Director, Strategic Finance & Operations

Overview

This role owns the organization’s financial numbers and operating agenda. You will run budgeting and forecasting, produce board financials, lead the financial workstream for acquisitions and capital decisions, and drive the company’s operating cadence (OKRs, a business review every two weeks, and data-backed decisions on what is working and what isn’t). You will also lead the team responsible for revenue and finance systems.

The ideal candidate is deeply numbers-driven and works directly in the data, bringing structure, accountability, and comfort challenging senior leaders with facts.

Responsibilities

• Own the annual budget and monthly forecast across ten departments; roll out quarterly budget review calls.
• Build and maintain a driver-based operating model, including:
  • payment volume
  • take rates
  • contract minimums
  • subsidies
  • headcount
  • vendor spend
• Own quarterly board financials and monthly management reporting, covering:
  • revenue
  • gross margin
  • spend vs. budget
  • burn
  • runway and cash
• Own the monthly P&L flux review and commentary, and assemble the financial statement package with the accounting team.
• Run the business review in coordination with BizOps and own the monthly and quarterly OKR reviews:
  • track commitments
  • call out misses with data
• Own metric definitions so every leader reports from the same numbers.
• Perform hands-on analysis behind key metrics, including pulling, modeling, and interpreting data using Claude and other AI tools (with support/access from the platform data team).
• Lead the financial workstream for acquisitions with Corporate Development, including:
  • models, valuation, and synergy/integration cases
  • diligence model support and coordination
• Lead capital allocation analysis for:
  • returns on new products
  • corridors
  • incentives such as rate subsidies
  • build vs. buy decisions
• Plan capital for licensed entities, including projecting net worth and EU capital headroom, and flag funding needs early.
• Approve pricing exceptions outside agreed deal guardrails.
• Build the sales capacity and quota model in partnership with the CRO as part of the budget process.
• Support org design and cross-functional programs for the CFO and CEO.
• Lead the Manager of FinOps, RevOps & Finance Systems.
• Confirm budget availability on purchase orders above the approval threshold.

Metrics You’ll Own

• Volume: total payment volume by product, active transacting accounts, volume per account, customer concentration.
• Monetization: net revenue, take rate (actual vs. contracted), usage against minimum commitments, revenue per account.
• Unit economics: cost per transaction, subsidies and incentives in basis points, net take rate, contribution margin per customer.
• Retention: gross and net revenue and volume retention by cohort, logo churn, silent churn (live accounts down more than 50% from peak).
• Growth: new logos, time from signing to go-live and to first transaction, ramp to committed volume, pipeline coverage, win rate, committed ARR vs. run-rate revenue.
• Efficiency and cash: CAC payback, burn multiple, DSO, bad debt.

Requirements

• 8+ years combining strategy consulting (Big Four strategy practice or similar), investment banking, private equity, or FP&A, with at least 2–4 years operating in-house at a fintech, payments, or high-growth company.
• Experience running an end-to-end budget process with department leaders and owning board-level reporting.
• Strong modeling experience, including M&A or investment models.
• Experience building and running an operating cadence or OKR process across functions.
• Hands-on data and AI capability: uses Claude and similar tools to pull, model, and analyze data and build reporting directly (without an analytics team to hand it to).
• Presence to challenge senior leaders with data and maintain effective working relationships.

Preferred Qualifications

• Crypto experience.
• Capital planning for regulated entities.
• Experience managing systems or data builders.

Compensation & Benefits

Not specified.

Location

Not specified.

What Success Looks Like

• 90 days: own the FY27 budget and run its first reforecast; metric dictionary agreed by the CFO, CRO and Product; business review running every two weeks on one set of numbers; next board financials delivered on time and tied to the books.
• 6 months: quarterly budget reviews with every department; OKRs set and reviewed quarterly; unit economics by product; diligence model template used on every deal.