Finance Manager - Infrastructure / Cloud Management

About the role:

Abnormal is seeking a highly driven individual to drive cost optimization, forecasting, planning and operational alignment with the infrastructure engineering team and finance. The Manager will be responsible for supporting the infrastructure function in the EPD organization at Abnormal, which builds and maintains our scalable, efficient, and reliable ecosystem and drive capacity for our customers and for the company’s innovation requirements. This individual will serve as the key liaison between Finance and report directly to the Head of Finance. He or she will partner with the infrastructure organization and oversee issues related to financial reporting, analysis, forecasting, and planning, as well as resource prioritization and business management related to the cost base of Abnormal’s ever-expanding infrastructure investments - including migrations to Azure in conjunction with a Microsoft program and enhancing our product reach into the Eurozone and Global markets. With a deep understanding of the business levers underlying the operations of our Infrastructure team, this person will be responsible for helping the business to drive toward clear and effective decisions, recommend areas of improvement, drive alignment between engineering, infrastructure and finance as well as find ways to optimize the overall strategy of delivering superior effectiveness of our products.

• Drive the infrastructure financial planning and ongoing reporting processes including the annual budget cycle, integration into 5-year financial plan development forecasting for key expense areas, and building out deeper level models for managing cost optimization
• Manage entire budgeting cycle, maintaining strong attention to detail and ensuring timelines are met with clear and comprehensive assumptions, analysis and plan roll-ups that link to Abnormal’s annual and long-term goals
• Drive reporting that includes financial performance, detailed reporting of key expense and other financial metrics, and executive level explanations of variances and trends
• Partner closely with Infrastructure and Finance leadership and operational teams to identify and evaluate strategic investment opportunities, understand financing alternatives, and manage resource prioritization
• Advise business leadership of opportunities and risks impacting business performance
• Drive the preparation of financial analysis, commentary, and presentation materials for financial updates
• 1-3+ years of infrastructure/cloud spend finance experience preferred
• Strong analytical skills, financial modeling capabilities and strategic thinking
• Initiative-taker who thrives in ambiguous, fast-moving environments with evolving technology and business model trends
• Ability to communicate complex analysis in a straightforward way. Executive level oral and written communication skills.
• Strong partnering capabilities, with the ability to influence others without direct authority and appropriately push back when required
• Comfort working at multiple altitudes, from strategic/high-level projects to detailed COGS analysis
• Ability to oversee multiple tasks under tight deadlines, quickly prioritize for impact and the resourcefulness to deliver
• Experience building cross-functional relationships and partnering with both senior leadership of organizations as well as key operators within the function
• Analytical skills to translate copious amounts of data into useful information
• Communication skills to tailor messaging as required for audiences of varying level of seniority and technical expertise
• Experience working within SaaS or Enterprise Software
• Experience in web infrastructure, capital spending, and tech ops a plus

Responsibilities:

• Work cross functionally to establish a holistic process for tracking and managing the cloud business
• Financial modeling of alternative business models as the company evolves its product and product delivery offerings through consumption-based software usage through a SaaS offering
• End-to-end partnership with stakeholders who own the relationship with our cloud providers including working with the Head of Finance to drive alignment with our alliances and partnerships VP in Sales: ability to review and manage contracts, track contractual obligations, review usage and invoices, and identify cost saving opportunities
• Reconcile customer cloud usage and revenue reports -- including customer gross margin
• Regular reporting and analysis of monthly, quarterly, and annual financial results, as well as critical metrics, market trends, and peer benchmarking
• Develop product margin analysis to support optimization as well as pricing, including launch of new products and revenue categories
• Assessment of sales forecasts vs actuals and associated financial impact, collaboration with with Head of Finance regarding revenue and margin
• Participate in strategic data analysis, research, and modeling

Qualifications:

• BA/BS in Economics, Accounting or Finance; CPA or MBA a plus
• Progressive finance experience (5+ years) in fast-paced and rapidly changing business environments including P&L management/reporting and revenue recognition models
• 2+ years working with cloud computing arrangements /infrastructure management
• An understanding the role of various cross functional teams and associated areas of P&L impact; prior experience in developing/negotiating cross functional team processes
• Excellent MS Excel and financial modeling skills
• SQL or Python experience a plus
• Ability to interpret financial analysis and results, development of associated operating recommendations