Senior Accountant - Cost and Manufacturing Accounting

Team Description:

The Finance Team at Neuralink plays an important role in fueling our mission to develop groundbreaking brain-machine interfaces that restore autonomy to individuals with unmet medical needs. The Accounting Team oversees the Company’s core financial operations, including the preparation of financial statements, corporate tax filings, equity administration, insurance management, and treasury functions. The team also plays an important role in handling technical accounting issues from identification, research, and implementation to monitoring and revision.

Job Description and Responsibilities:

Build the foundation of Neuralink’s cost accounting function in a complex, vertically integrated manufacturing environment. We design and build our own brain implants, including micron-scale electrode threads and the needle cartridges that insert them, along with the surgical robot that places them. As the first dedicated owner of cost accounting, you will establish how we capture, allocate, and report manufacturing costs, then own and improve these processes as our manufacturing capabilities scale. 

This role combines hands-on cost accounting, technical accounting judgment, and meaningful ownership of systems design. You will work directly with Engineering, Manufacturing, Operations, and Software teams to shape the accounting requirements of our internally developed ERP and manufacturing systems and how they evolve. You will also support the Company’s external audit and help design, document, and test internal controls over financial reporting. The processes and systems you build will connect how our products are manufactured with how their costs are measured and reported. This function is built on disciplined execution: accurate costing, traceability, and controls designed to support manufacturing as it scales.

Key responsibilities include:

• Building and owning the cost accounting function, including cost centers, allocation and absorption methodologies, and standard versus actual cost treatment across implant and surgical robot manufacturing
• Partnering directly with Engineering, Manufacturing, Operations, and Software teams to translate how our products are built into practical accounting processes, including tracking materials, inventory movements, labor, equipment time, and manufacturing overhead
• Serving as a key accounting stakeholder in the design and evolution of our internally developed ERP and manufacturing systems, defining requirements for inventory valuation, manufacturing cost capture, and the flow of financial data into the ledger 
• Researching complex U.S. GAAP matters and preparing clear technical memoranda and accounting policies, including inventory and manufacturing costs, internal-use software and cloud computing capitalization, and revenue recognition as commercial arrangements develop 
• Designing and documenting internal controls over financial reporting across manufacturing and related processes, and performing management testing of controls independent of activities you prepare or execute 
• Establishing and maintaining standard costs, analyzing manufacturing cost variances, and owning product costing, inventory valuation, and cost of goods sold reporting as manufacturing scales 
• Building audit-ready documentation, supporting the Company’s external audit, and serving as a technical contact for the auditors on manufacturing costs and other accounting matters 
• Testing controls over month-end close, reconciliations, and supporting schedules, and using cost analysis to improve cost visibility, data quality, and accounting processes

Required Qualifications:

• 7+ years of accounting experience, including technical accounting research and documentation
• Bachelor's degree or above in accounting
• Experience with inventory, product costing, and cost of goods sold
• Accounting experience in manufacturing, hardware, medical device, or other physical-product businesses
• Ability to research an unsettled question, reach a position under U.S. GAAP, and document the analysis and supporting evidence clearly for audit review
• Ability to work independently and partner fluently with Engineering, Manufacturing, Operations and Software, translating how the product is built into cost centers and cost data
• Willingness to perform detailed accounting work while building scalable processes, with the ability and desire to navigate ambiguity at a high-growth company

Preferred Qualifications:

• CPA or CMA designation
• Big Four, public accounting, or formal technical accounting group experience
• Experience preparing audit-ready documentation and supporting external audits
• Experience defining accounting requirements for ERP implementation, configuration, or in-house development, particularly inventory and costing functionality, and an understanding of how data flows from BOM to PO to receipt to the ledger
• Experience in complex or vertically integrated manufacturing environments, including robotics, medical devices, or advanced hardware
• Experience designing, documenting, or testing internal controls over financial reporting, including management testing of controls
• Experience at a company transitioning from development to commercial manufacturing
• Experience with standard costing, variance analysis, or absorption costing
• Technical accounting experience with internal-use software and cloud computing capitalization or revenue recognition
• Intermediate to advanced Excel skills