Core Responsibilities: We are seeking a Director of FP&A to build and lead financial planning, budgeting, forecasting, and analysis for a fast-growing, capital-intensive battery materials business. This role will partner closely with the CFO, executive team, and functional leaders (R&D, Process/Manufacturing Engineering, Commercial, Supply Chain) to translate technical and operational plans into financial models that guide capital allocation, fundraising, and strategic decision-making. This is a highly cross-functional, builder role suited to someone comfortable operating with the ambiguity of a pre-commercial or early-commercial-stage company while bringing the rigor needed to satisfy investors, lenders, and board-level scrutiny.
Key Responsibilities
Financial Planning & Forecasting
- Own the preparation of company's annual financial plan, rolling forecasts, and long-range financial model, integrating R&D spend, and commercial-scale manufacturing ramp assumptions.
- Build and maintain detailed unit economics models (cost per kWh/kg/ton of material produced) that track sensitivity to key inputs such as precursor and raw material costs, yield rates, energy costs, and throughput.
- Model capital expenditure plans for pilot lines, and gigafactory-scale facilities, including phasing, equipment lead times, and construction draw schedules.
Business Partnering & Decision Support
- Partner with R&D and Process Engineering to evaluate the financial impact of technology and process decisions (e.g., yield improvements, alternative chemistries, equipment choices).
- Partner with Commercial/BD on customer contract economics, offtake agreement modeling, and pricing strategy.
- Evaluate build-vs-buy, in-house vs. contract manufacturing, and site selection decisions with structured financial analysis.
Reporting & Governance
- Deliver monthly/quarterly board and investor reporting packages, including budget-vs-actual variance analysis.
- Establish FP&A processes, systems, and controls suited to a scaling organization.
- Partner with Accounting to ensure alignment between forecasts, actuals, and GAAP reporting.
QualificationsRequired- 8+ years of progressive FP&A or corporate finance, including experience in a capital-intensive industry (manufacturing, materials, industrials, energy, or similar).
- Proven experience building financial models from scratch in a high-growth or startup environment, ideally including pre-revenue or pre-commercial-scale phases.
- Strong grasp of unit economics, cost modeling, and capital budgeting for physical/manufacturing assets.
- Experience supporting fundraising processes (equity and/or debt) and preparing investor/board materials.
- Advanced Excel/financial modeling skills; experience with planning tools a plus.
- Bachelor's degree in Finance, Accounting, Economics, Engineering, or related field.
Preferred- Experience in battery materials, battery manufacturing, EV supply chain, chemicals, or clean energy hardware.
- Experience with government incentive programs (DOE loans/grants, IRA 45X tax credits, state incentives).
- MBA or CPA a plus but not required.
- Prior experience at a startup scaling from pilot to commercial production.
Location & Benefits: San Leandro, CA. Full-time. $175,000-210,000 with stock incentives. Dental, vision, healthcare and 401(k) benefits are included. Applications will be screened as received.
