Finance Manager

LawZero is a young organization that emerged from an incubation environment with Mila and is currently undergoing a phase of rapid structuring. Today, transactional operations, payroll, payables, certain accounting deliverables, and a portion of budget support are provided by Mila’s shared finance team under a service agreement. The Finance Manager will act as the pivotal link between LawZero, the shared finance team, project leads, funding partners, and external auditors. The goal of this role is to provide capacity, rigor, and continuity across all financial matters while contributing to the implementation of processes adapted to the organization’s growth. This is a broad-scope position without direct team supervision: the successful candidate must advance files through collaboration, diplomacy, and an excellent understanding of everyone’s priorities.

Reporting to the Senior Director, Finance, you will contribute to the daily management, compliance, and improvement of LawZero’s financial operations. You will ensure the quality and consistency of financial deliverables produced by the shared team while supporting internal teams with budget monitoring, projects, accountability reporting, and ad hoc financing requests. You will be involved in diverse areas: month-end, budgets, treasury, grants and donations, reporting to funders, external audits, process improvement, and the implementation of new financial tools.

Key responsibilities

1. Operational Revenue Management (Donations and Grants)

• Coordinate the financial tracking of grants and donations.
• Perform analyses to ensure proper revenue recognition (deferral method or others).
• Ensure compliance related to U.S. donations.
• Coordinate and participate in the preparation of financial accountability reports for funders.

2. Treasury and Foreign Exchange Management

• Monitor bank balances and anticipate liquidity needs.
• Manage multi-currency accounts and coordinate foreign exchange operations.
• Supervise and coordinate incoming foreign currency funds.
• Coordinate cash flow forecasting management.

3. Accounting Review and Performance Indicators (KPIs)

• Perform critical reviews of monthly financial statements produced by the accounting team to ensure accuracy and consistency.
• Develop and update financial dashboards (KPIs).
• Analyze variances between actual results and budgets.
• Act as the primary point of contact for the operational accounting team to adjust and improve processes and IT tools.

4. Budget Support and Multi-Year Plans

• Collaborate with budget owners.
• Act as a liaison with the finance team for the preparation of the annual budget and multi-year financial plans.
• Support grant and funding applications.

5. Planning, Audit, and Process Improvement

• Prepare financial files for the annual audit.
• Coordinate audits with government authorities.
• Participate in the implementation and improvement of financial tools, including the transition to Oracle NetSuite and related expense/travel management tools.
• Contribute to formalizing financial processes tailored to a growing organization.

Skills and qualifications

• University degree in accounting, finance, or a related field.
• CPA designation required or strongly preferred.
• Approximately 5 to 7 years of relevant experience in finance, accounting, audit, financial analysis, or financial operations—ideally in an organization with international activities or offices.
• Experience in a non-profit (NPO), research organization, startup, growing SME, accounting firm, or project-based environment is a significant asset.
• Ability to thrive in an environment where many processes are still being built or improved.
• Excellent analytical, synthesis, and documentation skills; rigorous, detail-oriented, autonomous, resourceful, and possesses sound professional judgment.
• Comfortable collaborating with multiple stakeholders without direct hierarchical links; open, collaborative, and constructive approach with the ability to propose ideas and receive feedback.
• Ability to handle ad hoc and sometimes urgent requests, particularly related to grants, budgets, or financial analysis.
• Bilingualism in French and English is required.
• Knowledge of Oracle NetSuite, Sage 300, Power BI, or expense/travel management tools (asset).
• Proficiency in Google Workspace (Sheets and Docs); advanced mastery of Excel is also relevant.
• Experience with private foundation donations, grants, accountability reporting, or project-based financial tracking.

What we offer

• The chance to contribute meaningfully to a globally critical initiative
• Comprehensive health benefits (including mental health and wellness management account)
• 20 days of vacation per year upon start
• Employer contribution of 4% to your retirement savings, with no required employee match
• Additional compensation totaling 8% of your salary to apply towards additional retirement savings or bonuses (independent of group and individual performance)
• A team of passionate world-class experts in their field
• A collaborative and inclusive work environment in our vibrant office space in the heart of Little Italy, in the trendy Mile-Ex district, close to public transportation

About LawZero

LawZero is a non-profit organization committed to advancing research and creating technical solutions that enable safe-by-design AI systems. Its scientific direction is based on new research and methods proposed by Professor Yoshua Bengio, the most cited AI researcher in the world. Based in Montreal, LawZero’s research aims to build non-agentic AI that learns primarily to understand the world rather than to act in it, giving truthful answers to questions based on transparent and externalized probabilistic reasoning. Such AI systems could be used to accelerate scientific discovery, to provide oversight for agentic AI systems, and to advance the understanding of AI risks and how to avoid them. LawZero believes that AI should be cultivated as a global public good—developed and used safely towards human flourishing. For more information, visit www.lawzero.org

You belong here

At LawZero, diversity is important to us. We value a work environment that is fair, open and respectful of differences. We welcome applications from highly qualified individuals interested in working towards our mission in a respectful, inclusive and collaborative setting.

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