VP of Finance at OpenArt AI (San Carlos California, United States)

OpenArt AI· San Carlos California, United States·1d ago

Role details

Work type

Hybrid

Employment

Full-Time

Job description

VP of Finance

🎨 About OpenArt OpenArt is an AI Storytelling and Visual Creation Platform used by millions worldwide. We’re building the next generation of creative tools powered by cutting-edge AI, enabling anyone to create videos, images, visuals, characters, and stories with unprecedented speed and imagination.

We believe the future of creativity is AI-native, and we’re shaping that future.

🚀 Why Join OpenArt

Lead finance at a critical inflection point. You will help shape how OpenArt scales, invests, and finances its next stage of growth.
Build the financial foundation for a category-defining company. You will develop the systems, discipline, and insights required to support rapid channel and global expansion.
Work on high-impact strategic decisions. You will partner directly with the CEO, leadership team, board, and investors on company strategy, capital allocation, future financing, and strategic opportunities.
High ownership, real impact. You will lead the finance function and play a central role in OpenArt’s most important decisions.

🎯 About the Role The VP of Finance will lead OpenArt’s finance organization through our next stage of growth. Reporting to the CEO and serving as a member of the leadership team, you will own financial strategy, FP&A, accounting, tax, treasury, financial operations, and board and investor reporting. You will build a scalable finance function, give the company clear visibility into its performance and unit economics, and prepare OpenArt for future financing and potential strategic opportunities. You will be both a strategic partner and a hands-on operator - equally comfortable advising the CEO, reviewing an operating model, leading a financing process, and ensuring the accuracy of the company’s financial reporting. The ideal candidate combines investment banking experience in TMT/SaaS with meaningful operating-finance leadership at a high-growth technology company. You are financially and technically sharp, deeply understand the business behind the numbers, and communicate complex financial issues with clarity and good judgment.

⚙️ What We’re Looking For Core Requirements

10+ years of experience across investment banking, private equity, strategic finance, FP&A, accounting, or finance leadership
Investment banking experience at a leading bulge-bracket institution, focused on TMT with meaningful consumer platform or SaaS transaction exposure
Highly hands-on and able to operate effectively in a fast-moving, ambiguous environment
Operating-finance leadership experience at a high-growth, venture-backed technology company, ideally during the Series B through IPO stages
Experience supporting or leading late-stage equity financing, debt financing, investor diligence, or other capital-raising processes
Strong command of accounting, financial reporting, audit requirements, tax, controls, and financial operations
Deep experience with budgeting, forecasting, operating models, scenario analysis, and long-range planning
Strong understanding of consumer subscription metrics, unit economics, cash management, and capital allocation
Ability to understand the business deeply and translate product, growth, pricing, and cost dynamics into financial strategy
Experience communicating with boards, investors, auditors, bankers, and executive teams
Strong leadership, executive presence, and interpersonal skills
AI-native in how you approach analysis, automation, reporting, and team productivity

Nice to Have

Experience executing an IPO or M&A
Buy-side experience in private equity, growth equity, venture capital, or corporate development, combined with a sell-side banking foundation

Experience with consumer subscription, product-led growth, international, or AI-native businesses

🛠 What You’ll Do

Own Financial Strategy: Translate OpenArt’s company strategy into financial plans, operating priorities, and capital-allocation decisions.
Lead FP&A: Own budgeting, forecasting, scenario analysis, headcount planning, performance reporting, and long-range planning.
Lead Accounting and Financial Operations: Ensure accurate financial reporting, a dependable close, strong controls, audit readiness, tax compliance, and scalable financial processes.
Support Future Financing: Lead financial preparation, modeling, diligence, investor materials, and execution for future equity or debt financings.
Drive Business Performance: Partner with Product, Growth, Engineering, and Operations to improve pricing, unit economics, gross margin, and resource allocation.
Own Board and Investor Reporting: Deliver clear, decision-oriented reporting and communicate OpenArt’s performance and financial strategy effectively.
Build Scalable Systems: Implement the systems, data, controls, and automation required to support rapid growth and future strategic optionality.
Evaluate Strategic Opportunities: Support the financial evaluation and execution of potential partnerships, investments, acquisitions, or other strategic transactions.
Lead the Finance Team: Build and develop a high-performing organization across FP&A, accounting, tax, and related finance functions.
Shape Company Strategy: Serve as a trusted partner to the CEO and leadership team on OpenArt’s most important decisions.

