Operations & Finance Lead

New York, United States

Stray Emergence Fund invests in organizations that use regenerative economic models and build narrative infrastructure to facilitate systems change. We are part of a larger, living ecosystem that aims to transform the global economy from extraction to regeneration, while fostering harmony between humans and nature.

Job Description

About the Role

Given the start-up nature of Stray, our new Operations & Finance team memberwill 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 organization. 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 Stray’s 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 before—at a small fund, family office, or similar context—and 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.

How This Role Will Resource Us

Fund Finance & LP Relations (~40%)

OwnLP 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 Stray’s portfolio facilitates systems change that supports LPs’ larger portfolios—all while preserving the substance of the work rather than flattening it into conventional reporting categories.

Serve as Stray’s primary interface with accounting, tax, and fund administration: manage the relationships, arrange capital calls and payments, coordinate tax preparation, and elevate 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 Stray’s 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 Stray’s 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 Stray’s Notion workspace (with external consultants as needed) as the team’s operational backbone

Portfolio Operations & Financial Modeling (~25%)

Architect and maintain fund model: own portfolio NAV tracking, financialprojections, 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 portfolioreporting, track financial and impact performance, and synthesize data for LP reporting and IC review

Support investment team with ad hoc financial modeling: performreturns analyses for deals in diligence with non-traditional capital structuresand financial dynamics

Design and maintain investment operations andclosing processes that scale with the fund’s growth

Requirements

Who We’re Hoping Will “Stray” With Us

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 Stray’s 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 Stray’s values: Wonder, Synergy, Evolvability, Integrity, Emergence, and Play

Salary: $130,000–$180,000 (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: $7,500 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.