How to apply for Finance Lead

About White Circle

White Circle builds the safety, reliability, and optimization layer for AI systems. The company has raised $70M total, including a recent Series A, and processes over 100 million API calls per month. It fine-tunes its own LLMs and works with investors from OpenAI, Anthropic, HuggingFace, Mistral, DeepMind, Datadog, and Sentry.

About the role

This Finance Lead owns day-to-day accounting and finance operations across multiple entities, with a focus on the US entity and US GAAP. You will run the monthly financial close, produce accurate reporting, and handle forecasting, cash tracking, and burn tracking. You will also work with external accountants, tax advisors, and auditors.

A typical day

A typical day might involve reviewing expenses, invoices, and receipts, updating the monthly close checklist, and reconciling accounts for the US entity. You could also spend time on cash and burn tracking, preparing reports for leadership, and coordinating with external accountants or tax advisors. Because the company is small and focused, you will likely handle both routine accounting tasks and ad hoc finance requests.

Who White Circle is looking for

• Hands-on accountant with strong US GAAP experience, comfortable reviewing expenses, invoices, and receipts directly rather than only managing a team.
• Experience owning a monthly financial close end to end, including reconciliations, accruals, and financial statement preparation.
• Comfortable working across multiple entities and coordinating with external accountants, tax advisors, and auditors.
• Able to build and maintain forecasting, cash, and burn tracking for a company that has raised $70M and operates at high API volume.

Tips for this application

• Lead with concrete examples of owning a monthly close under US GAAP. Name the systems you used and the entity structures you handled.
• Quantify your experience with cash and burn tracking. Mention the size of budgets or funding rounds you have supported.
• Show familiarity with multi-entity accounting. White Circle operates across different entities, so describe how you have coordinated between them.
• Reference White Circle's AI safety work and its scale (100M+ API calls per month, own LLM fine-tuning) to show you understand the operating context.
• Explain how you work with external accountants, tax advisors, and auditors. Give one specific example of managing an external audit or tax filing.

What to cover in your cover letter

['Your hands-on experience with US GAAP accounting and monthly financial close, including specific systems and processes.', 'Your track record with multi-entity finance operations and coordinating external finance providers.', 'Your ability to produce forecasting, cash, and burn tracking for a venture-backed company.', 'Why you want to work at an AI safety company that processes over 100 million API calls per month and fine-tunes its own LLMs.']

Research before applying

• Read White Circle's website and any public materials on how its platform tests, enforces, and improves AI policies.
• Look up the backgrounds of the investors listed (OpenAI, Anthropic, HuggingFace, Mistral, DeepMind, Datadog, Sentry) to understand the company's network and credibility.
• Understand what Series A funding at $70M total implies for finance operations, reporting requirements, and burn management.
• Check what US GAAP and multi-entity accounting challenges are common for AI infrastructure companies with high API volume and custom LLM training.

Likely interview topics

Based on the job description, expect questions about:

• Walk through how you run a monthly financial close under US GAAP, including reconciliations and accruals.
• How do you handle accounting across multiple entities, and what challenges have you faced with intercompany transactions?
• Describe how you build and maintain cash and burn forecasts. What tools and cadences do you use?
• How do you manage relationships with external accountants, tax advisors, and auditors during an audit or tax season?
• How would you set up finance operations for a company that has just raised a Series A and processes over 100 million API calls per month?

Common mistakes to avoid

• Focusing only on high-level strategy without showing hands-on accounting work like reviewing expenses, invoices, and receipts.
• Ignoring the multi-entity and US GAAP requirements. Do not assume a single-entity or non-US accounting background is sufficient.
• Treating this as a generic finance role. Avoid generic cover letters that do not mention AI safety, API scale, or the company's recent Series A.