Head of Finance Systems

We are rebuilding biotech for the AI era.

When a breakthrough is delayed, the world waits. Getting a molecule from discovery to patients, or a crop from lab to field, involves thousands of slow, manual, disconnected steps. AI has the potential to change this, compressing decades of R&D work into years. But that only happens when clean, structured scientific data and AI are built into how science gets done.

Benchling is the AI platform for biotech R&D. Scientists use Benchling to design experiments, capture structured data, and run AI agents and models directly in their workflows. Over 200,000 scientists around the world trust Benchling to power their most important work, from academic labs to Sanofi, Moderna, and more than half of the world's top 50 biopharma.

Benchling is looking for a leader to own our financial systems strategy and execution, balancing forward-looking strategy and hands-on-keyboard optimization.The ideal candidate will leverage their knowledge of, and passion for technology and finance processes to assess current systems, identify opportunities, and drive solutions that reduce manual work and friction, improve workflows and throughput, and enable Finance to scale as the business grows globally.  Strong partnership and driving abilities are musts. Scrappy, gritty, outcome-oriented, and not afraid to challenge “the way it’s always been done” are critical personal attributes. This role will report to the Chief Accounting Officer.

• Set the strategy of where we should be in 12-24 months, drive it, and own the stack. Identify gaps, opportunities and risks across the systems portfolio to establish a vision and path to get there.

• Own the design, optimization, and implementation of core Finance applications, including ERP, procurement, and reporting platforms. In partnership with our business systems team, drive implementations, integrations and optimizations across Salesforce, Workday, billing, and other critical systems.

• Oversee Netsuite and its integrations with other Finance applications. Develop and execute a roadmap to optimize its use to unlock efficiencies within the system itself, or in conjunction with other systems across the finance stack. Serve as the Company’s SME for Netsuite.

• Partner with Finance and IT to redesign and optimize processes where necessary, ensuring systems are layered on top of sound, scalable workflows.

• Evaluate gaps in system capabilities, including billing, revenue recognition and others; lead vendor selection and system implementation if needed. 

• Define a long-term roadmap for a finance component(s)/segment(s) of the enterprise’s data warehouse.

• Act as primary liaison with IT, ensuring finance requirements are prioritized while respecting IT governance, and owning security and governance in the Finance stack in alignment with IT and security orgs.

• Manage vendor and consultant relationships for system implementations and optimizations.

• Drive projects forward with urgency and accountability; measure and communicate outcomes to finance leadership.

• 8-10+ years in Finance systems ownership and/or administration

• Proven roadmap ownership from strategy → requirements → build → launch → adoption at $100M–$500M+ ARR scale.

• Deep hands-on experience optimizing and integrating Netsuite (must), Salesforce (nice to have). You will serve as the Netsuite admin, but your role is broader.  You’ll be the team’s “power user” and provide a perspective and vision of what’s possible.

• Demonstrated success implementing or optimizing billing, revenue recognition, ERP, commissions, and planning/forecasting tools, and integrating those tools with the broader business systems ecosystem.

• Ability to “speak both languages” — toggle between technical system details and business/finance objectives.

• Track record of redesigning finance processes in tandem with system improvements.

• Experience directing consultants/vendors and driving outcomes through others.

• SOX compliance knowledge, including data governance, user access controls, and audit trail monitoring, is a must. Exposure to IPO readiness and scaling finance systems for growth is a strong plus.

• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to influence senior leaders.
  

 NICE TO HAVES

• Hands-on and execution-oriented, not afraid to dig into details.

• Low ego, high ownership, gritty driver personality with an execution mindset.

• Comfortable challenging the status quo and pushing for better outcomes.

• Strong cross-functional partner: builds trust with IT and Finance while driving accountability.

• Scrappy and resourceful

We offer a flexible hybrid work arrangement that prioritizes in-office collaboration. Employees are expected to be on-site 3 days per week (Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday).

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Benchling welcomes everyone.

We believe diversity enriches our team so we hire people with a wide range of identities, backgrounds, and experiences.
We are an equal opportunity employer. That means we don’t discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. We also consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records, consistent with applicable federal, state and local law, including but not limited to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance.