Director of Finance

Lydian • San Francisco, CA

5d

About The Position

You will be the first finance hire and will shape how we plan, forecast, allocate resources, and measure performance across the company. You will create discipline, clarity, and forward visibility as the company makes major engineering, manufacturing, and commercialization decisions. You will report to the CEO.

Requirements

• Analytical, structured, and rigorous.
• Able to zoom between high-level strategy and detailed spreadsheets without losing coherence.
• A builder who can quickly create and implement mature financial processes in a startup environment.
• Comfortable evaluating technical decisions through an economic lens.
• Someone who can say no when the company needs it, and articulate the tradeoff clearly.
• Calm under time pressure and persistent when driving cross-functional alignment.

Nice To Haves

• 10–15+ years of experience in FP&A, strategic finance, corporate development, or similar analytical roles, with at least 3+ years in a hard-tech, industrial, energy, manufacturing, or deep-tech environment.
• Exceptional modeling skills — able to build, maintain, and stress-test financial models that drive real decisions.
• Strong understanding of capex-heavy businesses, cost-of-goods modeling, supply chain dynamics, and long development cycles.
• Experience working directly with founders/CTOs/CEOs and presenting financial insights in clear, concise narratives.
• Ability to operate in ambiguity and build processes, tools, and systems from scratch.
• High integrity and flawless ownership of numbers — you are the source of truth.
• Excellent written and verbal communication.
• Background in investment banking, private equity, or management consulting with heavy financial modeling.
• Alignment with our mission, vision, and virtues.

Responsibilities

• Financial Planning, Forecasting & Modeling
• Own the company-wide financial model, including P&L, cash flow, balance sheet, capex plans, and scenario simulations.
• Build dynamic forecasting tools that incorporate R&D burn, manufacturing scale-up costs, module-level cost trajectories, and project deployment timelines.
• Develop sensitivity and scenario models for technology decisions, supply chain choices, and site selection.
• Treasury & Capital Strategy
• Work with leadership on capital strategy: equity raises, project finance, debt facilities, venture vs. infrastructure capital, and timing. Advise leadership on optimal financing structures for pilot, demo, and commercial plants.
• Build and maintain long-range cash runway models and risk buffers tied to engineering and manufacturing schedules.
• Support treasury operations: cash management, banking relationships, cash flow forecasting, and liquidity planning.
• Budgeting & Reporting
• Lead annual and quarterly budgeting cycles, working with functional leaders to set targets and track performance.
• Build processes that ensure spending aligns with strategic priorities and runway expectations.
• Bring financial discipline to a fast-moving engineering organization without creating unnecessary friction.
• Establish the company’s financial reporting cadence: monthly performance reviews, variance analysis, KPIs.
• Build dashboards that give leadership real-time visibility into spend, burn rate, unit cost trends, and operational performance.
• Translate complex data into clear insights for non-financial leaders.

Benefits

• Competitive salary commensurate with experience.
• Meaningful equity compensation.
• Generous PTO and expectation that all employees take significant time off to rest, recharge, and enjoy life outside work.
• Excellent health insurance with 100% of healthcare, vision and dental premiums covered.
• 401(k) with company match.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Director
• Education Level: No Education Listed