The Opportunity Substrate is building the critical infrastructure layer between AI and biology: an AI-native automated lab that produces biological data at scale. Biological foundation models can predict but cannot experiment, and the high-quality data they need does not exist at the scale required. Substrate generates it, with quality and provenance built in. Our first lab opens in London in 2026, with protein characterisation coming online first and functional genomics following through 2027. Our customers range from foundation model labs to global pharma. We are hiring a founding finance leader to build the finance function from the ground up. Substrate is an unusual finance problem: significant capital expenditure on automated workcells and lab infrastructure, funding through both equity and debt, and a usage-priced commercial model that turns physical lab capacity into customer cost. You will own how we account for it, how we fund it, how we price it, and how we explain all of it to investors and lenders. About Substrate Substrate is an AI-native automated lab. Our four co-founders are Mostafa ElSayed (co-founder and CEO, and founder and CEO of Automata), Oli Hoy (co-founder, leading infrastructure, software and operations), Alexey Morgunov (co-founder, leading intelligence software and the science roadmap), and Anna Huyghues-Despointes (co-founder, leading commercial and partnerships). The automated lab runs on Automata's workcell platform. We are funded by a combination of equity and debt. We are not a CRO and we are not a cloud lab. We are the infrastructure that generates large-scale, high-quality, AI-ready biological data. The Role You will own the finance function end to end. The day-one priorities are the operational pieces of a fast-growing company: month-end close, management accounts, payroll, statutory accounts, the first audit, and the cap table. Three parts of this role go well beyond standard controllership, and they are why it matters so much to Substrate. Planning, analysis and corporate finance. You own the financial model, scenario planning, and the numbers that go to the co-founders and investors, and you are the finance partner in the room when commercial and fundraising decisions are made. You run the cap table through SAFE conversion and into the priced rounds that follow. Capital intensity and the debt that funds it. Substrate runs a CAPEX-heavy operating model: automated workcells, lab fit-out and instrumentation, each with its own contracting, depreciation and treatment. You account for that spend, structure and manage the venture and infrastructure debt that funds it, and sequence drawdown so the cash position stays clear. Some of the build is part-funded by government grants, which fold into the same picture. Pricing. We sell access to our platform on a usage basis, priced on a model that maps the physical inputs of a run (instrument time, materials, compute, complexity) onto a cleaner customer-facing unit of value. We have a working hypothesis. You will stress-test it, build the underlying cost model, set the incentive structure, take it to early customers, and operationalise it as the commercial pricing system, connected to real billing and revenue recognition. This is finance work and product work at once, and it is the single highest-impact piece of finance work in the company. You will build a finance function that is augmented by AI from the start; you are as interested in designing the systems that run the close and the numbers as in running them yourself. You will be pragmatic about doing the work directly through the early months, and you will build the team underneath you as Substrate grows. Your First 90 Days By day 30 Take ownership of the books, payroll and the close, and decide what stays in house and what is outsourced. Sit down with each co-founder and take ownership of the financial model. Get a grip on the cap table and the funding mechanics. By day 60 Stand up the management a

Founding Finance Lead

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