Director of Strategic Finance and Programs, Merlin Labs

• You are an experienced finance professional who wants to contribute to making airplanes that fly themselves
• You are familiar with research & development projects, particularly with the US government, and have built a career establishing financial budgets, monitoring program activities against those budgets, and partnering with the program leadership to help them stay on track
• You enjoy having a seat at the decision making table and can effectively present your points with clarity but also with positivity and optimism; you will bring solutions and ideas not problems and blame
• You know how to use industry standard tools for your work and have a passion for stretching the capabilities from those tools to reduce or eliminate non-value manual work as much as possible
• You’re focused on advancing your career as demonstrated through a track record of consistently upward mobility
• 15 + years of direct finance experience building and managing budget models in either program finance, strategic finance, financial planning & analyses or accounting roles
• Experience designing financial metrics and key performance indicators which will help with project management
• Meticulous attention to detail and keen focus on organization; comfort working across Microsoft and Google Suite applications is critical
• Candidates with experience with US Government communication applications such as the WideAreaWorkFlow (WAWF) will be prioritized
• Presentation skills with ability to adopt tone and technique to various levels of cross-functional management
• BS in Business Management/ Finance/ Accounting; MBA will be prioritized

Desirable

• Overseeing all financial activities of your research and development/ manufacturing/ licensing contracts through review of system-generated reports from various sources, using a standard of work which you will have designed, with a heavy reliance on automation to reduce manual efforts
• Partnering with the business development leaders to provide quotes for bids and proposals for future Merlin customers and projects
• Establishing budgets for new programs while monitoring ongoing program costs; truing-up the final project cost at program completion and presenting your insights on what worked, what didn’t work, and how future Merlin programs can benefit from this learning
• Reviewing and approving routine submissions to the US Government customer including Incurred Cost Submissions and Provisional Billing Rate submissions
• This is an individual contributor role in the beginning but as the volume of company programs grow, you will grow your organization
• You will be tasked with designing an efficient organization utilizing technology to its greatest extent; hiring, training, and managing a team of program finance professionals who will report to you