Vice President of Finance & Accounting

Applied Dynamics International • Ann Arbor, MI

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About The Position

Applied Dynamics International (ADI) is a Michigan-based aerospace and defense technology innovator focused on enabling digital engineering at the edge. Their ADEPT edge computing software platform and engineering expertise serve mission-critical test, simulation, and digital engineering environments across aerospace, defense, space, and industrial markets. ADI is a profitable company with an ambitious growth strategy, seeking a finance leader to ensure financial discipline, sound judgment, and operational excellence during its scaling phase. This executive will partner closely with the President & CEO, translating business strategy into financial plans, managing reporting, liquidity, and providing insights for investment decisions. The role encompasses strategic financial leadership with direct responsibility for accounting quality, internal controls, and daily financial operations.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in accounting, finance, or a related field, with substantial accounting and financial-management expertise.
• 10+ years of progressively responsible experience, including leadership of accounting or finance operations and meaningful responsibility for budgeting, reporting, and cash management.
• Strong working knowledge of U.S. GAAP, revenue recognition, internal controls, and financial statement preparation.
• Demonstrated ability to manage project or contract economics, working capital, and a business with multiple revenue streams.
• Experience leading people and improving financial processes, accounting systems, and management reporting.
• Ability to communicate financial information clearly to both financial and non-financial stakeholders, exercise sound judgment, and operate effectively in a hands-on environment.

Nice To Haves

• Prior relevant experience includes software or technology businesses with hardware and engineering services components; aerospace and defense or other mission-critical industrial markets; and companies preparing for or executing an accelerated growth strategy.
• Experience with equity financing, investor or board reporting, government-contract accounting, research and development funding, international transactions, and recurring-revenue business models would be valuable.
• Prior experience as a CFO is welcome but is not required.
• A CPA designation is preferred.

Responsibilities

• Lead ADI’s financial planning and analysis, including annual budgets, rolling forecasts, multiyear financial models, and scenario planning.
• Translate product development, sales, staffing, and deployment plans into clear financial requirements and measurable operating objectives.
• Partner with the CEO and department leaders to evaluate investment priorities, monitor spending against approved plans, and identify opportunities to improve profitability and capital efficiency.
• Provide practical recommendations that balance growth ambition with liquidity, execution capacity, and risk.
• Provide financial oversight and support for ADI’s UK operations, ensuring appropriate coordination between the U.S. and UK businesses.
• Own the integrity of the company’s accounting records and financial statements.
• Lead monthly, quarterly, and annual close processes, consolidated financial reporting, reconciliations, and the consistent application of appropriate U.S. generally accepted accounting principles.
• Oversee the general ledger, accounts payable and receivable, payroll accounting, fixed assets, inventory, project accounting, and related financial processes.
• Maintain documented accounting policies and coordinate external accounting services, tax preparation, reviews, and audits as applicable.
• Ensure that financial information is accurate, timely, understandable, and useful to management, the board, lenders, and investors.
• Lead accounting and financial analysis across ADI’s business model, including perpetual software licenses, annual subscriptions, maintenance and support, hardware systems, engineering services, and customer deployment projects.
• Establish clear visibility into revenue recognition, deferred revenue, contract assets and liabilities, project costs, gross margins, and estimates to complete.
• Maintain consistent definitions and reporting for revenue, recurring revenue, bookings, backlog, and cash collections.
• Work with sales, engineering, and program leadership to evaluate contract economics, pricing, payment milestones, change orders, and delivery risks.
• Manage cash forecasting, liquidity, working capital, banking relationships, and debt obligations.
• Maintain visibility into near-term cash requirements and the funding implications of hiring, product development, inventory, and customer programs.
• Oversee lender reporting and covenant monitoring, where applicable.
• Support capital-raising activities, financial due diligence, capitalization records, investor reporting, and the disciplined deployment of investment proceeds.
• Work with management and external advisers to evaluate financing alternatives and capital-structure decisions.
• Provide financial support for proposals, major customer agreements, software packaging, subscription offerings, and long-term service commitments.
• Help ADI evaluate the profitability and cash-flow implications of new commercial models and customer deployment strategies.
• Develop dashboards that connect financial performance with operating drivers, including software revenue mix, customer expansion, project margins, engineering utilization, receivables, and development investment.
• Partner with sales and technical leadership to assess the economics of customer pilots and their progression into production deployments and broader enterprise adoption.
• Support financial administration of government-funded research, development, and customer programs.
• Working with contracts personnel and outside specialists as needed, maintaining appropriate cost tracking, labor charging, indirect-cost allocation, invoicing, and supporting documentation.
• Maintain financial controls appropriate to ADI’s size and growth plans, including approval authorities, segregation of duties, purchasing controls, reconciliations, and protection of sensitive financial information.
• Coordinate tax, insurance, and other financial risk matters with the appropriate internal owners and external advisers.
• Lead the administration and annual renewal of ADI’s business insurance programs, working with the company’s insurance broker/agent and internal stakeholders to evaluate coverage, limits, premiums, exposures, and changing business needs.
• Review customer, contract, landlord, lender, and other third-party insurance requirements and coordinate certificates of insurance, endorsements, or coverage changes as necessary.
• Maintain awareness of changes in ADI’s operations, products, locations, customer activities, workforce, assets, or contractual obligations that may affect the company’s risk profile, and communicate relevant changes to the company’s insurance broker/agent to ensure appropriate coverage.
• Partner with Human Resources in the financial administration and annual renewal of employee benefit insurance programs, including reviewing costs, premiums, employer contributions, invoices, plan alternatives, and budget impact.
• Provide financial analysis and support to HR during benefit plan renewals and assist with reconciliation of benefit-related invoices and payroll deductions as appropriate.
• Support payroll administration and controls, including payroll review, funding, reconciliations, accounting, reporting, tax-related coordination, and resolution of payroll-related financial discrepancies.
• Lead and organize ADI’s finance and accounting function, coordinating internal resources and external partners. As the company grows, the role may assume direct responsibility for additional finance and accounting staff.
• Establish clear responsibilities, effective coverage, and a dependable operating cadence while remaining willing to work directly on critical deliverables.
• Improve accounting systems, reporting tools, and integrations with project, sales, and operational systems.
• Evaluate and responsibly use automation and AI-enabled tools to improve financial analysis, forecasting, reporting, reconciliation, and administrative efficiency, while maintaining appropriate data security, confidentiality, internal controls, validation, and human review.
• Build a finance function that is responsive to the business, scalable, and trusted across the organization.

Benefits

• The company is committed to a policy of equal opportunity for all persons and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, gender, age, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, physical appearance, disability, religion, veteran status in employment or handicap is prohibited.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Executive