In-House Accountant at FAR.AI

About FAR.AI

FAR.AI is a non-profit AI research institute dedicated to ensuring advanced AI is safe and beneficial for everyone. Their mission is to drive breakthrough AI safety research, advance global understanding of AI risks and solutions, and foster a coordinated global response.

FAR.AI operates with a unique structure:

• Independent by design, pursuing impactful initiatives based on their theory of change and sharing findings publicly.
• A portfolio approach, running diverse projects across the AI safety stack, from initial experiments to deployment, informed by partnerships with frontier labs and governments.
• Serious infrastructure for ambitious research, with a dedicated engineering team managing compute clusters and experiment-scaling stacks to support researchers.
• Setting the standard through events, red-team collaborations, and public communications that drive adoption and set new benchmarks in AI safety.

Since its founding in July 2022, FAR.AI has grown to 50+ staff, published 40+ academic papers, and convened leading AI safety events. Their work has been recognized globally, including publications at premier venues like NeurIPS, ICML, and ICLR, and features in major publications such as the Financial Times, Nature News, Wired Magazine, and MIT Technology Review. They conduct pre-deployment testing for frontier developers like OpenAI and governments, including the EU AI Office, and publish the AI Security Leaderboard.

FAR.AI also drives the AI safety field through developing research roadmaps with renowned researchers, running FAR.Labs, an AI safety-focused co-working space in Berkeley, and supporting the community through targeted grants.

The Role

FAR.AI is hiring its first in-house accountant to build internal capacity as the organization scales. Over the next 12–18 months, this role will be critical in helping FAR.AI grow to roughly triple its current size while expanding to new geographies and entities.

Reporting to the Head of Finance, this is a hands-on, full-cycle role suited for an experienced accountant comfortable operating independently, managing multiple concurrent projects, and thriving in dynamic environments.

Why This Role / Why Now

FAR.AI is entering a pivotal phase of growth, backed by over $100M in funding and expanding opportunities to shape how advanced AI systems are developed and governed. Their work spans technical research, policy, and operations, including partnerships such as red-teaming frontier models with leading AI companies and governments. As the scope and impact of their work accelerate, they are building operational capacity to better support and enable the organization.

As FAR.AI's first in-house accountant, you will lay the financial foundation that enables everything they do, from funding AI safety research and events to expanding into new geographies. You will own day-to-day accounting operations while improving systems, controls, and processes that will scale with the organization. This role is not just about keeping the books; it’s about shaping how a mission-critical organization manages its finances during a pivotal period of growth.

For accountants who enjoy autonomy, building, solving problems, and care about long-term societal impact, this is a rare and meaningful opportunity.

Key Responsibilities

• Own the full accounting cycle, including month-end and year-end close processes, preparing and reviewing journal entries, accruals, and account reconciliations.
• Maintain accurate general ledger records for a U.S. non-profit with international staff and operations, including an entity in Singapore.
• Support grant and fund accounting, including tracking restricted and unrestricted funding, preparing grant financial reports, and ensuring compliance with donor requirements.
• Assist in the preparation of monthly, quarterly, and annual financial statements and management reports for leadership and the board.
• Coordinate with external accountants, auditors, and tax preparers.
• Partner with the Head of Finance and Finance Manager to develop and document accounting policies, internal controls, and financial processes suited to a scaling organization.
• Support financial operations of the organization as needed.
• Respond to ad hoc financial analysis and reporting requests from program teams, leadership, and external stakeholders.

Must-Have Qualifications

• 5+ years of hands-on accounting experience, with demonstrated ownership of full-cycle accounting responsibilities.
• CPA license or active progress toward CPA.
• Excellent proficiency in working across spreadsheets and financial systems, including Google Sheets, QuickBooks Online, Ramp, Mercury, and Airtable.
• Track record of working independently with minimal oversight.
• Ability to manage competing priorities and deadlines in a fast-moving environment.
• High attention to detail and accuracy, with a systematic approach to reconciliation and documentation.
• Strong communication skills, including the ability to explain financial information clearly to non-finance colleagues.

Nice-to-Have Qualifications

• Experience with nonprofit accounting, including fund accounting, grant reporting, and 990 preparation.
• Familiarity with multi-entity or multi-currency accounting.
• Experience supporting or coordinating external audits.
• Passion for working in an impact-driven organization.
• Experience developing or improving financial controls.
• Experience implementing or improving systems.
• Experience working in a startup-like environment.