Finance at Descript isn’t a back-office function — it’s a strategic partner in shaping where and how we grow. This role exists to turn insight into leverage: helping the company make smarter bets, allocate capital effectively, and improve the efficiency of how we operate. You’ll report to the VP of Finance and lead FP&A while driving key strategic finance initiatives across the company, partnering closely with Sales, Product, and Engineering. Your work will influence everything from how we evaluate investments, manage compute and COGS, to how we support pricing and monetization decisions in our growing enterprise segment.
We’re looking for someone who sees finance as a creative craft — not just about control or compliance, but about clarity, curiosity, and action. You’ll build models, frameworks, and narratives that help Descript make better decisions faster. The right person thrives at the intersection of data, product, and strategy; is fluent in SQL or eager to learn it; and has the range to move from tactical detail to company-level strategy.
What will you do?
- Lead FP&A — own company-wide planning, forecasting, and performance management. Build dashboards that surface tradeoffs and guide executive decisions
- Partner with Sales and Product to evaluate commercial opportunities, improve efficiency, and support revenue growth in the enterprise segment
- Evaluate areas of growth and investment by analyzing TAM, unit economics, and ROI across products and customer segments
- Collaborate with Product and Engineering to monitor COGS, compute and inference costs, identify efficiency opportunities, and help drive improvements in gross margin
- Partner with Product, Engineering, and Ops to structure enterprise pricing and monetization experiments
- Support data-driven narratives for board and investor updates, and support fundraising efforts with modeling, materials, and financial storytelling.
- Influence resourcing decisions: where to invest time, headcount and capital
What you bring:
- 7+ years in finance roles at high-growth tech companies
- Early training in consulting or investment banking
- Experience leading FP&A ideally scaling from <$50M to $200m+ ARR
- Strong modeling, analytical rigor, and ability to influence
- Cross-functional fluency with Product, Engineering, and GTM teams — able to translate financial insights into product and operational decisions
- Deep understanding of SaaS sales economics and pipeline dynamics
- Experience with monetization experiments, pricing, and packaging
- Hands-on understanding of cloud and compute economics, with experience optimizing COGS and driving cost efficiency
- Comfortable working with data directly — proficiency in SQL or a strong desire to learn
- Excellent storytelling skills with data
- Thrives in ambiguity, rapid iteration, and cross-functional collaboration
If you don’t tick every box above, we’d still encourage you to apply. We’re building a diverse team whose skills balance and complement one another.
The base salary range for this role is $200,000 - $250,000/year. Final offer amounts will carefully consider multiple factors, including prior experience, expertise, and location, and may vary from the amount above.
Descript is building a simple, intuitive, fully-powered editing tool for video and audio — an editing tool built for the age of AI. We are a team of 150 and the backing of some of the world's greatest investors (OpenAI, Andreessen Horowitz, Redpoint Ventures, Spark Capital).
Descript is the special company that's in possession of both product market fit and the raw materials (passionate user community, great product, large market) for growth, but is still early enough that each new employee has a measurable influence on the direction of the company.
Benefits include a generous healthcare package, 401k matching program, catered lunches, and flexible vacation time. Our headquarters are located in the Mission District of San Francisco, CA. We're hiring for a mix of remote roles and hybrid roles. For those who are remote, we have a handful of opportunities throughout the year for in person collaboration. For our hybrid roles, we're flexible, and you're an adult—we don't expect or mandate that you're in the office every day. We do believe there are valuable and serendipitous moments of discovery and collaboration that come from working together in person.
Descript is an equal opportunity workplace—we are dedicated to equal employment opportunities regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender identity, or Veteran status. We believe in actively building a team rich in diverse backgrounds, experiences, and opinions to better allow our employees, products, and community to thrive.
Top Skills
Descript San Francisco, California, USA Office
385 Grove St, San Francisco, CA, United States, 94118
Similar Jobs
What you need to know about the San Francisco Tech Scene
Key Facts About San Francisco Tech
- Number of Tech Workers: 365,500; 13.9% of overall workforce (2024 CompTIA survey)
- Major Tech Employers: Google, Apple, Salesforce, Meta
- Key Industries: Artificial intelligence, cloud computing, fintech, consumer technology, software
- Funding Landscape: $50.5 billion in venture capital funding in 2024 (Pitchbook)
- Notable Investors: Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Bessemer Venture Partners, Greylock Partners, Khosla Ventures, Kleiner Perkins
- Research Centers and Universities: Stanford University; University of California, Berkeley; University of San Francisco; Santa Clara University; Ames Research Center; Center for AI Safety; California Institute for Regenerative Medicine
