medical research, financial modeling, and business intelligence. Backed by Balderton Capital, XTX Ventures, SAP Founder Hans Werner-Hector's Hector Foundation, Atlantic Labs, Galion.exe and top AI leaders such as Peter Sarlin, Guy Podjarny, Thomas Wolf, Ed Grefenstette, Robin Rombach, Christopher Lynch and Ash Kulkarni.
