Wartime Director of Finance

About the role

The Director of Finance will run finance as if it were a war, focusing on cash flow, cost control, and operational efficiency. This role requires a deep understanding of hardware unit economics, operational finance, and systems infrastructure.

Responsibilities

• Runway, burn multiple, and cash forecasting as live operating instruments
• Hard scrutiny on every recurring expense, vendor, contract, and headcount addition
• Aggressive negotiation with suppliers, landlords, contractors, and software vendors
• A defensible "no" when spending doesn't earn its keep
• Hardware unit economics: COGS, BOM, contribution margin, and yield economics down to the SKU and panel level
• Inventory turns, aging, scrap, and reagent usage as managed metrics
• Pricing strategy and margin discipline as the product scales
• Manufacturing ramp modeling: cost-down curves, learning rates, capacity vs. demand
• Operational finance: embedded in engineering, ops, and supply chain
• Procurement gates on capital expenditure and tooling decisions
• SKU discipline, vendor concentration limits, and standardization wherever feasible
• Hiring efficiency: ROI per role, not just headcount plans
• Systems and infrastructure: a modern fintech stack (Ramp, Gusto, and beyond) wired into an ERP/MRP backbone
• Real-time financial visibility for leadership instead of month-end retrospectives
• Automation over headcount wherever a process can be codified
• Reporting and dashboards that actually drive decisions: burn multiple, gross margin by panel, inventory aging, scrap and yield, reagent usage, vendor spend concentration, runway sensitivity, hiring efficiency, instrument payback

Requirements

• 7–10 years of progressive finance experience, with meaningful time at venture-backed hardware or manufacturing companies in the ~50–300 person range
• Demonstrated experience managing cash in a constrained environment — you've cut burn without breaking execution
• Deep cost accounting and hardware unit economics fluency (BOM, COGS, yield, contribution margin, inventory)
• Strong FP&A and operational finance — you build the model and own the operating cadence around it
• Comfortable challenging spending decisions across engineering and ops, with the credibility to make it stick
• Systems mindset: ERP/MRP, BOM management, procurement controls, inventory discipline
• Bachelor's in Finance or Accounting; advanced modeling skills assumed
• Authorization to work in the United States

Qualifications

• Biotech, life sciences, diagnostics, or medical device experience
• Hands-on with Ramp, Gusto, NetSuite or similar ERPs, and inventory/MRP systems
• Built or rebuilt a finance function during a manufacturing ramp or rapid hiring period
• History of walking the production floor and partnering with operators directly

Skills

• Systems mindset
• ERP/MRP, BOM management, procurement controls, inventory discipline

Benefits

• Competitive salary and significant equity
• Healthcare, dental, 401k
• High-end gym membership
• Two company shutdown weeks each year on top of PTO
• The opportunity to help build a category-defining diagnostics company

Pay

$150,000 — $200,000 yearly

Schedule

Not Allowed