Head of Administration & Finance

PARIS, FRANCE       Full-time

Eligo Bioscience is a seven-year-old biotechnology company, spun out of MIT and Rockefeller University, and based in Paris, France. Eligo Bioscience has raised more than 20 million euros from leading investors in Silicon Valley and in France to develop next-generation drugs that are based on the genetic engineering of bacteria and their viruses and aim to address unmet medical need in microbiome-associated diseases.

Eligo has been elected as one of the 30 Most Innovative Companies by the World Economic Forum in 2017, has received multiple international awards for pioneering work in the field of synthetic biology, and has been featured in international media and scientific journals such as Nature Biotechnology, Science, The Economist, The BBC and The New York Times.

Eligo Bioscience has attracted highly diverse top talent from all over the world, currently numbering over 40 Eligonauts from more than 10 countries, who are driven, passionate, and motivated to impact the lives of patients by applying cutting-edge science to save lives and treat chronic disease. Our pipeline is rapidly progressing towards the clinic and we are ready to scale up. 

Eligo embraces diversity, equal opportunity and inclusion and is committed to building diverse teams. We strive to create an inclusive workplace that cultivates innovation through collaboration and empowers people to unleash their full potential.

— YOUR MISSION —

At Eligo Bioscience, we are passionate about developing new drugs to address unmet medical needs! Eligo is growing and moving fast to advance projects in the clinic and expanding its platforms and collaborations; we need to constantly adapt, optimize and improve our financial and internal processes to best use our capital and monitor progress against our corporate KPIs. 

At the onset of our growth phase, this job is an exciting financial and administrative role with a great mix of operating responsibilities, internal process design and implementation and strategic support to the leadership team. You will be the first full-time Head of Administration & Finance at Eligo (Directeur Administratif et Financier).

You will be responsible for all financial planning, analysis and reporting through strategic plans, annual budgets and re-forecasts, profit & loss, balance sheet and cash flow. You will be instrumental in setting up financial tools and processes, adapted to current company needs and lead its proper implementation. Leveraging your business and financial acumen, you will support the company’s leadership team in their strategic decisions.

— RESPONSIBILITIES —

Finance Management 

  • Prepare annual budgets and multi-year business plans
  • Monitor cash flow 
  • Prepare annual closing & annual audit 
  • Guarantee compliance with tax and social obligations, validate tax choices with the statutory auditors and auditors and prepare/supervise tax declarations
  • Research and negotiate financial instruments to support corporate strategy (bank loans, etc)
  • Responsible for the relations with banks, accountant and auditors, tax services and other external partners in relation with your responsibilities
  • Design and deliver regular reporting to management (financial statements, cash flow, debt)
  • Responsible for the implementation and optimization of accounting and financial management tools and procedures (project-based budget, reporting flows, P2P)
  • Manage tax credits for all R&D activities
  • Prepare financial reporting to grant institutions, partners or other external parties

Administrative & Finance Operations 

  • Control the day-to-day administration of the company
  • Select and manage external service providers for general or administrative operations
  • Review various contracts to manage the company’s legal obligations and risks, manage company insurance policies
  • Serve as liaison to legal counsel for general business matters
  • Ensure company tools and processes are adapted to current company’s needs, propose improvement or alternative and lead its proper implementation 
  • Establish and manage internal control policies in line with the culture and vision of the company
  • Oversee and manage a variety of mid- to long-term, cross-organizational projects depending on the needs

Corporate Support

  • Support the CEO for meeting preparation and planning for Board of Directors
  • Link with legal and corporate counsels to prepare legal documentation before and after board’s meeting and for shareholders’ meeting
  • Responsible for Board’s meetings organisation
  • Contribute to the structuring and transformation of the company and prepare business plan in close collaboration with the management team
  • Participate to the preparation of strategic meetings
  • Liaise with the corporate legal counsel regarding incentive plans and prepare and update the capitalisation table accordingly

Team management

  • Manage the Office Manager

HR Duties until hiring of full time Head of People

  • Revise and improve HR procedures (hiring, on/off boarding, development and performance reviews) in line with the culture and vision of the company, and establish new ones when necessary
  • Manage social benefits and monitor payroll

— APPLICANT PROFILE —

We are seeking a motivated candidate that can act as a vital thought partner to the Leadership team for all financial and administrative operations at Eligo.

  • Exceptional work ethics and interpersonal skills:  You demonstrate rigor, excellent analytical and organizational skills and autonomy. You have a sense of responsibility, a good ability to adapt and know how to combine great work ethics in your work with real interpersonal and managerial qualities. 
  • Driven to achieve results: You are incredibly driven to achieve results. You are tenacious in the face of adversity and carry a can-do attitude. You anticipate needs or issues to solve, you provide well-thought proposals to address those and deliver high-quality outputs on time. You know how to be comfortable with both strategic topics and operational issues with the ability to do it yourself.
  • Strategic thinker: You deeply understand team and business operations. You act as a real business partner, with an entrepreneurial temperament, an assertive, dynamic, committed, educational and open personality. 
  • Supportive & altruistic: You have a collaborative attitude and are constantly looking for ways to offer support and maintain a trusting team environment. You must be confident enough to be candid & push back at times, while also humble enough to happily work behind the scenes.

— QUALIFICATIONS —

  • Master’s degree in accounting, business accounting, or finance
  • 5+ yrs experience in senior-level management accounting position within audit or accounting firm and/or mid-sized companies and/or startups
  • Excellent communication skills (written and verbal) in English and French
  • Interested and at ease with using new technological tools (software, apps) to support process & tools design and implementation 
  • Experience(s) in a startup/organization that experienced scale-up phase with rapid-growth through a fundraising round is preferred