This role will serve as a strategic partner to DDN's Engineering and Product organizations. You'll translate investment and roadmap decisions into measurable business outcomes, and partner with technical leadership on capital allocation, product strategy, and company/business unit operations. The ideal candidate combines strategic finance expertise with a genuine curiosity for how and why technology companies build products.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:
- Embedded finance partner to Engineering and Product leadership. Build trusted relationships to influence resource allocation and roadmap decisions.
- Own end-to-end R&D financial planning: budgeting, forecasting, long-range planning (LRP), and variance analysis with clear narratives for headcount, non-payroll, and infrastructure spend.
- Partner with R&D to define efficiency metrics, identify cost optimization opportunities, and manage cloud and on-prem infrastructure costs.
- Develop and manage KPI reporting that ladders up to business unit and overall company objectives, Develop a clear understanding of the product portfolio's current and future state (drivers, trends, use cases, etc) and provide input on business decisions
- Support DDN's pricing, packaging, and deal structure redesign as the business and product evolve.
QUALIFICATIONS:
EDUCATION & EXPERIENCE
- Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Accounting, Economics, or related quantitative field
- 4+ years in FP&A, strategic finance, investment banking, or management consulting. Experience at a high-growth or pre-IPO company a plus.
SKILLS & COMPETENCIES
- Proficient in financial modeling, executive-ready presentations, and business partnership with technical stakeholders.
- SQL & BI tools, planning tools (Pigment, Adaptive), and ERP (Workday) experience a plus.
- Strong executive presence with the ability to partner across all levels of stakeholders. Intellectually curious, self-directed, and comfortable with ambiguity.
- Interest in AI tools and willingness to build them into daily work.