Director, Client Accounting Operations

About Alta Advisors

Alta Advisors is a San Francisco-based strategic finance and accounting firm serving frontier technology startups across deeptech, hardtech, and applied AI. We act as embedded partners to visionary founders, providing strategic finance, accounting, and capital raising support to technically complex, venture-backed companies.

Alta has helped clients raise over $390M and achieve more than $2B in total enterprise value, supporting startups backed by leading investors including a16z, Coatue, Accel, GV, Lightspeed, Eclipse, and Y Combinator. Our clients often operate in complex environments, with evolving systems, sophisticated business models, and investor-grade reporting needs.

Role Overview

We are seeking a Director, Client Accounting Operations to lead the operations of Alta’s client accounting department. This is a senior, hands-on leadership role within a professional services firm, with responsibility for delivery quality, team management, day-to-day execution, workflow design, systems improvement, and department scalability across multiple client engagements.

The Director will act as the operating leader for Alta’s client accounting department, helping ensure that the department runs in a disciplined, transparent, and scalable way as the firm grows. Alta’s current delivery model is built around client-level controllers supported by senior accountants and other accounting team members, and this role will help manage, strengthen, and evolve that structure over time. This person will manage and coach controllers, senior accountants, and other accounting team members while strengthening how Alta operates across close oversight, delivery management, onboarding, client support, documentation, review, and process discipline.

The ideal candidate has significant experience leading accounting delivery in a multi-client environment, strong people-management skills, deep familiarity with startup accounting operations, and a track record of building efficient and scalable operating models through systems, automation, AI, and modern workflow tools. This role reports to Alta’s Managing Partner and partners closely with Alta’s senior accounting leadership, drawing on more senior technical accounting resources where needed for particularly complex accounting, compliance, ERP, audit, or other specialized matters.

This Role Is Ideal For

This role is ideal for someone who has led or helped run a client accounting services team, outsourced accounting department, startup-focused accounting function, or similar multi-client accounting operation and wants to play a central role in building an exceptional accounting department.

It is especially well suited for someone who enjoys building within a growing organization, running a complex accounting operation, coaching teams, raising standards, strengthening client service, and using automation and AI to help an accounting organization perform at the highest level.

Key Responsibilities

Accounting Operations and Delivery Management

• Own the day-to-day management rhythm of Alta’s client accounting department across multiple client engagements.

• Ensure client accounting work is delivered accurately, consistently, and on schedule across monthly, quarterly, and annual reporting cycles.

• Maintain clear visibility into close progress, deadlines, staffing capacity, delivery risks, and blockers across the accounting team.

• Drive the discipline, consistency, and rigor expected of a best-in-class client accounting department.

Team Management, Coaching, and Accountability

• Manage, coach, and support controllers, senior accountants, and other accounting team members across Alta’s client delivery structure.

• Set clear expectations around quality, timeliness, ownership, communication, and follow-through.

• Review team output at the appropriate level to maintain high standards and help team members grow.

• Identify skill gaps, training needs, and opportunities to improve how work is staffed, supervised, and structured across the team.

Workflow Design, Systems, and Process Improvement

• Define, improve, and standardize accounting workflows across clients and team members, including close management, reconciliations, review, onboarding, cleanup, reporting, and documentation.

• Evaluate how Alta’s core accounting systems and upstream tools are being used across clients, including QuickBooks Online and related finance systems such as AP, payroll, spend management, billing, and revenue tools.

• Identify system gaps, recurring process failures, inefficient handoffs, data quality issues, integration problems, and manual work that should be improved or eliminated.

• Recommend and implement practical improvements to how Alta delivers accounting services in order to improve efficiency, reliability, quality, and scalability.

AI, Automation, and Efficiency

• Lead Alta’s use of AI, automation, and modern workflow tools within the accounting function.

• Define where AI should and should not be used across the accounting function, with a practical focus on leverage, quality, and scalability.

• Improve how the firm uses templates, checklists, SOPs, documentation, communication workflows, review layers, and recurring routines to increase leverage.

• Build a modern, AI-enabled accounting department that combines strong human judgment with disciplined, repeatable processes.

