Director of Finance, Financial Planning & Analysis

Overview

The Director of Finance, reporting directly to the Chief Financial Officer, serves as a key financial strategist responsible for comprehensive planning, forecasting, and analysis that influences important business decisions. This role combines hands-on financial modeling with strategic advisory tasks, collaborating closely with executive leaders and functional teams to enhance financial performance and support growth initiatives.

Primary Responsibilities

• Craft detailed financial models evaluating mergers and acquisitions, capital expenditures, and strategic projects to provide executive teams with impact assessments, return on investment forecasts, and scenario analyses to guide complex decision-making.
• Lead the development of annual budgets aligned with strategic priorities and produce monthly and quarterly profit & loss, balance sheet, and cash flow forecasts accompanied by variance analyses, ensuring organizational alignment and forecast reliability.
• Generate in-depth financial reports, board presentation materials, and executive dashboards that clearly communicate financial status, trends, and strategic considerations to support leadership and board-level decisions.
• Work in partnership with sales, operations, marketing, and research & development teams to supply financial analyses that back their strategic goals and key performance indicators, translating financial data into actionable insights.
• Advise C-suite executives on major contracts, partnerships, and business opportunities, offering financial perspectives for commercial and strategic decisions while collaborating on working capital management and ensuring adherence to GAAP.
• Champion ongoing improvements in financial processes through automation and AI-driven tools, maintain thorough documentation of FP&A methodologies and controls to ensure consistency and audit readiness, and identify opportunities to enhance efficiency and reduce cycle times.
• Recruit, mentor, and grow a high-caliber FP&A team by setting clear objectives, providing coaching, and facilitating career development opportunities.

Qualifications

• 7 to 10 years of progressive experience in finance with increasing responsibilities, deep expertise in financial planning, analysis, and reporting.
• Proven success in dynamic, high-growth environments, especially within private equity-backed or acquisition-driven companies where rigorous financial discipline and rapid scaling are essential.
• Advanced skills in financial modeling, FP&A practices, forecasting, variance analysis, and scenario planning.
• Demonstrated ability to improve processes through automation and leverage AI and new technologies to streamline financial operations.
• Comprehensive knowledge of industry-specific KPIs and business metrics with the capability to convert data into strategic business insights that enhance operational performance.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills to effectively present complex financial information to diverse audiences including executives and board members.
• Adaptability and agility to thrive in an entrepreneurial, fast-paced environment where business needs continuously evolve.

Employee Benefits

• Unlimited paid time off and vacation.
• Comprehensive health insurance and 401k fixed percentage plan for U.S. employees; RRSP plans for Canadian employees.
• Fully remote work environment with distributed teams.
• Paid parental leave.
• Continuous learning and professional development opportunities.
• A culture emphasizing responsibilities over titles with no bureaucratic hurdles.

Diversity and Inclusion

Zaelab encourages candidates of diverse backgrounds to apply, emphasizing an inclusive workplace where all employees are respected and supported. The company is an equal opportunity employer committed to accommodation and utilizes AI tools during application screening with human oversight ensuring fairness.

Additional Information

Background checks via Certn are conducted for all new U.S. hires to verify identity and employment eligibility. Candidate information is handled with strict confidentiality strictly for recruitment and not shared for marketing purposes.