Senior Manager, Strategic Finance

Merlin Labs•Boston, MA

9d•Onsite

About The Position

Merlin is a venture-backed aerospace startup focused on enabling reduced crew and uncrewed flight through non-human pilots. Backed by leading investors, Merlin is scaling to address significant challenges in aviation. This role is for an experienced finance professional who will be instrumental in building the financial infrastructure to support the company's growth. The position offers the opportunity to architect financial processes, connect customer commitments to revenue, and manage vendor relationships. Long-term, this role offers full P&L ownership of a product line, providing a clear career path towards business ownership.

Requirements

10+ years of progressive finance experience in FP&A, Strategic Finance, revenue operations, or finance business partner roles.
Deep understanding of quote-to-cash and procure-to-pay processes.
Hands-on builder: has designed and implemented processes and models from scratch.
Familiarity with ASC 606 revenue recognition, particularly in a milestone- or contract-based environment.
BA/BS in Accounting, Finance, or related field required.

Nice To Haves

Background at a defense, aerospace, SaaS, or hardware-intensive technology company.
MBA or CPA.

Responsibilities

Build revenue forecasting models that connect pipeline to recognized revenue with appropriate consideration for contract type, milestone, and performance obligation structure.
Establish controls and system workflows that reduce manual handoffs and create an auditable trail from opportunity to cash receipt.
Design and implement (in collaboration with our Procurement team) a scalable procure-to-pay process: requisition, purchase order, vendor onboarding, invoice processing, and payment.
Partner with Legal, Accounting, and business owners to implement and ensure adherence to a tiered approval framework commensurate with spend risk.
Build the operating expense forecasting and accrual processes that give FP&A reliable visibility into committed and incurred spend.
Support the implementation of financial planning tools and systems in partnership with Finance and IT.
Create the monthly/quarterly operating cadence: actuals reviews, variance analysis, and re-forecast processes for assigned functions within the organization.
Support the build and delivery of the annual operating plan and budget.
Drive continuous improvement: identify bottlenecks, eliminate manual work, and automate where possible.
Assume full P&L ownership for an assigned product line, including revenue, gross margin, and operating expense (long-term).