Operations & Finance Lead

Given the start-up nature of Stray our new Operations & Finance team member will build the enabling infrastructure that allows Stray to operate at the frontier of regenerative finance with the peace of mind that we are building an operationally excellent fund. This is an autonomous high-ownership hands-on role requiring the judgment to distinguish between what needs escalation to the leadership team and what should simply be handled.

You will own fund/portfolio ops and LP reporting design and maintain team operations systems provide financial modeling support as needed manage fund admin/tax/audit service provider relationships and coordinate with leadership to ensure we are delivering on Strays role and potential in facilitating systems change. This is a team-of-one position reporting directly to the Partner. The ideal candidate has operated at this level beforeat a small fund family office or similar contextand is drawn to Stray because (1) you want your operational skills to serve a purpose greater than institutional efficiency and (2)you like being involved in many different projects at the same time.

Fund Finance & LP Relations (40%)

• Own LP reporting: independently produce narratives financial schedules and portfolio summaries within required timelines coordinating with fund admin as needed. What Stray is attempting is unusual which makes LP reporting a programmatic function as much as an administrative one. Your reporting in collaboration with our Sr. Manager of Ecosystem & Impact should help translate what we are doing to various LP audiences deepen how they see their own role in it and show how Strays portfolio facilitates systems change that supports LPs larger portfoliosall while preserving the substance of the work rather than flattening it into conventional reporting categories.
  

• Serve as Strays primary interface with accounting tax and fund administration: manage the relationships arrange capital calls and payments coordinate tax preparation and escalate strategic decisions to leadership as needed
  

• Lead the annual audit process end-to-end: coordinate annual financial report preparation respond to auditor requests and manage timeline
  

Team Operations & Ecosystem Logistics (35%)

• Design and own Strays operational infrastructure: team workflows meeting cadences decision-making frameworks and cross-functional coordination systems
  

• Collaborate with other team members on external communications and ecosystem weaving: LP update emails IC engagement infrastructure portfolio support ecosystem intelligence tools and event logistics
  

• Project manage Strays experiments and partnerships: assess which efforts we should take on ourselves vs which we can encourage a partner or network to carry track Stray-owned projects and keep close tabs on collaborators and next steps without prescribing outcomes
  

• Own HR workflows including onboarding hiring and benefits administration
  

• Maintain and develop Strays Notion workspace (with external consultants as needed) as the teams operational backbone
  

Portfolio Operations & Financial Modeling (25%)

• Architect and maintain fund model: own portfolio NAV tracking financial projections and scenario analyses that optimize for portfolio-wide anti-fragility resilience interconnectedness and responsible capital stewardship
  

• Co-develop portfolio monitoring infrastructure with Sr. Manager of Ecosystem & Impact: coordinate portfolio reporting track financial and impact performance and synthesize data for LP reporting and IC review
  

• Support investment team with ad hoc financial modeling: perform returns analyses for deals in diligence with non-traditional capital structures and financial dynamics
  

• Design and maintain investment operations and closing processes that scale with the funds growth
  

Education and Professional Experience

• 5 years of experience in investment/portfolio operations family office or fund back-office finance or fund administration with meaningful responsibility for LP reporting
  

• Demonstrated track record of developing internal systems that facilitate multi-stakeholder collaboration and complex decision-making
  

• Strong working knowledge of fund accounting waterfall structures capital account mechanics and audit processes
  

• Proficiency with financial modeling including portfolio-wide and deal-level analyses
  

• Experience managing service provider relationships as a primary point of contact
  

• Tech-fluent with Notion Google Workspace MS Office Miro; and comfortable evaluating when new tech systems may be necessary
  

Skills and Personal Traits

• Executes with independence and transparency: identifies what needs to be done; makes recommendations for how to do it; executes independently when it makes sense; and knows when to ask for help approval or collaboration
  

• Clear confident communicator with LP-facing writing quality: able to produce polished reports LP updates and other external correspondence/memos without heavy editing
  

• Comfortable architecting systems in ambiguous conditions drawing on prior experience without being constrained by it
  

• Understands and is committed to Strays mission holding the point of view that operational excellence in a fund like this is a form of systems stewardship
  

• Uses AI responsibly safely and ethically: comfortable utilizing emerging technologies as a tool to support language clarity flow or data aggregation; not as a crutch or replacement for human ingenuity
  

• Aligned with Strays values: Wonder Synergy Evolvability Integrity Emergence and Play
  

• Salary: $130000$180000 (commensurate with experience as we are open to both manager- and director-level hires)
  

• Impact-Linked Performance Bonus: Annual discretionary bonus of up to 10% of base salary tied to individual and firm-wide impact goals
  

• Impact-Linked GP Carry: Carry tied to portfolio-wide impact achievement accruing from Day 1 with a one-year vesting cliff
  

• Benefits: Comprehensive package including employer-covered medical dental vision commuter benefits and 401(k) with 4% match
  

• Professional Development: $7500 annual budget for conferences or other development
  

• Flexible Work Environment: Hybrid with flexible in-person schedule. NYC preferred. We are unable to sponsor or take over sponsorship of an employment visa at this time.