Controller

Overview

This role is responsible for leading the accounting function of a high-growth, multi-entity travel marketplace with multiple revenue streams, international operations, a company-branded charge card, and a disciplined 5-day close. Accounting is already lean and AI-forward, and the organization is hiring a Controller to elevate operating excellence, scale automation, and build leadership depth for the next phase of growth.

Responsibilities

• Raise the operating bar: Create a clearer, more accountable operating model across Accounting by clarifying decision rights, pushing ownership closer to the work, reducing unnecessary escalation, and accelerating priorities from discussion to execution.
• Increase talent density: Build a high-performing leadership team with strong judgment and increasing independence. Set a clear performance bar, develop managers, address capability gaps directly, and make thoughtful talent upgrades where needed.
• Scale AI and automation: Expand existing automation and AI across Accounting. Partner with Systems and cross-functional teams to automate high-volume and repetitive work, apply AI to reconciliations, documentation, anomaly detection, and management visibility, and ensure headcount grows slower than transaction volume and business complexity.
• Modernize the close: Improve the already-disciplined 5-day close to be cleaner, faster, and less manual. Strengthen ownership across revenue, AR, payroll, tax, consolidations, reconciliations, and reporting. Remove recurring friction, simplify review layers, and address root causes.
• Make decisions at speed: Serve as a senior decision-maker across complex accounting and operational issues. Make well-reasoned calls with imperfect information, document the rationale, and keep the organization moving while maintaining strong technical accounting depth.
• Drive cross-functional execution: Create clarity where ownership is fragmented, surface tradeoffs, make recommendations, and drive work to resolution across Product, Finance, Tax, Legal, Credit, Fraud, Sales, People, and Systems.
• Prepare Accounting for the next phase: Build leadership depth, systems, processes, and controls needed to support increasing transaction volume, new revenue streams, international expansion, card receivables, rewards, supplier economics, intercompany activity, and FX. Identify where current processes will break at tomorrow’s scale and address constraints early.

Requirements

• Experience: 10+ years of progressive accounting leadership, including Controller, Assistant Controller, or equivalent responsibility in a high-growth environment. CPA strongly preferred.
• Track record: Demonstrated ability to improve an established accounting function, not just maintain it.
• Talent leadership: Proven ability to attract and develop talent, improve the talent bar, and build leadership depth.
• Automation & AI: AI-native, automation-forward operating style with demonstrated success reducing manual work and creating measurable operating leverage.
• Technical accounting: Strong multi-entity close, consolidation, reconciliation, and financial statement experience, with depth across ASC 606 (gross-versus-net and principal-agent analysis), ASC 842, ASC 718, reserves, and other judgment-heavy areas.
• Judgment & pace: Strong judgment and decisive pace; comfortable making calls with incomplete information while staying close to execution.

Preferred Qualifications

• Travel, marketplace, fintech, payments, card-program, or high-volume transaction accounting experience.
• Card receivables, rewards, supplier economics, merchant and agency models, or complex revenue streams.
• International experience, including intercompany, FX, VAT/GST, transfer-pricing support, or statutory reporting.
• NetSuite and modern close, reconciliation, workflow, BI, automation, and AI tools.

Compensation & Benefits

• Base Pay Range: $199,000—$260,000 USD
• Equity: Equity is provided for all employees.
• Bonus: Depending on the role, total compensation may also include an annual bonus.
• Benefits: Benefits are provided, with details varying by employment type and location.

Location

This role uses a hybrid-hub model, with options to work in office locations or fully remote depending on role and needs. The specific location details are not listed in the posting.

What Success Looks Like

Within the first 6 to 12 months:

• The close is less dependent on manual intervention.
• Automation and AI improvements are tied to measurable capacity, accuracy, and cycle-time gains.
• Cross-functional issues move to resolution faster.
• The function absorbs greater complexity without proportional headcount growth.

Reporting

This role reports to the VP, Accounting and leads the core Accounting leadership team, including Assistant Controller / GL, AR and, Payroll, and Tax.