We believe Ethereum has the potential to solve some of humanity’s most crucial coordination issues. Since our initial inception as a research group, we have sought to scale both its technology and values.
At present, the most pressing bottleneck to the growth of Ethereum is its performance and scalability. We are building the most elegant solution to this problem. We do this in the open (under an MIT open source license) because we believe in open source innovation and its ability to accelerate growth.
OP Labs is building Optimism mainnet, and by extension, the infrastructure that powers all OP-Stack chains. We are improving Ethereum’s performance by orders of magnitude and donating the profits from doing so to funding Ethereum public goods. By operating as a Public Benefit Corporation, OP Labs can align its incentives with the public good and take positive-sum steps toward a sustainable future for the internet.
We are seeking a hands-on and strategic finance leader to join us during this pivotal phase of our organization’s growth. Reporting directly to the COO, the Head of Finance will play a critical role in shaping and guiding our financial strategy. This position requires someone who is both a strategic thinker and an effective leader, capable of building and leading a high-caliber finance team that can scale alongside our rapidly growing business.
What are the role responsibilities?
- Finance & Accounting Leadership: Establish and scale finance and accounting operations suitable for a fast-growing startup, with potential to expand into broader responsibilities.
- Budgeting & Financial Modeling: Develop in-house budgeting and financial models; establish performance metrics and financial goals to track progress.
- Long-Term Financial Planning: Create and manage long-range financial plans and models to optimize resource allocation across the organization.
- Accurate Financial Reporting: Ensure precise presentation of company metrics to the board of directors, investors, and executive team.
- Risk Analysis & Business Opportunities: Analyze business risks and opportunities, providing data-driven recommendations that impact financial outcomes.
- Strategic Planning: Oversee the annual budgeting and strategic planning processes; monitor progress and make adjustments to keep leadership informed of financial status.
- Decentralized Development: Collaborate with XFN leadership to create a funding model to support external developers contributing to the Optimism ecosystem.
- Financial Reporting & Operations: Manage financial reporting, company-wide operational metrics, board reports, cash management, audits, and tax matters.
- Team Development: Hire, lead, mentor, and retain top-tier finance and accounting teams.
What skills do you bring?
- Proven success as a finance lead in a high-growth, venture-backed technology startup, with a demonstrated ability to scale businesses.
- Strong familiarity with, or deep interest in, blockchain and cryptocurrency.
- Expertise in Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A), coupled with an analytical and intellectually curious mindset.
- Proven track record in accurate planning, budgeting, modeling, and forecasting; must have a clear understanding of the company’s financial standing relative to internal and external targets.
- Ability to drive growth initiatives and adapt to a dynamic, entrepreneurial environment.
- Strong business acumen and a broad financial perspective, enabling you to serve as a strategic advisor to the management team.
- Proficiency in developing and implementing systems, tools, and processes that enhance business clarity and efficiency through a metrics-driven approach.
- Action-oriented with an entrepreneurial spirit and a bias towards action.
- Strong interpersonal skills; able to communicate effectively and manage relationships at all organizational levels.
- Comfortable guiding the strategic direction for internal and external stakeholders in a growing organization.
This role offers a unique opportunity to influence the financial strategy of a pioneering company at the forefront of Ethereum’s growth. If you’re a strategic leader with a passion for blockchain technology and a drive to make an impact, we encourage you to apply.
- We take care of our employees. Competitive compensation, fully paid medical, dental, and vision, and a 4% 401K match—learn more about our benefits, culture, and all recruiting FAQ here.
- We take pride in the accomplishments of our teammates and support each other in doing the best work of our careers.
- Our team is a diverse group of people from varied backgrounds. We cherish our eclecticism and consider it a great strength.
- We’re fully remote, deeply engaged, highly skilled, and like to have fun.
- We think long-term. Our founders have been scaling Ethereum since 2015.
We strongly encourage candidates of all different backgrounds to apply. We believe that our work is stronger with a variety of perspectives, and we’re eager to further diversify our company. If you have a background that you feel would make an impact at Optimism, please consider applying. We’re committed to building an inclusive, supportive place for you to do the best work of your career.
What We Do
Everybody and their mother working on blockchains loves the word “decentralization”. On a broad, world-changing scale, we can all agree that it’s important. Yet, when we zoom into the specifics of how to build this decentralized world, we find many diverse approaches. Whether it’s defi, identity, art, healthcare, or anything in between, a single dependency unites each dream for the future: scalability.
We are building the critical infrastructure to address this need. Optimistic Ethereum is an extension to Ethereum that scales both its technology and philosophy. Not only do we enable orders of magnitude more performance, we’re also doubling down on Ethereum’s values as a public good, never to be captured by private commercial interests. Ethereum will enable the greatest change in human coordination since the birth of the internet, and Optimism is here to bring it to the masses.
Join a team that is passionate about solving complex problems by exploring (and/or expanding) the boundaries of technology! We are a remote first company with local hubs where teams can co-work IRL, when safely able to do so. We aim to grow quickly, so come help us build! :-)