Client Support and Account Management

• Serve as a senior layer above client-level controllers, stepping into client conversations as needed to support delivery, communication, issue resolution, and relationship management.

• Support client onboarding, accounting takeovers, cleanup situations, and workflow stabilization efforts.

• Help ensure that clients experience Alta’s accounting function as organized, responsive, and dependable.

• Partner with controllers and other team members to resolve issues before they affect client confidence or delivery quality.

Quality Control, Readiness, and Escalation

• Enforce quality standards across financial statements, reconciliations, supporting schedules, close documentation, and reporting workflows.

• Ensure issues are surfaced early and escalated appropriately when more complex technical accounting, compliance, audit, ERP, or other specialized support is needed.

• Work closely with Alta’s Managing Partner and senior accounting leadership to improve delivery quality and support scaling decisions.

• Lead internal process improvement initiatives tied to client satisfaction, close performance, team efficiency, and department scalability.

Required Qualifications

• 10+ years of progressive accounting experience, including significant responsibility for close, financial reporting, accounting operations, and team oversight.

• Prior experience managing accounting delivery across multiple clients, entities, or business units in an accounting firm, fractional finance firm, or similar multi-client professional services setting.

• Prior experience directly managing, coaching, or supervising accountants, controllers, accounting managers, or similar team members.

• Strong experience reviewing accounting work, maintaining quality standards, and improving team performance across a delivery-oriented environment.

• Hands-on experience with venture-backed startups, high-growth companies, or similarly dynamic operating environments.

• Strong operational judgment around prioritization, staffing, escalation, accountability, and delivery consistency.

• Strong systems fluency, including QuickBooks Online, Excel, Google Sheets, and common upstream finance systems such as payroll, AP, spend management, billing, revenue, or reporting tools.

• Demonstrated capability in adopting AI, automation, and modern workflow tools, with practical examples of improving accounting efficiency, visibility, documentation, review, communication, scalability, or operating leverage.

• Strong communication skills and the ability to operate credibly with clients, founders, finance leads, operators, and internal team members.

• Must be based in the United States and able to work effectively with US-based clients and team members.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience helping run or scale a client accounting services team, CAS practice, startup-focused outsourced accounting group, or similar multi-client accounting function.

• Experience serving as a senior support layer in client relationships, including issue escalation, delivery oversight, onboarding support, and account-management-style communication.

• Strong startup accounting experience across areas such as deferred revenue, SaaS, usage-based revenue, hardware, inventory, fixed assets, CapEx, multi-entity structures, and other operationally complex environments.

• Experience improving close processes, reducing delivery friction, creating SOPs, building review structures, and improving quality control across teams.

• Experience with deeptech, hardtech, applied AI, robotics, defense, climate, manufacturing, R&D-heavy, or other technically complex companies.

• Experience with government contracts, grants, reimbursable cost programs, or project accounting is a plus.

• CPA is a plus, but not required.

What to Expect

• Fully remote, US-based role within a distributed team.

• A role that includes both running the current client delivery structure and helping refine that structure over time as systems, automation, and AI-enabled workflows evolve.

• A cross-functional role spanning team leadership, client support, close oversight, workflow design, systems evaluation, process improvement, and accounting delivery management.

• Periods of increased workload during month-end, quarter-end, year-end, audits, investor diligence, client onboarding, cleanup projects, and periods of organizational change or growth.

What Success Looks Like

• Controllers and accountants are well-managed, well-prioritized, and improving over time.

• Client accounting delivery is accurate, timely, and dependable under pressure.

• Close processes are standardized, transparent, and scalable across clients.

• Workflow inefficiencies are identified and fixed quickly.

• AI and automation are applied thoughtfully to improve leverage, visibility, and consistency.

• Alta’s accounting department operates consistently at the highest level of quality and rigor.

Why This Role Is Compelling

• Play a central role in building a best-in-class startup accounting department.

• Serve as the operating leader behind a growing client accounting department with real influence over how it runs and scales.

• Support founders and operators building world changing technologies backed by many of the venture ecosystem’s leading firms.

• Help build a modern, AI-enabled accounting department that emphasizes efficiency, quality, accountability, strong client service, and practical operating leverage.

• Join a high-trust environment where entrepreneurial operators can take ownership and make a visible impact.