Director of Strategic Finance

About This Role

This role will be responsible for overseeing ongoing financial planning and analysis processes, including budgeting, forecasting, reporting, and business case development for strategic initiatives. In addition, they will be expected to develop and maintain strong systems and processes to support financial planning and analysis activities, as well as generate insights through visualizations and dashboards. The ideal candidate will have at least 5 years of relevant experience in financial planning and analysis in fast-paced, high-growth startups, with a strong academic background and rigorous financial training. 

This is a great opportunity for someone who wants to:

• Make an impact
• Help transform an antiquated industry
• Work somewhere mission-driven
• Work somewhere flexible, supportive, and collaborative
• Work somewhere with unparalleled opportunities for growth
• Join a female-led and DEI-focused organization
• Work somewhere that is team-oriented and where people are equipped to succeed
• Join a fast-growing startup, backed by top VCs, on the ground floor

What You’ll Do

• Strategize and drive execution for ongoing FP&A processes including budgeting and forecasting for both operating expense and capital expenditures, margins, reporting, operational and financial analysis, preparing consolidated financial statements, and business case development for strategic initiatives.
• Develop, implement, and maintain strong and robust systems and processes to support financial planning & analysis activities. Routinely ensure that these are operating effectively and that proper security and continuity is in place. Conduct analysis of financial data to identify opportunities for improving financial performance.
• Create and monitor key performance indicators and benchmarking reporting to track the financial healthiness of each of Parallel’s services alongside CEO, COO and other executives.
• Drive operating efficiencies through prudent expense management and proactively develop initiatives to lower costs while maintaining the highest standards of quality.
• Support fundraising efforts with financial modeling, analysis, and collateral creation. Work closely with CEO to build relationships with future investors and nurture those with existing investors.
• Continually partner and collaborate with, while effectively challenging, senior leaders within finance and other areas of the company to achieve strong results.
• Generate insights through visualizations, dashboards, and a develop reproducible analytical approaches to answer critical business problems 
• Represents the Finance department in reviewing proposed business activity changes.
• Supports monthly budget variance analysis and financial close process activities.
• Appropriately challenge current standards and redefine how work is performed by the team. Standardize processes, expedite workflows and ensure conformance to policies and procedures.

What You’ll Need

Ideal candidates will have prior experience taking responsibility for a company’s long-term financial well-being, including driving annual planning, running the forecasting and variance process, leading quarterly financials, and more. A great fit for this role will also have:

• 5+ years of relevant experience in FP&A, financial forecasting, modeling, strategic planning, and financial analysis experience in a growing, dynamic business
• Previous experience in corporate finance at a fast-growing venture-backed start-up environment
• Experience analyzing data from various sources to gain actionable insights and propose next steps and ability to summarize and present findings from data analysis in a clear, concise, and action-oriented manner (ideally using visualization tools (e.g. Looker, Tableau)
• Strong communication skills and ability to collaborate cross-functionally with other business units, our investors, and also externally on Parallel’s behalf
• Demonstrate work ethic, energy, and capacity, consistently perform and lead in a dynamic, challenging, demanding business environment. Proactive, responsive, and readily available to “get the job” done at a high level.
• Strong academic background and rigorous financial training, including prior experience in investment banking, investing, and/ or accounting.