Strategic Finance Lead – Product & Engineering

Job Description

Strategic Finance Lead, Product & Engineering | Plaid

The Tone:
This is a full-time role at Plaid, located in the San Francisco Bay Area. Plaid builds the tools and experiences that thousands of developers use to create financial products, empowering a transformation in how people interact with their finances. This role is critical for guiding how Plaid deploys capital and allocates resources across its Product and Engineering organizations to drive this mission.

The TL;DR
• Role: Full Time
• Type: Full-time
• Location: In-person San Francisco Bay Area
• Pay: $182000–$265000 yearly
• Team: Reports to Strategic Finance leadership, partners with Product and Engineering.
• Mission: Owns product-level revenue and gross margin forecasting, and guides capital deployment and resource allocation across product and engineering.

What You’ll Actually Do
• Product-Level Forecasting: Develop robust revenue and gross margin forecasts for assigned product areas, balancing detailed builds with high-level checks.
• Resource Allocation: Guide Product and Engineering leaders on headcount planning, roadmap-based capacity forecasting, and operational expenditure discipline, identifying and resolving trade-offs.
• Performance Visibility: Establish and manage the recurring reporting cadence for product areas, including KPI tracking, variance analysis, and early identification of risks and opportunities.
• Strategic Partnership: Serve as the primary finance partner to Product and Engineering leaders, coordinating with GTM Finance on go-to-market approach, targets, and economics.
• Executive Communication: Contribute essential analysis and narrative to quarterly Board decks and ad hoc strategic reviews.

The Must-Haves
• Background: Senior-level professional with 8+ years of experience in FP&A, strategic finance, management consulting, investment banking, or private equity, including direct exposure to product or engineering finance at a high-growth technology company.
• Experience: 8+ years of relevant experience, with a strong preference for individuals who have partnered directly with Product or Engineering leaders.
• Skills: Strong command of product P&L mechanics, including revenue and gross margin forecasting, headcount and capacity planning, and software unit economics; comfort owning ambiguous, judgment-intensive problems with minimal oversight; excellent written and verbal communication to distill complex analysis into clear narratives; and a natural ability to mentor junior team members.
• Bonus: Fintech or financial services experience is a plus.