Chief Financial Officer

Who We Are:

Technology has transformed the way we work, communicate, travel, eat, move, and more. Yet in biopharma, it still takes 12 years to develop a single drug. Even today, thousands of diseases affecting hundreds of millions of people have no effective treatment. Accelerating the pace of bringing effective, new medicines to patients is one of the greatest opportunities for humanity. 

Our mission is to develop better drugs, faster using technology. We have built an end-to-end technology-driven drug discovery platform centered around one of the field’s largest human genomics databases in neuroscience. We use machine learning to map the complex causes of disease and turn those insights into promising drug candidates on our internal biology and chemistry platforms. We are developing drugs to treat some of the biggest medical challenges today: ALS, Parkinson’s Disease, and Alzheimer’s Disease.

We closed our Series C with a syndicate of top tier investors (e.g. BlackRock, Eli Lilly, Merck, Section 32, Threshold Ventures, Y Combinator, etc.). We are a team of engineers, neuroscientists, and drug developers united around an audacious vision: to build the next Genentech of the digital age. 

The Chief Financial Officer is a strategic finance executive whose mission will be to ensure that Verge is capitalized to execute on our vision. You will report directly to our founder and CEO and sit on the executive leadership team. Partnering with the CEO, you will have the opportunity to rewrite the standard biotech financing playbook for tech-enabled drug discovery. You will drive external finance and strategy, lead internal resources and capital allocation decisions, and support strategic planning and operational decisions with data-driven analytics. You will oversee all sub-functional elements of finance, including FP&A, accounting, investor relations, transactions, and certain operational activities, including public relations, people, IT, and legal.

• Own Verge's capital formation strategy
• Prepare financing plans, evaluate creative financing strategies, generate options for accessing capital
• Lead the preparation and execution of equity financings
• Cultivate investor relationships; communicate the company story and progress
• Develop long-range strategic plans, establish priorities, and identify opportunities to maximize shareholder value
• Ensure company objectives are aligned with financing strategy and shareholder value creation

• Own our long-term financial and operating model
• Develop robust contingency plans and stress-tested financial models to manage costs effectively
• Drive strategic decisions and timely implementation of cost reductions to ensure adequate runway
• In partnership with the CBO, refine our BD strategy to focus on opportunities that maximize shareholder value
• Oversee financial review of all transactions, including evaluation and prioritization of acquisitions, partnerships, collaborations, and in-licensing opportunities. Support the structuring, negotiation, and execution of these transactions.
• Makes actionable recommendations on key transactions based on a prospective analysis of deal structure, financial impact, and long-term capital formation strategy.
• Provide product support via financial analyses (e.g. market sizing, landscape analysis)
• Negotiate with external partners and investors

• Manage all aspects of the finance and accounting functions; ensure maintenance of appropriate internal controls and financial procedures
• Oversee investor relations, public relations, legal/compliance, and people functions
• Keep investors, board, and shareholders informed of company financial status, results, budget, and forecastManage the audit committee
• Proactively mitigate future risks and identifies new opportunities to improve capital efficiency
• Drive a culture of financial discipline in managing the business. Facilitate tough conversations on strategic focus, reprioritization, and tradeoffs.

• Strategic finance: Develop a Series D-enabling capital formation strategy (milestones, runway, financing), with multiple contingency plans
• FP&A: Drive strategic decisions and implementation of cost reductions to ensure adequate runway to withstand uncertainty
• Investor Relations: Cultivate>20 investors for our Series D financing
• BD: Serve as a force multiplier for BD resulting in clearer strategy, faster decisions, greater focus, better outcomes
• Other: Prepare Verge to be IPO-ready

• > 10 years experience in a biotech investment banking or investor-facing environment
• > 2 years operating experience at a biotech startup
• Strong transactions deal sheet across BD, M&A, and/or financings, with experience facilitating non-traditional transactions
• Deep understanding of equity capital markets (what investors want, when to finance/IPO, how markets operate) willingness to roll up their sleeves with hands-on executional FP&A and fundraising as needed
• Experience setting milestones, developing long-range operating models and contingency plans
• Strong financial modeling background with a fluent understanding of R&D project finance and FP&A nuances
• A challenger who embraces discomfort and uncomfortable conversations
• A natural “finisher” with strong attention to detail
• An obsession with efficiency and killing complexity
• Thrives in small teams with frequently changing priorities 
• Hard-charging with a sense of urgency
• Experience using financial analytics to drive strategic decisions
• Deep alignment with our values and/or a passion for learning and practicing conscious leadership
• A passion for making an impact on patients

• Ability to work remotely and set your own hours – we care more accomplishing great work, not how many hours or where you work
• Opportunity to rewrite the standard biotech financing playbook and shape new strategies for a new breed of tech-enabled platform companies
• Potential to take Verge through an IPO in the next 18 months
• Stunning colleagues who are leaders in neuroscience drug development and AI
• A drama-free culture steeped in authenticity, transparency, and vulnerability
• A true strategic and thought partnership with the Executive Team and CEO
• A company that values Finance as a strategic rather than administrative function
• Ground floor seats at a high growth company during a critical inflection point
• An opportunity to make an impact on millions of patients suffering from the biggest medical challenges of our time

Help us revolutionize the way drugs are discovered & developed:

The startup nature of Verge Genomics provides multiple growth opportunities into other areas of the company. As one of the early employees at Verge, your work will have a direct impact on the foundation of a groundbreaking new drug development model.

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