---
title: 'Strategic Finance Associate at Freeform'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/strategic-finance-associate-freeform-los-angeles-7rcf9bqt6fwy'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-11-07'
---

# Strategic Finance Associate at Freeform

- **Company:** Freeform
- **Location:** Los Angeles, CA
- **Posted:** 2026-10-26
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-11-07
- **Apply:** https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/freeformfuturecorp/jobs/8045342003

## Job description

## STRATEGIC FINANCE ASSOCIATE

Freeform builds AI-native manufacturing systems that unify software, hardware, and physics to produce industrial-scale parts at the speed of human ideation. By treating manufacturing as a single integrated system, we unlock a new era of innovation where complex hardware is designed, built, and scaled without limits.

We are looking for an Associate to join our Strategic Finance team and contribute to the financial infrastructure that drives company-wide decision-making. This is an early-career role with significant ownership and visibility. You will support the financial models that power our planning cycles, assist with M&A and partnership activity, and work alongside leadership as a hands-on analytical contributor. If you are eager to develop deep financial modeling skills in a fast-moving environment and want your work to have direct influence on a company scaling a world-changing technology, this role is for you.

Responsibilities:

- Own and maintain the company’s fully integrated financial model, including three-statement modeling, bottoms-up budget build, and rolling forecasts across all business units
- Lead monthly and quarterly variance analysis (actuals vs. budget vs. prior year), translating financial results into clear, executive-ready commentary for leadership and the Board
- Build and maintain customer and product-level pricing models, including unit economics, contribution margin by segment, and scenario/sensitivity analysis to support commercial decisions
- Lead financial modeling for M&A opportunities, including target evaluation, DCF/LBO valuation, synergy modeling, accretion/dilution analysis, and post-close integration tracking
- Own the long-range financial plan (3–5 year), converting strategic initiatives into detailed financial projections with well-documented assumptions and risk sensitivities
- Support structuring and evaluation of joint ventures and strategic partnerships, including economic modeling, waterfall/return attribution, and term sheet analysis
- Drive capital allocation frameworks across the business, helping leadership evaluate trade-offs between organic investment, M&A, and balance sheet decisions
- Prepare board materials, investor reporting, and ad hoc analyses for senior leadership and external stakeholders including venture and growth equity investors
- Partner cross-functionally with Operations, Sales, and Engineering to embed financial rigor into business decisions and provide real-time analytical support on strategic initiatives

Basic Qualifications:

- Bachelor’s degree in finance, economics, accounting, or related field
- 2+ years of experience in investment banking, private equity, or a strategic finance role at a high-growth company
- Experience with variance analysis, budgeting, and financial reporting in an operating company context

Nice to Have:

- MBA or advanced degree in finance or business
- Exceptional financial modeling skills
- Strong command of Excel; comfortable working with large, complex datasets and building dynamic, assumption-driven models
- Private equity or growth equity experience, particularly at the portfolio company level
- Experience working in a manufacturing, deep tech, or hardware-intensive business
- Experience with financial planning tools (Mosaic, Pigment, Adaptive, or similar)
- “No job too big or small” mindset — willing to roll up sleeves and build from zero

Location:

- Based in Hawthorne, our vertically integrated facility brings technology development, R&D, and production together under one roof. We operate at the center of LA’s deep tech ecosystem, surrounded by some of the most ambitious hardware innovation happening anywhere in the country.
- Our fast-paced, cross-functional environment is built on close collaboration, and as such, this role requires full-time onsite presence (five days a week), with very limited exceptions.

Why Freeform?

- We have an inclusive and diverse culture that values collaboration, learning, and making deliberate data-driven decisions
- We offer a unique opportunity to be an early and integral member of a rapidly growing company that is scaling a world-changing technology
- Benefits
- Significant stock option packages
- 100% employer-paid Medical, Dental, and Vision insurance (premium PPO and HMO options)
- Life insurance
- Traditional and Roth 401(k)
- Paid vacation, sick leave, and company holidays
- Generous Paid Parental Leave and extended transition back to work for the birthing parent
- Free daily catered lunch and dinner, and fully stocked kitchenette
- Casual dress, flexible work hours, and regular catered team building events
- Compensation
- As an early-stage startup, the salary range is intentionally wide as we determine the most appropriate package for each individual taking into consideration years of experience, educational background, and unique skills and abilities as demonstrated throughout the interview process. Our intent is to offer a salary that is commensurate for the company’s current stage of development and allows the employee to grow and develop within a role.
- In addition to the significant stock option package, the estimated salary range for this role is $110,000 – $135,000. The upper end of the range is reserved for individuals who demonstrate exceptional experience, deep domain mastery, and a proven history of high performance and impact.

Freeform is an Equal Opportunity Employer that values diversity; employment with Freeform is governed on the basis of merit, competence and qualifications and will not be influenced in any manner by race, color, religion, gender, national origin/ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, mental or physical disability or any other legally protected status.

