Benchling

Head of Strategic Finance

Benchling$180K — $220K *
Finance & Insurance
5 - 7 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • Significant experience in strategic finance or FP&A within a high-growth business
  • Deep understanding of SaaS business models and key metrics for growth
  • Experience supporting companies through major scaling or public market preparation
  • Tech-savvy with a focus on improving business insights using new tools
  • Proven track record of leading forecasting and long-range modeling efforts
  • Strong analytical skills with the ability to influence business decisions
  • Excellent communication skills for presenting complex information to executives

Responsibilities

  • Lead annual planning, forecasting, and long-range financial processes as CFO's right-hand
  • Collaborate with executives to evaluate priorities and growth opportunities
  • Analyze SaaS metrics like revenue, retention, and operating leverage for informed decision-making
  • Develop financial models for strategic initiatives including new products and market expansion
  • Create insightful executive and Board reports that inform risks and actions
  • Establish frameworks connecting company goals with financial planning and results
  • Partner with teams to ensure accuracy in forecasting and management reporting
  • Drive process improvement for more accurate forecasting and timely reporting
  • Lead a strategic finance team to ensure scalability as the company grows

Benefits

  • Flexible hybrid work arrangement emphasizing in-office collaboration
  • Opportunity to work at the forefront of biotech innovation
  • Team-oriented atmosphere with a focus on professional development
  • Collaborative environment with cross-functional leadership involvement
  • Exposure to strategic decision-making processes at the executive level
Full Job Description
ROLE OVERVIEW

Benchling is rebuilding biotech for the AI era. Our platform brings together scientific data, workflows, and AI to help biotechnology companies move from research to breakthrough faster.

We're looking for a Head of Strategic Finance to help shape Benchling's next stage of growth. You will work closely with our CFO, executive team and leaders across the company to translate strategy into financial plans, guide our most important investment decisions, and create a clear view of business performance.

This role sits at the intersection of finance, strategy, and company execution. You will own our long-range financial model and planning processes, develop insight into the drivers of our enterprise SaaS business, and bring analytical rigor to decisions across growth, product investment, organizational capacity, and capital allocation.

We're looking for a business-oriented finance leader who can move comfortably between the details and the bigger picture. You should be equally capable of building a rigorous model, challenging an assumption, presenting to the Board, and helping an executive determine what action to take.

RESPONSIBILITIES
  • Reports to CFO, leading Benchling's annual planning, forecasting, and long-range financial planning processes.
  • Partner with the executive team to evaluate company priorities, investment choices, growth opportunities, and tradeoffs.
  • Build a clear understanding of the drivers of revenue, retention, gross margin, operating leverage, cash flow, and other key SaaS metrics.
  • Develop financial models and business cases for strategic initiatives, including new products, pricing, go-to-market investments, partnerships, and market expansion.
  • Create executive and Board reporting that turns financial and operating data into clear insights, risks, and recommended actions.
  • Establish performance frameworks and operating rhythms that connect company goals, financial plans, and business results.
  • Partner with Accounting and functional finance leaders to ensure forecasts and management reporting are accurate, consistent, and decision-useful.
  • Drive continuous process improvement across the team that ensures forecasts grow more and more accurate, reporting more timely and preparation more efficient as the team scales.
  • Lead and develop a high-performing strategic finance team that can scale with the company.


QUALIFICATIONS
  • Significant experience in strategic finance, FP&A, or a related finance leadership role within enterprise software or another complex, high-growth business - experience at a growth-stage enterprise SaaS company is a plus
  • Deep fluency in SaaS business models and the metrics that drive durable growth, retention, and operating efficiency.
  • Experience supporting a company through significant scale, business-model evolution, or preparation for the public markets.
  • A tech-forward mindset that enthusiastically explores new tools and processes as means to improve business insight and team experience.
  • Led company-wide planning, forecasting, and long-range modeling in partnership with executives and functional leaders.
  • Track record of influencing major business decisions through clear analysis, strong judgment, and business acumen.
  • Moves from complex financial and operational data to a concise narrative and a clear recommendation.
  • Effective executive communicator who is comfortable presenting to senior leadership and Boards.
  • Builds strong relationships across functions and can challenge assumptions while maintaining trust.
  • Led and developed strong teams, raising the quality of both the work and the people around you.
  • Operate with high integrity, sound judgment, intellectual curiosity, and a strong sense of ownership.


HOW WE WORK

We offer a flexible hybrid work arrangement that prioritizes in-office collaboration. Employees are expected to be on-site 3 days per week (Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday).

#LI-Hybrid

#BI-Hybrid

About Benchling

Benchling is a cloud-based informatics platform that accelerates life sciences R&D by streamlining workflows and centralizing data. The platform offers a suite of applications for molecular biology, including DNA design, antibody design, CRISPR analysis, and protein expression. Benchling's customers include pharmaceutical companies, biotechs, and academic institutions. The company was founded in 2012 and is headquartered in South San Francisco, California.
Learn more about Benchling
Size
500 employees
Industry
Founded
2012

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