Description
About the role

We are seeking a driven, technically sharp Financial Controller to join our finance department in Edmonton.

Reporting directly to the VP of Finance, the Controller will own the full accounting cycle, technical financial reporting, and complex compliance frameworks. This role is a critical addition to our department as we scale, with a primary focus on navigating nuanced accounting areas and establishing the robust internal controls required to make the company fully audit-ready by 2027.

This role does not have direct staff management duties, allowing you to focus deeply on technical excellence while serving as a financial mentor to the broader operational team.

Key Responsibilities

Technical Financial Reporting & ASPE Compliance

• Oversee the full-cycle accounting process, ensuring strict adherence to ASPE standards.
• Manage the month-end and year-end close processes, producing accurate and timely financial statements.
• Navigate accounting treatments unique to our operations, including inventory accounting valuations (interfacing with our custom MRP system) and blended manufacturing/service revenue recognition.

Audit Readiness

• Lead the build-out of structured working papers, clear reconciliation schedules, and meticulous audit trails.
• Design, implement, and document internal controls and standardized workflows across the department to transition the company smoothly into its first formal audit.

Grant Management

• Take ownership of grant tracking, financial compliance, and reporting for large-scale, ad-hoc, and multi-year programs (e.g., IRAP, Emission Reductions Alberta, etc.).
• Ensure all funder guidelines are strictly met, maximizing non-dilutive funding while mitigating clawback risks.
• Assist the team with new grant applications.

Team Mentorship & System Optimization

• Act as a technical accounting resource to the broader operational and cross-functional teams.
• Optimize workflows between our cloud accounting ecosystem (Xero) and our proprietary MRP software to ensure data integrity.

Inventory & Costing

• Take ownership of cost accounting functions, including tracking inventory valuation (raw materials, WIP, finished goods), reviewing batch/project costing, and analyzing production cost variances .

About you

• Designation: CPA Designation held, or actively pursuing/near completion (e.g., successfully written the CFE and completing practical hours).
• Experience: 3-5 years of progressive corporate accounting or public practice audit experience. Experience in manufacturing, inventory management, or lab/biotech environments would be an asset.
• Technical Standards: Strong foundational knowledge of ASPE and Audit.
• Systems Tech: Experience with Xero (or similar cloud systems like QBO) and familiarity with MRP/ERP inventory systems. High proficiency in Excel is required.
• Grant Capability: Comfort reading complex legal/funding agreements and translating them into compliant financial tracking models in a dynamic environment.
• Soft Skills: Exceptional communication skills with an innate ability to explain financial concepts to non-finance operational staff; a proactive builder mindset.

Your future (with Future Fields)

This roadmap outlines the impact you'll make as you grow with us. We'll use this as a guide for your first year, knowing that in a fast-paced environment, we'll adapt and evolve these goals together.

Within 1 month, you will:

• Develop a basic working understanding of the company's technology, terminology, and end-to-end operating process-from R&D and strain development through insect rearing, production, purification, testing, and customer delivery.
• Build working relationships with the finance, operations, R&D, and commercial teams and provide the VP Finance with a prioritized assessment of the financial reporting, control, and systems improvements needed to support audit readiness.
• Complete onboarding across Xero, the custom MRP system, banking, payroll, accounts payable and receivable, inventory, revenue, and grant workflows. Understand how transactions originate in the business and flow into the financial statements.
• Participate in and, with support, execute an end-to-end month-end close. Review existing reconciliations, recurring entries, revenue-recognition practices, inventory valuation, and year-end working papers to establish a clear baseline.
• Review active grant agreements, reporting requirements, and claim schedules. Validate current tracking against eligible-cost rules and identify any immediate compliance or documentation gaps.

Within 3 months, you will:

• Own the month-end close and produce accurate, ASPE-compliant financial statements within the agreed reporting timeline, supported by a standardized close checklist and reconciliations for all material balance-sheet accounts.
• Apply understanding of the company's technology and end-to-end operations to accounting and reporting decisions, including inventory valuation, project and batch costing, revenue recognition, capital expenditures, and grant reporting.
• Design, document, and operate key internal controls across cash, purchasing and payables, payroll, revenue, inventory, grants, the close process, and financial reporting, with the highest-risk control gaps substantially remediated.
• Implement an organized working-paper and document-retention structure that provides a clear audit trail for revenue, inventory, payroll, capital assets, grants, and other significant accounting estimates.
• Assume day-to-day ownership of grant tracking and reporting, including claim support, compliance calendars, and coordination with project owners. Submissions are completed on time and reconcile clearly to the general ledger.
• Identify the most significant inventory, costing, and Xero-to-MRP data-integrity gaps; implement initial corrections; and begin providing recurring analysis of batch or project costs and production variances.
• Establish a reliable monthly process for valuing raw materials, work-in-progress, and finished goods and for analyzing batch or project costs. Variance reporting provides operations with actionable insight into material usage, labour, yield, and other production-cost drivers.