## About Freeform

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Freeform builds the world’s first AI-native manufacturing system – autonomous factories that use advanced sensing, compute, and machine learning to 3D-print industrial-grade metal parts at unprecedented speed and scale.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Series B, raised $67M in Feb 2026)
- **Headquarters**: Hawthorne, California, USA
- **Founded**: 2019
- **Founders**: Erik Palitsch (CEO), Thomas J. Ronacher (President & Co-Founder)

## Core Business
- **Primary industry/industries**: Industrial Automation, Additive Manufacturing (Metal 3D Printing), Physical AI
- **Target customers**: B2B, primarily serving mission-critical industries: Aerospace & Defense, Aviation, Automotive, Advanced Energy, Consumer Electronics, Robotics, and Motor Sports.
- **Mission or purpose statement**: “To radically change the way things are made” and “unlock advanced manufacturing for every industry” by treating manufacturing as a single, integrated AI-native system.

## Products & Services
For each major offering:
- **AI-Native Manufacturing System**: A fully integrated, software-defined network of autonomous factories. This system uses proprietary compute, sensors, controls, and ML to sense, learn, predict, and control metal formation in real-time. It unifies hardware and software to produce industrial-scale parts from prototype to full production, all under one roof.
- **Physical AI Stack**: The company built its own technology stack (compute, sensors, controls, software) to enable a new method of metal 3D printing that is faster, more predictable, and cost-effective than traditional methods.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not publicly disclosed
- **Key Metric**: Annual Revenue: $4.5M (LinkedIn estimate); Total Funding: $126M
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: NVIDIA (NVentures), AE Industrial Ventures (AE Ventures), Two Sigma Ventures, Founders Fund, Threshold Ventures, 8VC, Linse Capital, Valor.
- **Growth Signals**:
    - Raised $67M Series B in February 2026 to scale up laser AI manufacturing.
    - Named to Fast Company’s “World’s Most Innovative Companies of 2026.”
    - 48 active job postings as of mid-2026, with year-over-year hiring growth of +81.5%.
    - Headcount growth of 9.4% year-over-year (approximately 50 employees).
    - Key hires from SpaceX, Tesla, Apple, Google, Velo3D.

## Competitive Advantages
- **First-principles technology**: The company built all technology from scratch (compute, sensors, controls, ML stack) because the necessary tech didn't exist. This creates a deep technical moat.
- **AI-native, not AI-applied**: Their system is designed from the ground up to be autonomous, learning, and predictive, unlike traditional manufacturing methods that apply AI as an afterthought.
- **Proven leadership**: Founded and led by ex-SpaceX engineers (Erik Palitsch was Principal Architect of the Starship Vehicle and led the Merlin & Raptor engine programs) and a Chief Scientific Officer with deep experience in additive manufacturing (Tasso Lappas, former CTO at Velo3D).
- **Speed and scale**: Promises the ability to go from prototype to full-scale production faster than any competitor, enabling a "death of slow speeds and unpredictable systems."

## Strategic Focus
- **Scale up operations**: The primary focus of the $67M Series B is to scale the technology and expand production capacity.
- **Industry expansion**: Targeting a wide range of industries including aerospace, defense, automotive, energy, and consumer electronics.
- **Talent acquisition**: Aggressively hiring top-tier cross-disciplinary talent (MechE, Electrical, Software, ML/AI, Process, and Engineering leadership) to build out the team.
- **Product innovation**: Continuing to push the boundaries of speed, quality, and scale in metal additive manufacturing.

## Why Work Here
- **Culture**: Described as a team of "first-principles thinkers" with "low ego" and a "healthy sense of humor." The company emphasizes working on "hard problems" and is driven by a mission to fundamentally change manufacturing.
- **Working policy**: Fully on-site in Los Angeles, CA (Hawthorne). This is a shop-floor and lab-heavy environment, ideal for those who want to be hands-on with hardware.
- **Compensation & Equity**: Offers competitive compensation and pre-IPO shares, meaning all employees are shareholders in the company’s success.
- **Notable Perks & Engineering Culture**: Opportunity to work with some of the most advanced manufacturing technology in the world (lasers, robotics, ML). The environment is described as high-trust, high-impact, and cross-disciplinary. The company encourages applications even if there is no exact role listed, signaling a flexible and growth-oriented culture.
- **Talent density**: The team includes top talent from SpaceX, Apple, Google, Tesla, Velo3D, and other leading tech and manufacturing companies.

## Sources
1. [freeform.co](https://freeform.co/)
2. [Freeform Careers](https://freeform.co/careers)
3. [Freeform Company Page](https://freeform.co/company)
4. [Freeform Greenhouse Job Board](https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/freeformfuturecorp)
5. [LinkedIn - Freeform](https://www.linkedin.com/company/freeformfuture)
6. [TechCrunch - $67M Series B](https://techcrunch.com/2026/02/19/freeform-raises-67m-series-b-to-scale-up-laser-ai-manufacturing/)
7. [TechCrunch - $14M Venture Round](https://techcrunch.com/2024/10/22/ex-spacex-engineers-land-14m-to-scale-new-method-for-3d-printing-metal/)

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