Finance Associate

Job Description

Finance Associate | Pheratech Systems

The Tone:
This is a full-time role at Pheratech Systems, located in Los Angeles, CA. Pheratech Systems is building the coordination layer for the next generation of autonomous systems, enabling heterogeneous robots to reason, coordinate, and operate as decentralized teams in complex environments. This role is critical for establishing and operating the foundational financial infrastructure necessary to support the company’s rapid growth across its technical organization, government programs, manufacturing capabilities, and commercial operations. You will directly help build this finance function from the ground up, providing leadership with essential information for strategic decision-making.

The TL;DR
• Role: Early Career
• Type: Full-Time
• Location: In-person, Los Angeles, CA

• Team: Works closely with the Chief Operating Officer and CEO.
• Mission: Build and manage Pheratech’s financial operations, planning, and reporting to support its scaling and increasingly complex government programs.
• Tech Stack: QuickBooks, Unanet, Ramp/Rho, Rippling, Excel, Google Sheets

What You’ll Actually Do
• Financial Planning: Maintain and improve company budgets, forecasts, and financial models, tracking actual performance against budget and investigating material variances.
• Financial Operations: Help manage accounts payable, accounts receivable, expense management, and purchasing workflows, while coordinating with external financial partners and supporting monthly close processes.
• Government Program Finance: Track budgets, expenditures, and financial performance across government contracts, supporting invoicing, financial reporting, and proposal cost volumes.
• Strategic Finance: Conduct financial analysis for major company decisions, evaluate investments in headcount and infrastructure, and develop scenario and sensitivity analyses.
• Corporate Finance: Support the preparation of financial materials for leadership, the Board, and investors, assist with capitalization, and manage corporate finance processes like diligence and audits.

The Must-Haves
• Background: Bachelor’s degree in finance, economics, accounting, business, mathematics, engineering, or another analytically rigorous field. Entry-level career stage.
• Experience: 0-3 years of relevant professional experience, demonstrating strong financial modeling and analytical skills.
• Skills: Excellent Excel or Google Sheets proficiency, strong quantitative reasoning and attention to detail, ability to communicate financial information clearly to non-finance teammates, and capability to independently organize and execute ambiguous projects with strong judgment.
• Bonus: Experience with government contracting, FAR/DFARS environments, or government contract accounting. Familiarity with indirect rates, allowable costs, or government invoicing. Experience with financial planning and forecasting, QuickBooks, Unanet, Ramp/Rho, Rippling, or supporting audits/diligence. Accounting coursework or experience in aerospace, defense, robotics, manufacturing, or hardware-intensive industries.