Founding Finance Lead
Role Summary
Join Substrate Bio as a Founding Finance Lead to build the finance function for an innovative AI-driven lab opening in London by 2026.
About the Organisation
Substrate is an AI-native automated lab. Our four co-founders are Mostafa ElSayed (co-founder and CEO, and founder and CEO of Automata), Oli Hoy (co-founder, leading infrastructure, software and operations), Alexey Morgunov (co-founder, leading intelligence software and the science roadmap), and Anna Huyghues-Despointes (co-founder, leading commercial and partnerships). The automated lab runs on Automata's workcell platform.
We are funded by a combination of equity and debt. We are not a CRO and we are not a cloud lab. We are the infrastructure that generates large-scale, high-quality, AI-ready biological data.
Most finance leadership roles at venture-backed companies are either pure SaaS finance (clean ARR, clean margin, clean billing) or operational finance at a more mature stage. This is neither. You will design a finance function for a capital-intensive infrastructure business with a usage-priced commercial model, debt-funded CAPEX, and a live funding round, and you will be the person who decides how the pricing model actually works.
It is also a finance role with real product surface area. The pricing model is one of the most important commercial decisions Substrate will make, and you will own it. Some finance leaders find that energising and some find it outside their lane. Worth knowing in advance which one you are.
Minimum Requirements
You are an experienced finance leader who has built or rebuilt a finance function in a capital-intensive, usage-priced business. The shape of the problem is what attracts you: significant CAPEX, debt-funded infrastructure, complex revenue mechanics, and a cost model with many physical variables. You are equally strong in planning and analysis and in controllership, and you are comfortable owning corporate finance: the cap table, the debt, and the fundraise.
You have done this in an adjacent infrastructure business: compute, cloud, data centres, energy, telecoms, manufacturing, or somewhere similar that builds physical capacity and sells it on a usage basis. You can carry those lessons across without needing the company to look exactly like the last one. You do not need a background in biology or life sciences, and we will not test you on the science; what matters is the structure of the operating model.
You write clearly for investors, and you can take a complicated set of numbers and make it simple. You can build a financial model from scratch and defend its assumptions in a room of sceptical investors. You enjoy pricing as a problem and you have an opinion on it. You are equally at home in the detail (a bank reconciliation, a deferred revenue schedule) and in the strategy (where the next tranche of capital comes from, and what it costs us to take it).
Substrate's early roles are deliberately amorphous, and you are comfortable in that. When something outside the obvious finance remit needs owning in the early months (supplier management or procurement as the lab kits out, for example), you pick it up and do it well rather than wait for someone else. We do not hire people into boxes.
You are London-based, or willing to be, and happy to spend regular time in person at the lab as we build.
- A track record of building or rebuilding a finance function end to end: the team, the cadence, the close, and the working relationship with founders or an executive team. Typically six or more years of progressive finance experience, including a senior finance role at a venture-backed or capital-intensive growth company.
- Strong FP&A ownership: building and owning the financial model, scenario planning, investor updates, and partnering with the executive team on commercial and fundraising decisions.
- Direct experience of CAPEX-heavy operating models: depreciation policy, asset accounting, vendor contracting, and the cash dynamics of significant up-front spend.
- Corporate finance and debt: cap table mechanics, SAFE conversion, and structuring or managing venture or infrastructure debt against a capital programme.
- Direct experience of usage-priced commercial models: cost-to-serve modelling, pricing design, revenue recognition under usage rules, and the operational link between billing and product.
- A background in a capital-intensive, usage- or capacity-priced infrastructure business (compute, cloud, data centres, energy, telecoms, or similar).
- Experience with government grant or other non-dilutive funding.
- The Series A and Series B fundraise cycle: SAFE conversion, cap table mechanics, investor materials and diligence.
- Designing or operationalising token-based, unit-based, or otherwise usage-quantified pricing.
- Comfort building AI- and agent-augmented finance workflows.
Working Conditions
- 30 days annual leave, plus your birthday off
- A salary-sacrifice pension with a 10% employer contribution
- Private medical insurance
- Income protection, life cover and critical illness
- A personal financial coach and annual financial planning
Eligibility Criteria
This role is aimed at building a finance function for a new lab, likely open to international applicants but without explicit support for visa sponsorship.
⚠️ Disclaimer: PathwayAI Africa does not guarantee employment, scholarships, visas, or admission. Always verify all opportunities through official sources before submitting personal information.
Check if You Qualify
Upload your CV to compare it against this specific opportunity. You can still apply even if improvements are recommended.