Director of Finance

<h3 style="text-align: center;"><strong>Director of Finance</strong></h3>

<p><strong>Company:</strong> Defense-technology company (name shared under NDA)<br><strong>Reports To:</strong> Co-Founder<br><strong>Function:</strong> Finance<br><strong>Location:</strong> Open, including remote<br><strong>Travel:</strong> To Las Vegas and Virginia as needed, on short notice<br><strong>Compensation:</strong> $185,000 to $235,000 base, plus bonus and equity</p>

<p><em>Confidential Search · Defense Technology</em></p>

<p><em>Confidential search. The hiring company's identity and full role details are shared with candidates under NDA.</em></p>

<hr>

<h3><strong>About the Role</strong></h3>

<p>This is a <strong>rapidly growing defense-technology company with a physical hardware business</strong> and a growing book of government contract work.</p>

<p>Day-to-day financial management is <strong>already outsourced</strong> and a CPA is in place, so this is not a back-office hire. This seat drives <strong>financial strategy, long-range planning, budgeting, and pricing.</strong> Leadership describes it as one of the most important hires the company will make this year.</p>

<p>The immediate mandate is <strong>building the model against the work already won</strong>, so the company can see its peaks and valleys coming and prepare for them rather than react.</p>

<p>The title is <strong>Director of Finance rather than CFO, deliberately.</strong> Leadership is not looking to hire a sitting CFO. The intent is to bring in someone strong, see how they work, and grow the seat with them.</p>

<h3><strong>Responsibilities</strong></h3>

<ul>

<li>Build and own the financial model against the contract backlog, and turn it into decisions leadership can act on.</li>

<li>Drive long-range planning and budgeting for a business scaling quickly on hardware.</li>

<li>Own pricing so that margins hold up, and find the margin that is currently leaking.</li>

<li>Manage working capital through long hardware lead times and government payment timing.</li>

<li>Anticipate cash peaks and valleys and get ahead of them.</li>

<li>Act as a genuine thought partner to the founders on business strategy, not only on the numbers.</li>

<li>Direct the outsourced accounting function and the CPA relationship rather than doing that work.</li>

</ul>

<h3><strong>Requirements</strong></h3>

<h3><strong>Must-Haves</strong></h3>

<ul>

<li><strong>Defense or government contracting finance fluency.</strong> Knows what a contract modification does to the books, and how award, invoice, and payment are three separate events with three different effects. This is the one thing the company will not teach.</li>

<li>A <strong>strategy and planning</strong> background rather than a controllership one. Accounts payable and receivable, close, and day-to-day accounting are handled elsewhere.</li>

<li>Experience in a <strong>hardware business</strong>, where inventory, lead times, and working capital drive the cash picture.</li>

<li>A point of view on the business, and the willingness to state it in the room.</li>

<li>Comfort operating as the finance function in a fast-growing company rather than inside an established department.</li>

<li><strong>No minimum years of experience and no degree requirement.</strong> In practice, defense and finance experience tend to come together around eight years. Most candidates in this market carry an MBA or a graduate finance degree, and the two are treated as equivalent.</li>

</ul>

<h3><strong>Nice-to-Haves</strong></h3>

<ul>

<li>Director of Finance, Head of Finance, VP Finance, or a senior financial planning and analysis lead at a growth-stage defense or national-security company, especially one with a hardware component.</li>

<li>Government contracting finance at a prime or mid-tier defense manufacturer.</li>

<li>Investment banking or private equity with aerospace, defense, or industrials coverage, plus real operating experience afterward.</li>

</ul>

<h3><strong>Not a Fit</strong></h3>

<ul>

<li><strong>Sitting CFOs.</strong> The company is deliberately hiring at Director level with room to grow.</li>

<li><strong>Controller and CPA-centric profiles.</strong> The back office is outsourced and stays that way.</li>

<li>Commercial or software financial planning backgrounds with no government contract exposure.</li>

</ul>

<h3><strong>Process</strong></h3>

<ul>

<li>This is a <strong>confidential search.</strong> An <strong>NDA is required before the company's identity and full role details are shared.</strong> We screen for interest at a high level first, then read candidates in once an NDA is in place.</li>

<li>Expect a multi-stage process. This is a senior hire and the company has been explicit that it will not be decided in two conversations.</li>

</ul>

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