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Head of Accounting

Merge Labs· Finance, Legal, Operations, People
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San Francisco Bay Area$165k - $260kFull-timePosted 2mo ago

About the role

Lead the accounting function for Merge Labs, owning close, GAAP reporting, controls, audits, and scalable finance operations in a fast-growing R&D environment.

Responsibilities

  • Own the monthly, quarterly, and annual close, including the general ledger, chart of accounts, reconciliations, accruals, coding standards, and financial statements.
  • Own procurement, AP, and expenses end-to-end, building a fast, service-oriented process that preserves appropriate controls.
  • Own accounting for significant CapEx and fixed assets across laboratory, hardware, equipment, and facilities spend.
  • Establish and maintain technical accounting policies for an R&D-intensive company, including R&D spend, leases, prepaids/accruals, equity and stock-based compensation, and other material areas as they emerge.
  • Build and maintain a pragmatic control environment that supports accurate, auditable financials without unnecessary bureaucracy.
  • Lead audit preparation and the external auditor relationship, making financing diligence and audit support repeatable and well-organized.
  • Own finance systems and integrations across Rillet, Ramp, Procurify, Rippling, Carta, and external-provider workflows, improving and automating them as the company scales.
  • Own the internal budgeting-input process and ensure clean actuals-to-plan mapping, partnering with the external FP&A team on forecasting and modeling.
  • Produce clear financial reporting for leadership, the board, and investors, including burn, major variances, CapEx, and other decision-relevant insights.
  • Direct and review outsourced finance partners, establish clear SLAs and quality standards, and determine what to insource as the company grows.

Qualifications

  • You are a builder and an owner. Exceptional command of GAAP, close, financial reporting, controls, and auditability; ownership of accounting processes end-to-end.
  • Reason from first principles and explain tradeoffs clearly to non-experts.
  • Experience using AI to automate repetitive work, build checks, review tools, improve reconciliations, or create lightweight tools.
  • Clear, high-bandwidth communicator with ability to translate numbers into actionable insights.
  • Hands-on yet scalable mindset; comfortable in a fast-growing startup environment.
  • Previous roles at Head of Accounting / Accounting Lead / Controller level with meaningful scope.
  • Alignment with Merge’s mission and ability to support ambitious scientific research.

Skills

Required:GAAP knowledgeClose managementTechnical accountingFinance systemsAudit managementBudgeting & forecastingCommunication

Benefits

  • Not specified in description
Last updated Sep 16, 2026. Interested? Apply on the company site.
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About Merge Labs

Introducing Merge Labs

Meet Merge Labs – a research lab with the long-term mission of bridging biological and artificial intelligence to maximize human ability, agency, and experience.

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