Sr. Director, Finance

Adtran•Atlanta, GA

About The Position

ADTRAN is seeking a strategic, collaborative Senior Director of Finance to lead Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A), business performance management, financial systems and analytics, and finance transformation. The role partners with the VP of Finance, CFO, and senior business leaders to connect financial performance, operational drivers, strategic priorities, and resource allocation in support of better decision-making and long-term financial performance. The Senior Director leads and develops finance leaders and professionals responsible for planning, forecasting, management reporting, business partnership, and financial analytics. The role calls for strategic leadership and a builder mentality: establishing scalable processes and accountability while modernizing Finance’s use of data, systems, automation, and artificial intelligence. The position is based in Huntsville, Alabama, or Atlanta, Georgia, and reports to the VP of Finance. The role provides leadership across enterprise planning and performance management, finance partnership with business functions, financial reporting and governance, workforce planning, and the modernization of FP&A technology and processes. It also develops team capabilities and fosters collaboration across a global, matrixed organization.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Accounting, Economics, Business Administration, Mathematics, or a related discipline.
10 or more years of progressive experience in FP&A, corporate finance, operational finance, or related disciplines, with significant leadership responsibility.
Demonstrated experience leading managers and developing high-performing finance teams.
Strong expertise in financial planning, forecasting, financial modeling, scenario analysis, performance management, and executive decision support.
Experience operating in a complex global organization and influencing senior leaders across multiple functions.
Experience building, transforming, or significantly improving FP&A processes, systems, reporting, or operating models.
Strong understanding of the connection between financial results and operational drivers, including revenue, margin, operating expenses, workforce, capital expenditures, and cash.
Ability to translate complex financial and operational information into clear recommendations for senior executives.
Advanced experience with enterprise ERP, financial planning, reporting, business intelligence, and analytical technologies.
Excellent leadership, executive communication, stakeholder-management, organizational, and problem-solving capabilities.
Ability to work effectively in an evolving environment, bring structure to ambiguity, establish priorities, and drive execution across teams.

Nice To Haves

MBA, CPA, CMA, or another relevant advanced degree or professional certification.
Experience within a publicly traded global company.
Experience in telecommunications, networking, technology, hardware, software, manufacturing, or another complex product-based business.
Experience supporting global operations across the U.S. and Europe.
Strong knowledge of SAP and SAP Analytics Cloud, including planning, analytics, reporting, financial data structures, and integration.
Practical application of generative AI, agentic AI, machine learning, or intelligent automation within Finance.
Experience leading finance transformation, systems implementation, reporting modernization, or FP&A operating-model redesign.
Experience supporting Board and executive-level financial presentations and decision processes.

Responsibilities

Advise the VP of Finance, CFO, and senior leaders with objective financial insights and recommendations for strategic and operational decisions.
Translate financial and operational performance into executive-level narratives that identify business drivers, risks, opportunities, and required actions.
Support strategic planning, resource allocation, investment decisions, and enterprise financial priorities; develop frameworks and scenario analyses for evaluating alternatives.
Provide appropriate challenge to business assumptions and support executive, Board, and senior-management reviews with accurate, decision-oriented analysis and materials.
Lead governance for the annual operating plan, long-range planning, rolling forecasts, scenario planning, and recurring performance-management processes.
Establish consistent planning methodologies, assumptions, calendars, governance, and accountability across the organization.
Advance driver-based planning that connects operating expenses, workforce, capital expenditures, cash, and other operational drivers.
Improve forecasting through disciplined assumptions, risk and opportunity management, scenario analysis, validation, and post-forecast reviews.
Lead monthly and quarterly performance reviews, explain variances and underlying causes, and identify follow-up actions.
Develop consistent KPIs and performance-management frameworks linking financial outcomes with business drivers.
Lead Finance partnerships across Sales, Operations, Supply Chain, Engineering, Product Management, Human Resources, Corporate Accounting, and other functions.
Support business leaders with investment, cost, workforce, and resource-allocation decisions, and establish clear ownership of assumptions, commitments, risks, opportunities, and corrective actions.
Connect operational metrics with financial results to identify root causes and improvement opportunities.
Define and execute a roadmap for a modern, scalable, technology-enabled FP&A organization; standardize and automate planning, forecasting, reporting, modeling, and analysis.
Provide leadership for financial planning and reporting platforms, including SAP and SAP Analytics Cloud, and strengthen Finance’s partnership with Information Technology.
Establish governance for financial data, reporting hierarchies, models, master data, system changes, and reporting definitions.
Expand the use of business intelligence, workflow automation, advanced analytics, generative AI, agentic AI, and other technologies to improve Finance productivity and decision support.
Develop scalable reporting, analytics, and planning solutions to reduce manual spreadsheets and repetitive data preparation; measure outcomes such as forecast accuracy, cycle times, data quality, automation, adoption, and reduced manual work.
Ensure FP&A reporting and analysis are accurate, consistent, timely, and supported by appropriate controls and governance.
Partner with Corporate Accounting to align management reporting and planning with accounting results and company policies; support public-company reporting cycles, internal controls, and audit activities as appropriate.
Establish standards and processes for changes to financial reporting, planning methodologies, models, and systems.
Lead the financial framework for enterprise workforce planning with Human Resources and business leaders, integrating workforce plans with forecasts, priorities, productivity expectations, and strategic objectives.
Establish consistent approaches to headcount, compensation, hiring, attrition, vacancies, organizational changes, and workforce scenario modeling; improve visibility into workforce cost drivers and related risks and opportunities.
Lead, coach, and develop a high-performing team of Finance managers and professionals across disciplines and geographies.
Build team capabilities in financial analysis, systems, analytics, automation, business partnership, executive communication, and strategic decision support.
Identify talent and capability gaps and develop hiring, development, succession, and knowledge-transfer plans.
Foster curiosity, constructive challenge, continuous improvement, collaboration, accountability, and cooperation across U.S. and international Finance teams.