Senior Financial Analyst

About the role

This position partners closely with the R&D organization, providing financial insights to guide product development and infrastructure investments. You will translate financial data into strategic guidance that influences company-wide decisions.

Key facts

What you'll do

• Manage the annual budget and ongoing financial projections for the R&D department, covering personnel, external services, software, and infrastructure expenses.
• Act as the primary financial point of contact for R&D, addressing budget inquiries, developing financial models for specific scenarios, and clarifying financial implications for leadership.
• Construct financial justifications for R&D investments, new product initiatives, and significant platform enhancements, detailing projected costs, revenue expectations, and return on investment timelines.
• Analyze R&D investment choices and monitor the financial performance of approved projects against their initial business cases.
• Support the establishment of growth and profitability targets by modeling the relationship between R&D investment, product delivery schedules, and anticipated revenue.
• Oversee the reporting and forecasting of cloud hosting expenses, tracking costs by product and maintaining a forward-looking model for anticipated usage increases.
• Identify areas for cost optimization within the cloud infrastructure, such as underutilized resources or inefficient service configurations, and discuss cost impacts of technical decisions with engineering teams.
• Develop and maintain financial statements for key product lines, including annual recurring revenue, recognized revenue, gross profit, and associated R&D and go-to-market expenditures.
• Contribute product-level financial performance data, including ARR and pipeline metrics, to executive and board-level reports.

Requirements

• 5 to 8 years of experience in financial planning and analysis, corporate finance, or a similar analytical role within a SaaS or technology company. Prior experience supporting R&D and go-to-market finance functions is highly beneficial.
• Proven ability in core FP&A functions such as budgeting, forecasting, headcount planning, and variance analysis, with a preference for experience with R&D cost structures.
• Understanding of cloud infrastructure economics and the capability to build cost models for cloud hosting environments.
• Strong grasp of SaaS revenue metrics including ARR, NRR, pipeline velocity, close rates, gross margin, CAC, and LTV, with the ability to create accurate and well-supported financial models and narratives.
• Experience creating and managing product-level financial models that encompass revenue, cost of goods sold, gross margin, and investment allocation.
• Demonstrated practical application of AI tools in daily work for financial modeling, research, data analysis, or content creation, coupled with the judgment to verify AI-generated outputs.
• Ability to perform effectively in environments with incomplete data or evolving definitions, producing credible and actionable analysis.
• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to present complex financial information clearly to non-finance audiences and offer informed recommendations.

Nice to have

• Familiarity with applying cloud infrastructure cost frameworks to unit economics and product profitability analysis.
• Skill in developing financial models that can be easily understood by stakeholders outside of finance.
• Experience using AI tools for research, modeling, or drafting, with the capacity to validate the results.
• A proactive approach to business partnering, engaging stakeholders early, anticipating needs, and offering solutions.

Skills & tools

• Financial modeling
• Budgeting and forecasting
• Variance analysis
• SaaS metrics
• Cloud cost analysis
• AI tools

Practical notes

Compensation for this role is between $96,000.00 and $120,000.00 annually, not including commission. Salary is determined by factors such as experience, skills, and location. The company also offers a comprehensive benefits package including bonus potential, equity for eligible roles, a monthly Flex Fund stipend, and retirement plans. Collibra is committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion. Applicants requiring accommodation should complete the Accommodations for Applicants form.