Head of Finance and Operations

About Howl

Howl is the creator platform for social commerce. We build tools for brands and creators to sell more products across every social platform, together.

In the last 10 years, influencer marketing has become a critical part of the retail industry.  It has evolved into social commerce, a new $1.2 trillion market opportunity (link) requiring new tools, protocols, and technologies.  

Howl enables creators and brands to run experiments on what products to talk about and how best to talk about them. Paired with data delivered at the speed of social, creator financing for products, and feedback loops delivered in a beautifully designed platform, Howl takes the guesswork out of selling products on social platforms.

Howl’s mission is to reduce barriers for creators and brands to build social commerce businesses.  We are a remote-first company with a diverse team that reflects our vision. Our beta launched in mid 2022 and powers social commerce for creators and brands across beauty, gaming, home, fashion, and consumer electronics for both industry leaders like Best Buy, Samsung, Target and cult favorites like Cariuma, Kosas, and Youth to the People. We are a Series A company backed by investors including HighlandX and NEA. 

About the Role

As the Head of Finance & Operations, you will manage and anchor finance, accounting, and the operating cadence of Howl. This role will report to the CEO and stretches outside the traditional Finance leader role - you'll build processes and work alongside the senior leadership team to identify revenue and other business optimizations while also managing day-to-day accounting and finance operations. You'll utilize a strategic and multi-disciplinary approach to help the business understand & analyze its performance, and help make better decisions that drive growth and returns.

What you’ll do:

FP&A and Accounting 

• Identify, analyze and present monetization strategies and opportunities that support our business and revenue growth 
• Maintain our financial model and forecasts that guide Howl’s short and long term financial strength by advising on hiring, spending and strategic projects and clearly communicating the financial implications of company initiatives
• Track and report financial performance in collaboration with the CEO to key stakeholders including the executive team, Board of Directors and shareholders
• Develop and maintain the highest standards of financial & accounting management and create processes to support our current and future goals and objectives while maintaining relationships with external partners that support the accounting and finance infrastructure and company objectives.
• Set and own cadence of internal financial communication touch-points to enable informed decision-making and budget performance to plan across the company

Operations & Leadership 

• Audit and improve productivity and effectiveness of current cross team processes through strong organizational design and process 
• Own the company wide OKR and processes
• Work with our executive leadership team to develop OKR’s and milestones tied to revenue 
• Develop and scale KPI tracking
• Guide and report on Company-wide  performance
• Partner with the CEO to support corporate finance activities and investor relations, including both equity and debt capital fundraising
• Partner with People Team on Equity administration and planning by representing strategic company objectives in human capital planning 

Your experience and domain expertise:

• Substantial experience in a Finance leadership role, preferably customer-facing in a SaaS or a marketplace organization. 
• Experience in financial forecasting, scenario planning, raising Series B and beyond capital a plus
• You've worked at a start up/ growth stage company 
• You've reporting into a CEO in the past
• Proven ownership of financial reporting, financial processes, and key metrics in multi-faceted businesses
• Natural motivation to fully understand all aspects of Howl’s business to deliver meaningful insights across the company and become a trusted team-player helping to deliver business outcomes across functions
• Strong management collaboration, emotional intelligence, and interpersonal skills- ability to interact and influence direct and indirect reports and peers

The base salary range for this role is $230,000-$250,000 USD.

At Howl, we offer a competitive compensation package inclusive of base salary, incentive pay and stock options. Incentive awards are allocated based on individual performance. Certain roles also have the opportunity to earn sales incentives based on revenue, depending on the terms of the plan and the employee’s role. 

Howl is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace and is an affirmative action employer. We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, or veteran status.