Finance Director
San Carlos, CAFinance & AccountingHybrid6+ YOE
Summary
Own finance end-to-end at a Series A aviation AI startup: lead multi-scenario financial modeling, budgeting, forecasting, and pricing strategy while managing outsourced accounting partners.
About the role
What you’ll own
Financial planning and modeling (core)
- Build and maintain multi-year, multi-scenario financial models (revenue, headcount, gross margin, cash, runway, balance sheet)
- Own annual planning and rolling forecasts, including a monthly forecast cadence
- Define and track operating metrics and KPIs that actually drive the business
- Turn assumptions into clear sensitivities, risks, and decision options for leadership
Budgeting and spend management
- Own budgets, approvals, and variance reporting (plan vs actual, drivers, corrective actions)
- Partner with functional leads on headcount planning and project-based budgeting
- Put lightweight controls in place that keep us disciplined without slowing the company down
Pricing, packaging, and market segmentation support
- Partner with GTM and product leadership on market segmentation and pricing strategy
- Build pricing and unit economics models (margin, cost-to-serve, discounting guardrails, contract structure tradeoffs)
- Support deal review and proposal economics: profitability, payment terms, milestones, and risk
Finance operations and external partner management
- Manage contract bookkeepers/accounting and tax providers: close schedule, accuracy, deliverables
- Maintain clean monthly reporting and cash planning (invoicing, collections, vendor payments, expense policy)
- Keep us audit-ready as needed, with good documentation and consistent processes
Leadership and cross-functional work
- Be a thought partner to the CEO and leaders on strategy, sequencing, and tradeoffs
- Contribute to company operations and other high-priority work as needed (startup mindset, high ownership)
Ideal background
- 6–12+ years in FP&A, strategic finance, and/or finance leadership; startup experience strongly preferred
- Expert-level financial modeling (driver-based, clean structure, fast iteration, easy to audit)
- Comfortable owning the full finance lane while managing outsourced accounting and tax partners
- Experience building budgets and forecasts tied to hiring plans, delivery plans, and GTM motion
- Experience supporting pricing, packaging, and/or market segmentation work
Nice-to-haves
- Fundraising support: board materials, investor metrics, data room readiness, finance narrative
- Familiarity with government or defense contracting economics (if relevant to your business)
- Familiarity with common startup finance tooling (QuickBooks/Xero, Ramp/Brex, Gusto/Deel, basic BI)
Skills
Financial modelingFP&ABudgetingForecastingVariance analysisPricing strategyUnit economicsCash flow managementKPIsFinancial reporting