Finance Manager (Cost & Operations Analytics)

VAST Data•San Francisco, CA

16h

About The Position

VAST Data is seeking a Finance Manager to join our Operations Finance team as a core contributor in our mission to move from a reactive state to a stable, automated, and scalable infrastructure. You will own the foundational FP&A for hardware service operations, with a primary strategic mandate to lead the transition from manual data processes to automated financial integration. This role requires a professional who thrives in an outcome-focused environment, is highly analytical and can operate independently while integrating seamlessly across cross-functional teams.

Requirements

Comfortable operating in high-growth, fast-paced environments with shifting priorities.
Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Accounting, Computer Science, Mathematics, or a related field.
5+ years of experience in COGS and inventory FP&A, ideally within a hardware supply chain environment.
Strong analytical and quantitative skills with the ability to distill complex data into actionable insights.
Proven ability to manage complex workstreams with minimal oversight, focusing on results rather than task lists.
Ability to build documentation that provides transparency and speeds up decision-making for stakeholders.
Advanced experience with transitioning from manual reporting into automated dashboards.
Excellent Excel/Google sheets skills including pivot tables, nested formulas, Index/Match, dynamic ranges etc. Macros/VBA, scenario analysis & sensitivity modeling. Driver based forecast models (lead - pipeline - sales - revenue - cash). Ability to pull from databases (NetSuite).
Familiarity with BI tools (e.g. Tableau).

Responsibilities

Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A)
Budgeting & Tracking: Own the end-to-end FP&A for Operations, including OPEX and COGS management.
Headcount Management: Manage hiring and headcount tracking for the Operations organization.
CM Program Costs: Lead the budgeting and tracking of costs incurred at Contract Manufacturers (CMs).
Validation: Own the actual Purchase Price Variance (PPV) analysis for vendor partners.
Close Partnership: Partner closely with accounting to ensure timely and accurate reporting of actual results.
Strategic Operational Modeling
Depot Economics: Own the Depot Economics Model and lead financial analysis for all New Depot requests.
Inventory Analysis: Manage Service Inventory financial modeling and provide insights into inventory-related costs.
Evaluate third-party service providers: Compare outsourcing versus in-house execution based on cost, efficiency, and operational impact.
Unit economics of hardware support costs.
Data Stewardship & Automation
ETL Transformation: Act as the steward for manual Extract, Transform, and Load (ETL) processes across Ops Finance, driving their integration into automated data environments.
Scalability: Partner with the Team Lead to build stable infrastructure that eliminates manual reporting and improves the accuracy of Service Ops COGS models.
Quarter End Sales Support
Service Level Agreements: Ensure the team maintains a 24-hour SLA for hardware pricing, discounts, and CM special terms.
Special Pricing Requests: Support special pricing analysis and decision making