Within 6 months, you will:

• Run the monthly close with minimal intervention from the VP Finance. Material accounts are reconciled each month, unusual items are investigated promptly, and required accounting adjustments are identified proactively.
• Deliver a credible inventory and costing framework that provides useful product and project margin visibility and supports pricing, production planning, capacity, and Analysis of ad hoc financial decisions.
• Lead the core audit-readiness work, including preparation of key schedules, accounting memoranda for complex ASPE matters, a prepared-by-client support package, and an external readiness review where appropriate.
• Manage the grant portfolio proactively so claims and reports are accurate and timely, available funding is maximized within the terms of each agreement, and clawback or disallowance risk is materially reduced.

Within 12 months, you will:

• Act as a technical accounting resource to the broader team, helping non-finance staff understand coding, documentation, cut-off, inventory, and grant-compliance requirements.
• Have the company fully audit-ready, with complete year-end working papers, reconciliations, accounting policies, control documentation, and source records that support an efficient first formal audit without significant avoidable issues or last-minute reconstruction.
• Establish a dependable financial-reporting cadence in which statements are delivered on time, material variances and technical accounting matters are clearly explained, and the VP Finance can rely on the Controller for the accuracy and completeness of the underlying financial records.

About our team

Our story and approach to science are anything but conventional. Matt (co-founder/CEO) was a touring punk rock musician who dropped out of University before returning to complete his PhD in cell biology. Jalene (co-founder/COO) is a social researcher by training, previously working on issues from the right to affordable housing to harm reduction. The spark of an idea for our technology came while waiting in line for tiny, Canadian donuts . Our broader team of scientists, engineers, circus performers, restaurateurs, dancers, music aficionados, kid parents, pet parents, cyclists, and artists hail from every corner of the world - from small town Alberta to Poland, India, Vietnam and Pakistan. We credit our diverse team and experiences as the key to our success - and we encourage candidates of all identities and backgrounds to apply.

FAQs

Where is Future Fields located?

Our headquarters and production facility are located in downtown Edmonton, Alberta, in a renovated historic warehouse. From the exposed brick to our summer patio - it's not your average lab space. It is central, close to transit and bike lanes, and walking distance to some of the city's best coffee shops, restaurants and Edmonton's incredible river valley.

I don't live in Edmonton. Why would I want to relocate there?

Because it's great! Edmonton is a young, vibrant city that punches way above its weight. We are one of Canada's sunniest cities and offer an unmatched quality of life with a low cost of living. We're home to North America's largest urban parkland (the River Valley is a playground for cyclists and runners), a festival scene that runs year-round, a rapidly growing tech and biotech ecosystem, and we're exploding with award-winning independent restaurants. It's a place where you can build a career and a life - without the big-city price tag.

Any other perks?

Many! Some include: comprehensive health, dental and vision benefits; flexible paid time off policy; and the office is always stocked with snacks and all the coffee you can drink.

Will I like working for a startup?

Great question. Startup life is definitely not for everyone. We move quickly. Projects and priorities shift fast. There is a lot of ambiguity and uncertainty at times and we're not immune to the growing pains of a rapidly scaling startup. The risk is high, but so is the reward. We promise you will never get bored. You will have fun and learn a lot. You will grow personally and professionally in ways you never imagined (alongside our company). You will be part of something much bigger than yourself and contribute directly to the mission of a team who cares deeply about changing the world for the better. Oh, and equity!

Sound like something you are interested in? Here are the next steps:

Apply online using our job portal.

Application deadline: This role will remain open until a suitable candidate is found.

If it seems like a good fit, next steps will look somewhat like this:

• We will contact you for a casual 15-minute video call.
• We will set up an interview to dive into your technical skills and motivation.
• We'll arrange another interview to figure out how you fit with our team and culture, and better understand your career trajectory.
• We will set up a coffee chat with you and a team member. This is your chance to dig in and find out what it's really like to work for Future Fields. This is for you!
• We will speak with two of your references to confirm our assumption that you are, in fact, our next great hire.
• We offer you a job!

Compensation

$75,000.00 - $95,000.00 per year