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About the Role

Substrate is building a network of fully autonomous wet labs for AI biology, integrated with foundation models. We are hiring a financial controller to build the finance function from scratch, owning accounting, pricing, and investor reporting for a capital-intensive business with complex revenue mechanics.

Responsibilities

• Own the finance function end to end.
• Manage month-end close, management accounts, payroll, statutory accounts, and the first audit.
• Manage the cap table through the SAFE round and into Series A.
• Structure capital-intensive accounting, including CAPEX, asset accounting, vendor contracting, and grant treatment.
• Manage ARIA and DSIT grants, including claims, evidence, spend sequencing, and board reporting.
• Stress-test, rebuild, and operationalize the usage-based, token-based pricing model.
• Build the underlying cost model and set the incentive structure for pricing.
• Serve as the executive partner on financial matters, including the financial model, fundraising materials, board reporting, and scenario planning.
• Build the finance team over the first eighteen months.
• Decide what finance functions stay in-house and what gets outsourced.
• Set up grant accounting infrastructure for ARIA and DSIT and manage the first claim.
• Stand up management accounts and board packs.
• Run the Year 1 audit cleanly.
• Set up R&D tax credit claims.
• Connect the pricing model to billing, revenue recognition, and the financial model.
• Position the finance function for Series A fundraising.
• Be in the office at the King’s Cross site at least three days a week.

Requirements

• Eight or more years of progressive finance experience.
• At least three years in a senior finance role at a venture-backed or capital-intensive growth company.
• Direct experience of CAPEX-heavy operating models, including depreciation policy, asset accounting, vendor contracting, and cash dynamics of significant up-front spend.
• Direct experience of usage-priced commercial models, including cost-to-serve modelling, pricing design, revenue recognition under usage rules, and the operational connection between billing and product.
• Track record of building or rebuilding a finance function, including the team, cadence, and relationship with the co-founders or executive team.
• Ability to write good board reports.
• Ability to build a financial model from scratch and defend its assumptions.
• Enjoy pricing as a problem and have an opinion on it.
• Comfortable in both detail-oriented tasks and strategic planning.
• Pragmatic about doing the work yourself for the first twelve months.
• Excited about building a team.
• Enjoy interviewing, hiring, mentoring, and setting standards.
• Comfortable being in the office at the King’s Cross site at least three days a week.

Skills

• Finance leadership
• Building finance functions
• Capital-intensive accounting
• Usage-based pricing
• Financial modeling
• Board reporting
• Grant accounting
• Revenue recognition
• Cost modeling
• Pricing design
• Team building
• Hiring
• Mentoring
• Setting standards

Location

• King's Cross, London

Work Type

• Hybrid

Experience Level

• Senior finance role
• Eight or more years of progressive finance experience

Benefits

• 30 days annual leave
• A learning budget

About the Company

• Substrate is building a network of fully autonomous wet labs, cloud-based data production facilities for AI biology, integrated with foundation models to become the critical infrastructure layer for AI-driven biological discovery.
• Our first node opens in King’s Cross, London, with several integrated workcells and two scientific verticals online by mid-2027.
• Our customers range from foundation model labs to global pharma.
• Substrate is spinning out of Automata, the UK lab automation company that has built the workcell platform our labs run on.
• Our four co-founders are Mostafa ElSayed (CEO and founder of Automata), Oli Hoy (formerly VP Customer Experience at Automata), Alexey Morgunov (AI Scientist co-founder, leading the intelligence software product), and a founding biology lead joining shortly.
• We are aiming to have ramped up to 32 people by the end of Q1 2027.
• We are funded in parallel by a combination of venture funding and government grants.
• We are not a cloud lab and we are not a CRO.
• We are an autonomous lab platform with closed-loop integration available as one operating mode for foundation model partners.
• The role is crucial to Substrate’s success due to its unique financial challenges.
• The pricing model is one of the most important commercial decisions Substrate will make.
• Most finance leadership roles at venture-backed companies are either pure SaaS finance or pure operational finance at a more mature stage; this role is neither.
• This is a finance role with significant product surface area.
• We pay competitively against the London market for senior finance leaders at venture-backed companies.
• Equity is meaningful, with vesting on the standard four-year schedule and a one-year cliff.
• Working pattern is hybrid with a strong in-person bias.
• The founding team operates on a weekly cadence with a Monday planning meeting and a Friday close, and a quarterly offsite.
• We are direct with each other, we write things down, and we expect to be challenged.
• You will report to Oli Hoy, co-founder, who leads our autonomous lab buildout and the broader operations of the company.
• You will work most closely with Mostafa ElSayed on commercial and fundraising matters, and with the co-founder team as a whole on the financial model and board reporting.
• You are the first finance hire.
• Substrate is currently four co-founders growing to roughly thirty people by the end of 2026.

Equal Opportunity

• Substrate is an equal opportunity employer.
• We make hiring decisions on merit, scope-fit, and the strength of the working relationship we expect to build with each hire.
• Applications welcome from candidates of any background.