Business Operations Lead

Sausalito · Full-time · Onsite · Posted Oct 14, 2026

At a glance

Seneca is building cutting-edge drone and sensor technology for wildfire suppression, aiming to eliminate wildfire risk across 500 million acres of high-risk U.S. + allied territory. Backed by top-tier investors, including Convective Capital, Caffeinated Capital, First Round Capital, Slow Ventures, Nextview Ventures, Transition Capital, Bullpen Capital, Stepstone Group, Roar Capital, Offline Ventures, and leaders from Palantir, Google, Meta, and many others, the company has raised $110M in Series A funding and is valued over $500 million. Founded by Stu Landesberg (former Founder & CEO of Grove Collaborative — IPO in 2022 at $1.7B) and fire industry experts, Seneca is a mission-driven company dedicated to climate resilience and fire prevention.
Don’t meet every single requirement? If you're excited about this role but your experience doesn’t align perfectly with every qualification, we encourage you to apply — you may still be the right fit for our team.

Seneca is seeking a Business Operations Lead to run strategic finance, accounting, contracts, insurance, compliance, purchasing, payroll and benefits, and the office.
This high-visibility, high-upside role reports directly to the CEO with tight partnership and offers the opportunity to up-level daily operations and handle key moments like M+A and financings.

Run the finance function including both FP&A and accounting.
Partner with teams to ensure they pick the right strategies for cost and revenue optimization as Seneca scales.
Own the monthly close with our outside accounting firm.
Manage accounting for a hardware company moving into production: inventory, BOMs, capitalized R&D, fixed assets, and revenue recognition on multi-year contracts.
Handle invoicing and collections, including milestone billing on government and utility contracts.
Determine expense management policies and suggest the monthly budget while tracking to it.
Own contracts, working with outside counsel on customer agreements, supplier terms, NDAs, and government contracting paperwork.
Own insurance including aviation and product liability.
Keep the compliance calendar including corporate filings, state registrations, export controls, and public agency requirements.
Oversee payroll, benefits, the HRIS, compensation, equity, and employee relations.

Experience in strategic finance or private equity and/or investment banking.
Experience running finance and operations at a venture-backed startup through a period of real growth.
Understanding of accounting well enough to manage an outside firm and catch their mistakes, including GAAP, revenue recognition, inventory, and capitalized R&D.
Ability to operate as a generalist who fixes things.
Ability to design scalable operational processes, automate manual workflows, identify bottlenecks, and evaluate tools and vendors.
Ability to handle confidential information with care.
Clear written and verbal communication skills to explain business concepts to anyone.
Willingness to work in person in Sausalito.