Director of Finance

Sitreps

3d•$185,000 - $235,000•Remote

About The Position

This is a rapidly growing defense-technology company with a physical hardware business and a growing book of government contract work. Day-to-day financial management is already outsourced and a CPA is in place, so this is not a back-office hire. This seat drives financial strategy, long-range planning, budgeting, and pricing. Leadership describes it as one of the most important hires the company will make this year. The immediate mandate is building the model against the work already won, so the company can see its peaks and valleys coming and prepare for them rather than react. The title is Director of Finance rather than CFO, deliberately. Leadership is not looking to hire a sitting CFO. The intent is to bring in someone strong, see how they work, and grow the seat with them.

Requirements

Defense or government contracting finance fluency. Knows what a contract modification does to the books, and how award, invoice, and payment are three separate events with three different effects. This is the one thing the company will not teach.
A strategy and planning background rather than a controllership one. Accounts payable and receivable, close, and day-to-day accounting are handled elsewhere.
Experience in a hardware business, where inventory, lead times, and working capital drive the cash picture.
A point of view on the business, and the willingness to state it in the room.
Comfort operating as the finance function in a fast-growing company rather than inside an established department.
No minimum years of experience and no degree requirement. In practice, defense and finance experience tend to come together around eight years. Most candidates in this market carry an MBA or a graduate finance degree, and the two are treated as equivalent.

Nice To Haves

Director of Finance, Head of Finance, VP Finance, or a senior financial planning and analysis lead at a growth-stage defense or national-security company, especially one with a hardware component.
Government contracting finance at a prime or mid-tier defense manufacturer.
Investment banking or private equity with aerospace, defense, or industrials coverage, plus real operating experience afterward.

Responsibilities

Build and own the financial model against the contract backlog, and turn it into decisions leadership can act on.
Drive long-range planning and budgeting for a business scaling quickly on hardware.
Own pricing so that margins hold up, and find the margin that is currently leaking.
Manage working capital through long hardware lead times and government payment timing.
Anticipate cash peaks and valleys and get ahead of them.
Act as a genuine thought partner to the founders on business strategy, not only on the numbers.
Direct the outsourced accounting function and the CPA relationship rather than doing that work.