At Blackbird, our mission is to be a generational owner of the most ambitious tech companies founded by Aussies and Kiwis, wherever in the world they might be. To match this ambition as we grow, we are building a world-class operations function to ensure that we provide the highest quality investment experience to our portfolio companies and founders.

We’re looking to hire a Fund Accountant to join our Funds Finance team, where you’ll work closely with Sally Fraser (Fund Accountant) in handling the day-to-day financial operations of the Blackbird Funds. You will be supported by, and report to our Fund Accounting Manager, Sue Zann Wong.

This role is open to candidates with a range of accounting backgrounds, and whilst experience in the funds industry is useful, it is not a must have.

Here is an overview of the type of work you’ll do:

• Financial reporting and bookkeeping in Allvue (our new fund administration platform):

  • Reconciling the Funds’ balance sheets.

  • Preparing the Funds’ quarterly Net Asset Value (NAV) statements and capital account statements.

  • Assisting with the year-end audit and preparing the draft financial statements.

  • Entering invoices into the accounting system and posting revaluation journals.

• Tax compliance:

  • Compiling information for external tax advisers and managing the process of disseminating tax statements to investors.

  • Preparing quarterly BAS reports for the Funds.

  • Reviewing the Funds’ tax returns prepared by the external tax advisers.

• Cash management:

  • Forecasting the Funds’ cash needs for capital calls.

  • Ensuring that all capital calls have been received from investors, and all distributions have been successfully paid to investors.

• Investor relations:

  • Answering any queries investors might have on their investment holdings or the Blackbird Funds, including regulatory reporting for our institutional investors.

  • Assisting with the creation of investor materials and compiling fund performance metrics.

• Process improvement:

  • Constantly looking for ways to automate and scale repetitive tasks.

Your background is less important than the key skills, which include:

• Technical accounting and tax knowledge: You have an understanding of fundamental accounting concepts and some basic knowledge of tax legislation. You understand how a typical fund transaction is journalled in the accounting system.

• Investment knowledge: You have an interest in the investment industry and are familiar with concepts such as carried interest, IRR hurdle rates and investment valuations, and common fund metrics like TVPI and Net IRR.

• Attention to detail: You are meticulous and understand the importance of being precise, including completing a thorough self-review of your own work before sharing with your Manager for review.

• Proficiency in Excel/Google Sheets: You are comfortable working with spreadsheets on a day-to-day basis.

• Communications wizard: You take care to craft impactful verbal and written communications, whether it’s delivered internally or externally and proactively work with your Manager to incorporate feedback.

• Ultimate organiser: You can navigate between multiple funds and competing demands by establishing clear priorities with some guidance and seeing them through to completion.

• Hospitality mindset: You take pride in delivering delightful and high quality experiences for our team, founders and investors.

• Humility: No task is too small for us and no ambition is too big. We all take out the garbage. You will be scrappy, move quickly and never hesitate to roll up your sleeves.

We’re looking for someone who is as passionate as us about building an iconic investment business. You must have a high ownership mentality and the ability to take responsibility for goals and outcomes.

This role is full-time, based in either our Sydney Office in Surry Hills or Melbourne with the flexibility to work from home.

If you intend to start or are already studying for the CA or CPA qualification, Blackbird will support your pursuit of professional qualifications by giving time off work for study leave and exams, and reimbursing course fees upon passing modules.

We believe that building a diverse and inclusive team is critical to Blackbird’s success. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, national origin, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, age, or marital, veteran, or disability status. We use Applied to ensure every applicant gets an equal chance of success.

We offer:

• Flexible working: Whether it’s working from home or leaving early to pick up the kids from daycare or school.

• Generous parental leave: We know family comes first, and we are proud to offer 20 weeks of parental leave for all parents (an additional 4 weeks for the birth parent), with no minimum tenure. In addition, we offer IVF, adoption and surrogacy leave. We also continue to pay superannuation and vest carried interest for up to 12 months of parental leave, and offer a supportive return-to-work policy to help with the ramp back.

• Learning & Development Budget: Our team is hungry to continuously learn and you’ll receive a budget to spend on books, conferences, training, coaching and courses relating to your profession.

• Wellbeing: We think in decades not days. To support our Blackbirds over the long haul we offer a range of holistic wellbeing benefits including a monthly healthy living allowance, 24/7 access to wellbeing support, a home office allowance, personal kit-kat days, and more!

• Unplugged weekends: We work hard without letting work get in the way of life. We’ve implemented no Slack or emails on weekends, so you can switch off and enjoy yourself.

• Connection: While being big fans of a fully distributed workforce, we value our vibe and time to connect online and IRL through team and company offsites, monthly social activities, weekly lunches and our many social clubs (#fun-manis, #fun-fantasybookclub, #bb-craft just to name a few!).

Blackbird is a Pledge 1% member —  we pledge 1% of our time, equity and profits to help not-for-profit causes in our community. Through Pledge 1%, we established the Blackbird Foundation to supercharge the creative capabilities of young people.

We are also very proud to have won the 2023 AFR Best Place to Work award in three categories including Overall winner. In 2022, we became certified as one of Australia’s Great Places to Work.

Blackbird is Australia's biggest venture capital fund whose mission is to supercharge Australia and New Zealand’s most ambitious founders. We do this by raising venture capital funds, investing into the best startup companies and helping them succeed. Our portfolio is worth over $7B, and includes more than 130 companies across Australia and New Zealand, from Canva and CultureAmp to rising stars like Halter, Partly, Carepatron, Gilmour Space, Eucalyptus, Fleet and Tracksuit.

We are inspired by investment firms such as Berkshire Hathaway and Bridgewater Associates. Like the companies we back, we want to build a business that lasts for decades and produces excellent returns for our investors. Most of all, we want to support our region’s most talented founders build category-defining technology companies.

We’ve written a lot about what we love at Blackbird, so check out our blog if you want some more information about us. In particular, you should read about our mission and values, our Blackbird’s Operating Principles (BOPs) and what we look for in founders.