Overview

Ember Search identified Near Space Labs’ first Head of Finance in 42 days, delivering a hardware focused, VC scaling finance leader with capex and international operations experience.

At a glance

Days to 
first introduction

Days to 
completion

Candidates mapped 
and approached

Inbound
reviewed

Ember 
screens

Shortlisted
candidates

Client
interviews

The outcome
Hire

The company

Near Space Labs is a Series B stratospheric robotics company building and operating autonomous platforms that capture high resolution earth data to customers. The business is capital intensive, with hardware build and procurement complexity, plus a wholly owned Spanish subsidiary supporting R&D and assembly.

Stage: Series B

Funding: $50M+ total raised

Operating footprint: New York HQ, Spanish subsidiary supporting R&D and assembly

Business model: Hardware and SaaS

The challenge

Near Space Labs needed its first in house finance leader to help them execute on an exciting growth phase, having recently closed a Series B. The role required an operator who had both hardware and SaaS experience, who could own the finance operating model end to end, improve financial and spend rigor, and support board level reporting in a capital intensive environment.

Own FP&A, board reporting, and the finance operating cadence

Build a scalable finance operating model for a VC backed business heading into the next stage of growth

Bring real hardware and capex fluency, including vendor, BOM, and forecasting complexity

Support cross border operations tied to the Spanish subsidiary, including import and export considerations

Process

How Ember Search ran the search

We ran a founder led, partner executed search with a hardware first market map, starting in New York and expanding only as needed. Because the company had just closed a Series B and wanted to move quickly, we prioritized candidates who were already warm in our network and could step into an IC role immediately while still scaling the function overtime.

Built a targeted market map focused on hardware plus software businesses with capex intensity

Leveraged warm relationship, with our partners already having previously spoken with 70%+ of the 127 candidates identified in the market mapping to move fast and get high signal conversations early

Screened for true board readiness at the Head of Finance level, whilst still having the ability to be an individual contributor

Ran a tight funnel to keep speed high while preserving bar for domain fit

Result

Why this hire worked

Ryan has an impressive blend of hardware and software exposure, with experience supporting capex heavy operating models. Most recently, he held a strategic finance role at Luminar Technologies, partnering cross functionally across supply chain, engineering, and commercial teams to tighten unit economics and support high stakes customer negotiations.

Earlier in his career, he worked in investment banking, including transaction experience in stratospheric communications, giving him immediate context for Near Space Labs’ market and operating complexity.

Ryan Tissot, Head of Finance

Testimonial

“Ember Search quickly proved to be an invaluable partner. They understood our business, moved fast, and surfaced strong, relevant candidates right away. Thanks to their deep network and focus, we were able to make a key finance hire in record time following our Series B.”

Asa, COO

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