FP&A Director

Job Title: FP&A Director

Duration: Full Time

Location: El Segundo, CA

Note: Client is looking someone who recently/Previously work with Consulting, energy, aerospace, defense, aviation and nuclear industry.

we are seeking a FP&A Director to build and lead our financial planning and analysis function. We have strong finance fundamentals across reliable monthly close, clean audits, functioning AP, but we are looking for a leader to drive conversion of financial data into strategic insights and operational decisions. This role will bridge the gap between our accounting foundation and the investor-grade reporting required to support significant capital deployment, production ramp, and aggressive headcount growth.

This is a build role. You won't inherit mature systems or a defined playbook - you'll help create them. You'll need to navigate ambiguity while earning credibility with senior technical and operational leaders.

Responsibilities

Financial Reporting

• Design and deliver monthly reporting packages that answer key operational questions and drive strategic insights
• Build consistent and timely departmental P&L views with variance analysis and trend identification
• Create program-level financial views that track prototype development, production units, and overhead
• Develop M/M and YTD trend analysis across all business units
• Translate complex financial results into clear narratives for leadership and the Board
• Support quarterly board materials and investor updates
• Support regular reporting across treasury yields and cash management strategy
  
  

Budgeting & Forecasting

• Deliver monthly budget vs. actual variance reporting with actionable insights for internal and external stakeholders
• Lead monthly rolling forecast process to update outlook based on current business trajectory
• Support annual budget process including bottoms-up planning and scenario modeling
• Create self-service dashboards that enable department heads to monitor their performance
  
  

Scenario Planning & Strategic Analysis

• Conduct sensitivity analysis on key business drivers and help leadership understand trade-offs
• Support strategic decision-making around hiring pace, capital deployment, and investment priorities
• Evaluate make vs. buy decisions and provide financial perspective on build-out plans
• Marry schedule progress with spend on long-lead procurement to assess schedule risks
  
  

Unit Economics & KPI Development

• Develop unit economics models for our microreactor products, tracking cost evolution from prototype through commercial production
• Define and track key performance indicators across engineering, operations, and G&A functions
• Build KPI dashboards with weekly, monthly, and quarterly reporting cadence
• Partner with operations to track metrics that connect financial performance to operational execution
  
  

Cross-Functional Partnership

• Partner with supply chain and operations on procurement planning and spend analysis
• Work with engineering leads to understand program timelines and resource requirements
• Collaborate with accounting to ensure data quality and alignment on reporting
• Support HR on headcount planning and organizational design decisions
  
  

Required Qualifications

• 8 years finance experience, with 4 years in FP&A or strategic finance roles
• Demonstrated experience building FP&A infrastructure from scratch (not just inheriting mature systems)
• Experience at a high-growth company navigating significant scale and complexity
• Strong financial modeling skills; comfortable working with ambiguity and imperfect data
• Track record of cross-functional partnership, particularly with operations and technical teams
• Excellent communication skills with ability to translate financial concepts for non-finance audiences
  
  

Desired Qualifications

• Hardware, manufacturing, or aerospace/defense industry background
• SQL or BI tool proficiency (Power BI, Tableau, Looker)
• Experience building or leading a team