Strategic Finance Lead

About The Company

Valon is building the AI-native operating system for regulated finance, starting with mortgage servicing.

We're a Series C company backed by a16z, transforming industries that others have written off as too complex to innovate.

Rather than build on top of broken legacy systems, we took a different approach: we built and operate our own mortgage servicing business managing $110+ billion in loans. This wasn't the end goal, it was how we deeply understood the complexity needed to build software that actually works in regulated industries.

The results speak for themselves. We've transformed mortgage servicing from a 0% margin business into 60%+ margins while dramatically improving customer experience. Major enterprise contracts are now deploying across the industry.

ValonOS is our unified platform that makes every process structured and programmable and it is perfectly positioned for the AI era. When everything flows through one system with rich data, AI agents don't just automate tasks, they continuously improve entire operations. Mortgage servicing is just the beginning of our vision to transform regulated industries and beyond.

About The Role

We’re hiring a Strategic Finance Lead to be the COO’s right-hand and take full ownership of our strategic finance and executive/board-facing materials. This person will build and run our forecasting and KPI cadence, drive annual planning and headcount strategy, and produce board-ready narrative memos. They’ll also support fundraising execution for potential future fundraises, ensuring the deck, model, data room, and investor Q&A are in excellent shape, without requiring constant CEO/COO involvement.

This is a high-leverage role for someone who is both analytically elite and highly proactive, someone who doesn’t wait to be told what’s needed, and can get to answers fast with imperfect data.

Responsibilities

• Board & Executive Communication
• Draft close-to-final board memos: narrative, KPI interpretation, decision points, and recommendations
• Create & maintain the board deck / materials (KPIs, strategic updates, operating cadence)
• Drive consistent executive reporting so leadership can make decisions quickly and confidently
• Translate messy operational realities into clear, concise storytelling
• Planning, Budgeting, and Runway Strategy
• Own annual planning: budget, headcount plan, and cross-functional alignment
• Build and maintain a driver-based operating plan tied to funnel metrics
• Run scenario planning and sensitivity analysis (base / upside / downside)
• Be the “source of truth” on runway, burn, and capital planning
• Financial Modeling & Business Insights
• Build/own a robust 3-statement model (IS/BS/CF)
• Own unit economics and cohort-based modeling; deeply understand payback, margins, retention
• Partner with operators to diagnose variance, identify risks/opportunities, and drive action
• Build analysis that helps leadership resolve debates faster (“what matters, why, what we do next”)
• Fundraising Support
• Support fundraising execution: deck/model narrative, investor Q&A prep, data room organization
• Maintain fundraising-ready metrics and materials so the CEO/COO aren’t reinventing everything
• Help with valuation comps, capital structure, and fundraising mechanics
• Finance Ops / Close Coordination
• Coordinate close/reporting, ensuring data integrity and consistent KPI definitions
• Work with accounting/finance ops to ensure we have clean, timely financials and reporting cadence
• Build systems so finance isn’t heroic, it’s predictable
• Strategic Special Projects / BizOps
• Own ambiguous, high-importance projects that touch strategy, operations, and execution
• Partner across teams to drive outcomes, not just analysis
• Be a force multiplier for COO

Must-Haves

• Exceptional financial modeling (3-statement, driver-based, cohorts, scenarios, sensitivities)
• Ability to translate analysis into crisp storytelling (memos, decks, exec communication)
• High ownership: you run workstreams end-to-end without handholding
• Comfort operating in ambiguity with imperfect data
• Strong judgment and ability to “make the call” when needed
• Well versed in AI and advanced analytics, with experience leveraging automation and data-driven insights to inform financial strategy and business planning
• Can be scrappy and fast, while still producing polished board/investor-grade output
• Strong cross-functional collaboration (can push, align, and unblock)

Nice-to-Haves

• Experience with high-growth fundraising and board prep
• Pricing and packaging strategy experience
• Fintech / mortgage domain familiarity (nice, not required)

Working Style

• High intensity, high ambiguity environment (expect ~50–60 hours/week)
• We value direct communication — respectful disagreement is encouraged
• You will be trusted with significant autonomy

The Type of Person Who Thrives Here

• You love being the person who makes chaos legible
• You can dive deep into numbers and write a narrative that makes executives nod
• You don’t wait, you hunt down answers, build the right model, and move the work forward
• You’re comfortable being the “adult in the room” on finance/strategy workstreams
• You take pride in being safe hands: leadership relaxes because you’re on it

Throughout the interview process, please remember that emails will only be from valon.com email addresses. We will never ask for any personally identifiable information during the interview process itself. Please reach out to [email protected] if you have any requests to verify the authenticity of an outreach.

Valon is an equal opportunity employer that is committed to diversity and inclusion in the workplace. We prohibit discrimination and harassment of any kind based on race, color, sex, religion, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, genetic information, pregnancy, or any other protected characteristic as outlined by federal, state, or local laws. Valon makes hiring decisions based solely on qualifications, merit, and business needs at the time.