Senior Director of Product & Technology Finance, Xero
$225-285k
Office located in San Mateo, CA
Accounting software for small businesses
Be an early applicant
Accounting software for small businesses
1001+ employees
Be an early applicant
$225-285k
Office located in San Mateo, CA
1001+ employees
Company mission
To make life better for people in small business, their advisors, and communities around the world.
Role
Who you are
- Strong collaboration with key leadership
- Team player, able to work with various levels in the company, flexible, comfortable in a fast paced environment
- Ability to take data and create a story that resonates with audiences and drive action
- Able to prioritize work, meet deadlines with attention to detail and accuracy
- High energy level, self-starter, proactive and results oriented
- Operates with full openness and transparency & integrity
- Fluency in AI tools
- Proven experience (12+ years) in finance, with 3 years in a senior leadership role
- Work experience in a global SaaS or technology industry company, a fast paced startup
- Experience supporting a Product & Tech and/or Research & Development organization
- Experience leveraging AI tools to increase efficiency and impact
- Superior analytical and problem solving skills, with demonstrated intellectual and analytical rigor
- Excellent communication skills to make recommendations to senior leaders
- Demonstrated leadership and team management experience
- MBA preferred
What the job involves
- As Senior Director of Product & Technology Finance, you will lead our financial planning and analysis efforts across Xero’s Product & Technology function and partner closely with senior leaders to provide valuable insights and recommendations
- You will be responsible for developing and executing financial strategies that align with Xero’s ambitious product objectives
- Working with your team, you will oversee all financial planning and analysis across Cost to Serve, Product, Technology and Engineering sub-functions, ensuring a relentless focus on commercial outcomes
- This will involve tailoring your approach to the unique requirements of each area, fostering a culture of critical evaluation and justification for capital allocation decisions
- As a senior member of the Financial Planning and Analysis team, you will also champion business casing, accurate forecasting, and workforce planning, thereby becoming a driving force behind our financial success
- Financial Strategy
- Develop and articulate a clear financial strategy for the Product & Technology function, ensuring alignment with Xero's overarching business objectives and OKRs
- Champion the integration of financial and operational data into decision-making processes
- Ensure budgeting and forecasting are aligned with broader company objectives
- Collaborate with People Experience on remuneration strategies for the function
- Financial Planning and Analysis
- Lead financial planning cycles for the Product & Technology function, collaborating on operating plans, roadmaps and annual targets
- Cultivate commercial acumen and critical thinking within the Product & Technology team, ensuring investment requests are tied to measurable financial results
- Coordinate long-term planning inputs for Product portfolios, demonstrating deep understanding of business drivers and financial modeling implications
- Financial Modeling
- Create and maintain sophisticated financial models to assess potential scenarios, risks, and opportunities, and support strategic decision-making
- Develop a framework for business case benefits realization
- Build and iterate on Product P&Ls, ensuring strong decision making on capital allocations
- Assist the leadership team in assessing financial risks associated with project delivery
- Capital Allocation
- Evaluate and optimize capital allocation strategies, including investment in new initiatives, capital expenditures and, where applicable, acquisitions
- Support and challenge leaders on capital allocation decisions and facilitate effective capital requests with a strong ROI focus
- Ensure tracking of committed business cases to monitor delivery and financial milestones
- Team Leadership
- Build, mentor, and manage a high-performing team, fostering a culture of excellence, collaboration, and continuous improvement
- Stakeholder Engagement
- Provide financial insights and guidance to support decision-making across the organization
- Drive business performance through influencing leaders and actionable financial analysis
- Collaborate with the wider FP&A leadership team to ensure alignment between Product deliverables and Go-to-Market strategies/Operating Plans
- Success looks like:
- Consistent delivery of accurate, timely financial information and analysis that drives decision-making
- Proactive evolution of financial models / insights to meet the ever-changing needs of Xero
- Strong collaborator who builds relationships at all levels across the organization
- Trusted advisor, providing recommendations that influence decisions made by leadership
- Active leadership within the Financial Planning team, shaping its direction and impact
- Team empowerment through effective management, ensuring high-quality output and individual growth
- Strategic foresight demonstrated through well-defined long-term plans and deep understanding of business drivers
Our take
For a long time, high-quality financial services have been reserved for large-scale businesses. Xero solves this problem by giving small businesses, accountants, and bookkeepers access to best-in-class finance and accounting solutions.
Xero is one of the largest companies of its kind, with its promise to save time and effort for small business owners - who often don’t have in-house accounting teams - capturing interest and allowing the company to scale. It has a strong rival in Intuit QuickBooks, which offers similar services, but competes by being most effective for growing startups, and having an incredibly simple user experience.
A series of acquisitions and partnerships, including the purchase of Instafile in 2018, have consolidated Xero’s market share. The company continues to add new integrations, such as with Vehocheck Workshop Manager, and the 2023 launched Beautiful Business Fund that will help small businesses accelerate growth.
Steph
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
3% employee growth in 12 months
Company
Company HQ
Te Aro, Wellington, Wellington
Leadership
Prior to Xero, she founded Boardlist and Joyus. She also served as the CEO of Polyvore and as a President of Asia Pacific and Latin America Operations at Google.
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