Director, Technical Accounting - M&A

About Anthropic Anthropic’s mission is to create reliable, interpretable, and steerable AI systems. We want AI to be safe and beneficial for our users and for society as a whole. Our team is a quickly growing group of committed researchers, engineers, policy experts, and business leaders working together to build beneficial AI systems. About the Role We are seeking a Director, Technical Accounting – M&A to join our Finance team at Anthropic. In this role, you will support the company's accounting for mergers, acquisitions, strategic investments, and other complex capital transactions. You will report to the Senior Director, Technical Accounting – M&A As Anthropic continues to scale rapidly and deploy capital into acquisitions, strategic investments, joint ventures, and novel commercial structures, you will be a key technical resource on structuring alternatives, consolidation outcomes, and financial statement impact. You will partner closely with Corporate Development, Legal, Tax, Treasury, FP&A, and leadership to ensure that deal economics are accurately reflected under US GAAP and that positions are defensible to external auditors, valuation specialists, and future regulators. This is a builder role: you'll help operate and continuously sharpen the controls, valuation governance, and close-ready documentation expected of a large accelerated filer, working alongside the Senior Director as the function takes shape. If you thrive on being in the room when deals are shaped — and then making the accounting land cleanly — we want to hear from you. In this role, you will: • Execute technical accounting for business combinations, asset acquisitions, joint ventures, and related financing/equity structures • Partner with and influence Corporate Dev to steer deal structures toward preferred terms and outcomes • Perform accounting due diligence on prospective transactions, advising Corporate Development and leadership on GAAP, control, and earnings implications before terms are finalized • Execute end-to-end purchase accounting — acquirer and acquisition-date identification, consideration measurement (contingent consideration, rollover equity, replacement awards), and recognition/measurement of assets, liabilities, and goodwill • Execute post-close integration accounting — conforming accounting policies, system/ledger onboarding, working capital true-ups, earn-out remeasurement, and push-down considerations • Assess and monitor consolidation and investment classification for investees and structured arrangements — VIE/primary-beneficiary analysis, reconsideration events, equity method, measurement alternative, and fair value through earnings — and support impairment and observable-price-change reviews • Manage third-party valuation specialists; review PPA, intangible asset valuations, contingent consideration fair values, and impairment analyses • Author and defend technical accounting policies & memoranda; partner closely with external auditors on M&A, investment, and consolidation matters • Partner with Tax on deal structuring and ASC 740/basis-difference impacts; with Treasury and Legal on equity, SAFE/convertible, and other financing instruments • Help refine the deal-accounting operating model — diligence checklists, Day-1 close playbooks, opening balance sheet procedures, measurement-period tracking, integration workplans, and SOX-ready controls over non-routine transactions • Prepare and review transaction-related disclosures for quarterly and annual filings, including pro forma financial information and significance testing • Present transaction accounting conclusions and financial statement impacts to leadership and cross-functional stakeholders in clear, decision-ready terms • Monitor standard-setting and SEC developments affecting business combinations, consolidation, and investments; support adoption and cross-functional education You may be a good fit if you: • Have 10+ years of progressive accounting experience, including 4+ years owning complex M&A and strategic investment accounting transactions end-to-end • Hold an active CPA license • Bring significant Big 4 experience — ideally in a National Office, Transaction/Deal Advisory, or Capital Markets/Accounting Advisory group — paired with in-house experience at a high-growth or public technology company • Have contributed to multiple closed acquisitions and minority/strategic investments, including at least one transaction of meaningful scale or complexity • Possess deep command of US GAAP for business combinations, consolidation, equity method, and fair value measurement, with a track record of positions that withstand auditor and regulator scrutiny • Are fluent in valuation concepts and can direct and challenge third-party specialists on PPA, contingent consideration, and impairment models • Have operated within a deal-accounting or investments-accounting function, contributing to playbook and controls design • Communicate effectively with Corporate Development and Legal on structuring trade-offs, translating technical conclusions for cross-functional and senior stakeholders • Demonstrate exceptional written and verbal communication, translating complex deal accounting into clear business implications • Excel at hands-on technical execution in a fast-paced, ambiguous environment, partnering closely with the Senior Director on strategic judgment calls • Are proficient with accounting systems (Workday preferred), consolidation tools, and advanced Excel/modeling • Curious about and quick to adopt new AI tools, including Claude and Claude for Finance Strong candidates may also: • Have deep, practitioner-level expertise in one or more of the following: • Business combinations and asset acquisitions (ASC 805), including contingent consideration, replacement share-based awards, and step acquisitions • Consolidation and investment classification (ASC 810, 323, 321), including VIE/primary-beneficiary anal