Forward Deployed Accountant

If you've ever slogged your way through some mechanical finance process thinking "There has to be a better way to do this": we want to talk to you.

Sterling is an AI Assistant Accountant. We help finance teams automate the repetitive work that consumes their time - and we free them up to focus on the real value add.

We're looking for an accountant to join our ambitious, fast growing startup. We've just raised a $3.8m seed round led by Blackbird (Canva, Halter), alongside investors behind Xero, Trade Me, Pushpay and Vend.

This isn't a traditional accounting role.

You won't be sitting in the corner processing journals. You won't be repeating the same tired process every month end. You won't be spending your days inside a single company.

Instead, you'll work directly with finance teams across New Zealand, Australia, the US, the UK, and beyond. You'll help them implement Sterling, improve their processes, and figure out where AI can make a concrete, meaningful difference.

You'll also help us build the product.

Every week you'll be talking to customers, testing workflows, finding edge cases, improving onboarding, shaping features, and helping us understand how great finance teams actually operate.

You'll be right in the middle of it.

What you'll do

Help customers get started with Sterling

You'll work directly with Financial Controllers, Finance Managers, and CFOs.

You'll learn how their finance function operates today, help them configure Sterling, and guide them through their first workflows.

You'll become a trusted advisor who understands both accounting and technology.

Improve finance processes

All the messy operational work that must happen but nobody wants to do.

You'll help customers improve how these processes run, and you'll help us teach Sterling to do more of the work.

Shape the product

We're a startup.

There is no wall between "the business" and "the product team".

If you discover a problem, you'll help solve it.

If customers keep asking for something, you'll help design it.

If Sterling doesn’t do something quite right, you'll help us understand why and improve it.

Your feedback will directly influence what gets built.

Help us scale

As we grow, you'll help define how customer onboarding, implementation, support, and best practice should work.

Many of the systems don't exist yet.

You'll help create them.

What we're looking for

Strong accounting experience

Ideally you're CA qualified or equivalent.

More importantly, you've spent enough time inside finance teams to understand how they really work.

You know the difference between how processes are documented and how they actually happen.

Excellent communication

You'll spend a lot of time talking to customers.

You need to be able to explain complex things clearly, build trust quickly, and write exceptionally well.

Based in New Zealand

You'll need to be legally entitled to work in New Zealand, and to be based here.

We're a hybrid startup, with a couple of days per week in-office in Auckland or Wellington.

We don't offer fully remote roles, and we can't take on anyone working from overseas.

Organised and self-directed

Nobody is going to tell you exactly what to do every day.

You should be comfortable managing your own priorities and driving work forward.

Curious about technology and AI

You don't need to be technical.

You should be excited about AI: learning more about the new tools, helping us build new ways of working in an AI-first environment, what it can unlock for finance teams.

The best candidates will constantly ask:

"Why are we doing it this way?"

Startup mindset

Things change.

We experiment.

We move quickly.

You should enjoy building, improving, and figuring things out.

Nice to have

- Experience in industry finance teams

- Process improvement or systems implementation experience

- Exposure to ERP or finance systems projects - especially Enterprise ERPs (Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations, Acumatica, Netsuite, Sage et al)

- Customer-facing experience

- Previous startup experience

Why join Sterling?

You'll have real ownership. We’ll pay you a competitive salary, and equity is available for the right candidate.

You'll work directly with the founding team.

You'll help define how a new category of finance software is built.

You'll have an outsized impact on both the product and the company.

You'll join at the best possible moment - freshly funded, customers already live, and still small enough that what you do visibly moves the company.

And you'll get a front-row seat to the biggest shift in finance technology we've seen in decades.