Financial Analyst, R&D

About the role

The is a strategic position designed to embed finance expertise directly within the Product and Engineering organizations. The role exists to enable these critical functions with precise financial insight and strategic guidance, ensuring that every investment in research, development, and platform innovation directly contributes to measurable growth. The successful candidate will serve as the primary financial representative for the R&D organization, translating complex operational and technical data into clear, actionable narratives for executive leadership. This position is fundamental to fostering a data-driven culture within the engineering spectrum, influencing resource allocation, and ensuring that the company's significant technology investments are justified by tangible returns. The role requires a unique blend of financial acumen, technical curiosity, and partnership skills to navigate the fast-paced environment of a high-growth SaaS company building a Predictive Revenue System.

What you'll do

As the dedicated finance partner to the R&D organization, you will be responsible for a wide range of critical financial and analytical functions. Your core responsibilities will include:

• Leading R&D Financial Partnering: Acting as the primary finance representative for Product and Engineering leadership, you will evaluate unit-level economics, engineering headcount planning, and the financial KPIs that drive the product roadmap.
• Driving Executive Reporting: Preparing, owning, and presenting monthly and quarterly management reporting packages. This involves analyzing R&D financial results, identifying key trends, and clearly communicating business risks and insights to senior leadership.
• Leveraging Modern Tech & AI: Utilizing Pigment as the core FP&A planning platform and Claude AI to accelerate data analysis, reporting, and complex scenario modeling. This involves automating finance workflows to improve efficiency and accuracy.
• Executing Business Case & Strategic Modeling: Leading the development of detailed business cases and performing strategic scenario analyses to evaluate significant technology investments and strategic initiatives.
• Supporting Financial Operations: Partnering closely with the Accounting team during the month-end close process to complete variance analysis and ensure timely, accurate R&D specific financial reporting.
• Championing Financial Discipline: Serving as the go-to expert for all product and engineering related expenditures, driving financial discipline and providing decision support to non-financial leaders.
• Translating Data for Decision Makers: Converting complex financial data and technical concepts into clear, actionable insights and recommendations for engineers and other non-financial stakeholders across the organization.
• Developing Key Performance Indicators: Contributing to the creation, maintenance, and analysis of KPIs that track the efficiency and ultimate impact of R&D investments on the business.

Requirements

To be successful in this role, you must possess a specific blend of experience, technical skills, and personal attributes:

• Professional Experience: 2 to 4 years of progressively responsible experience in FP&A, Sales Operations, or quantitative financial analysis roles. This experience must be gained within a high-growth technology or B2B SaaS environment, where agility and adaptability are essential.
• Advanced Technical Proficiency: Demonstrated expert-level competency in Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets for sophisticated financial modeling, data analysis, and creating complex formulas.
• Business Acumen: A proven track record of building robust business cases, performing strategic scenario planning, and conducting detailed variance analysis.
• Collaborative Mindset: Exceptional collaboration skills with the ability to work effectively and influence decision-making across different management levels and various functional teams, including Product, Engineering, and Accounting.
• Personal Attributes: A self-motivated mindset with an obsessive attention to detail and a genuine passion for process improvement. You must be comfortable navigating fast-paced, dynamic environments while maintaining a high standard of accuracy and taking full ownership of your responsibilities.
• Analytical Problem Solver: The ability to apply critical thinking to leverage data effectively and provide clear, data-driven recommendations that directly influence smarter product and engineering investment decisions.

Nice to have

While not mandatory, direct experience with the specific technologies mentioned in the job description is a preferred qualification. Hands-on experience with Pigment and Claude AI would significantly enhance your ability to excel in this role from day one.

Practical notes

This is a remote position open to candidates physically located within the United States. The role reports to the Finance leadership within the Clari + Salesloft organization and requires a proactive approach to partnership and a commitment to the company's mission of transforming revenue operations through AI and real-time data.