🌍 Work Setup

Based in San Carlos, CA. This role is required to be local to our San Carlos office.
Hybrid schedule: 3 days onsite, 2 days remote

Why work at OpenArt AI

Culture: Fast‑moving, lean team that “move[s] fast, over‑communicate[s], and put[s] storytelling at the heart of everything.” [openart.ai/blog]
Growth trajectory: Company experienced 7× ARR growth in one year and is actively hiring across departments (engineering, design, product, marketing)
Founders: Ex‑Google (Coco Mao, John Qiao) with a track record of launching products at scale (short‑form video platform acquired by Google Search)
Work model: Hybrid / office presence in San Francisco (HQ) and Redwood City; no formal remote‑first policy stated
Notable: Free trial available for users; employees have backgrounds from top AI companies (Stability AI, Invideo, ImagineArt, etc.)

About OpenArt AI

Company Overview

One-liner: OpenArt is an all-in-one AI creative platform that enables users to generate, edit, and remix images, videos, characters, audio, and 3D worlds through a single interface.
Entity Type: Private (Series A)
Headquarters: San Francisco, California, United States
Founded: 2022
Founders: Coco Mao (CEO), John Qiao (CTO) – both former Google engineers

Core Business

Primary Industry: Technology, Information and Internet; AI‑powered creative tools
Target Customers: B2C (millions of individual creators) and B2B (brands, studios, content teams)
Mission Statement: “Build the future of storytelling with AI.”

Products & Services

Image Generation & Editing – Generate images using models like GPT Image 2, Nano Banana Pro, Seedream 5.0, and edit within the same canvas (erase, expand, restyle, upscale to 4K).
Video Generation – Create videos up to 15 seconds at up to 4K resolution, choosing from models such as Veo 3.1, Seedance 2.0, Kling 3.0 Omni, and Sora 2. Refine or edit each generation.
Character Builder – Build consistent characters using reference images or text; characters can be reused across images, scenes, and videos with the same face and style.
World – Generate persistent, navigable 3D spatial environments from a single prompt or reference images; add characters, place objects, take still photos, or export to 3D tools.
Audio – AI voiceovers in 30+ languages with lip‑sync, original music generation, and sound effects (footsteps, rain, etc.). Export as WAV or MP3 timed to video.
OpenArt Director – Storyboard and refine video sequences using natural‑language chat for granular shot‑by‑shot control.
Smart Shot – Convert a single prompt into 3–5 cinematic cuts with varied angles, camera moves, and visual consistency.

Market Standing

Valuation: Not publicly disclosed
Key Metrics:
- Annual Recurring Revenue: Grew from $10.5 M to over $70 M in 2025 (7× growth) [openart.ai/blog]
- Monthly Active Users: 8 million+ [openart.ai/blog]
Total Funding: $40 M+ across three rounds:
- Seed (June 2023): $5 M led by DCM Ventures and CapitalOven [tracxn.com]
- Venture Round (Aug 2025): $5 M [linkedin.com]
- Series A (2026–Q1): $30 M – $35 M (conflicting reports) led by Canaan Partners [openart.ai/blog]
Notable Investors/Partners: Canaan Partners, DCM Ventures, CapitalOven; partnerships with leading AI model providers (Seedream, Google Veo, Kling, etc.)
Growth Signals:
- Employee headcount: 67 (1,172.7% YoY growth; 29.6% monthly growth) [linkedin.com]
- Presence in 17 countries across North America, Asia, and Europe
- Hosted the world’s first AI Influencer Summit and produced “Bot House,” the first AI reality TV show

Competitive Advantages

All‑in‑one platform: Instead of juggling separate tools (Midjourney for images, Runway/Sora for video, etc.), users access images, video, characters, audio, and 3D worlds under a single subscription.
Character consistency: A core differentiator – one character can be reused across images, scenes, and videos with the same look, enabling storytelling and AI influencers.
Model agnosticism: The platform bundles multiple top‑tier AI models (Seedream, Veo, GPT Image, Kling, Sora, etc.), letting users pick the best option per project without paying multiple subscriptions.
Strong retention driven by storytelling: The metric most watched is not ARR but how often creators return to deepen characters and expand universes.

Strategic Focus

Continue building the end‑to‑end creative platform for storytellers (characters, worlds, long‑form video)
Expand the AI influencer and brand‑mascot market (e.g., AI Influencer Summit, Bot House reality show)
Deepen integration of audio and video editing for professional studios
Grow the engineering and product teams – “We’ve nearly doubled in size this year, and the pace isn’t slowing down.” [openart.ai/blog]

Sources

Job description

Nice to Have

Why work at OpenArt AI

Application questions