Director, Product and Engineering Financial Analysis & Strategy

Published

June 21, 2025

Location

Madison, WI

Description

Location: Madison, Wisconsin, United States of America | Austin, Texas, United States of America | San Francisco, California, United States of America

Requisition ID: R31607

Position_Type: Full time

Job Description

Job Summary:

We are seeking a high-impact Director of F&S to lead Finance & Strategy for our Product and Engineering organization. This role sits at the intersection of innovation, analytics, and business leadership-partnering with our President of Product, Engineering, and AI, the CTO, and their leadership teams to ensure our R&D investments are aligned with company priorities and delivering maximum value.

You'll be a key thought partner on product roadmap planning, infrastructure scaling, and long-term investment strategy, helping steer the company through data-driven decision-making. This is an ideal opportunity for a technically minded finance leader with a passion for driving innovation and operational rigor.

What You'll Do:
Strategic Partnership: Act as the primary finance advisor to the Product and Engineering leadership teams, providing data-backed insights and recommendations to guide investment decisions.
Planning & Forecasting: Lead the annual, quarterly, and monthly planning processes for R&D, including opex, headcount, COGS, and infrastructure expenditures. Identify risks and opportunities in achieving forecasts and explain variances.
Business Case Development: Build business cases for strategic bets across AI/ML, platform investments, and tooling infrastructure, and help define success metrics for major product initiatives.
R&D Efficiency & KPIs: Create and manage reporting that ties investment to outcomes-tracking metrics such as engineering productivity, cost per initiative, and cloud usage efficiency.
Resource Allocation: Help leaders prioritize initiatives and allocate budgets based on impact, risk, and strategic alignment.
Cross-functional Alignment: Partner with Operations teams to ensure financial data is integrated with operational metrics and roadmap plans. Work closely with the broader finance team (accounting, tax, treasury, revenue operations, and functional finance & strategy teams), business leaders, and executive team, including the CFO, to align financial forecasts and strategic initiatives.
Manage a team of six finance professionals, providing mentorship, support, and guidance.

What We're Looking For:
10+ years of related experience in FP&A, corporate strategy, or investment banking, with at least 3 years supporting SaaS organizations; engineering or technical background (e.g., undergraduate degree in CS, EE, or related field) strongly preferred
Bachelor's degree in Business, Finance, or a technical degree; an MBA or CPA preferred
Solid experience with metrics-driven business models in the SaaS industry, including strong modeling, forecasting, and data interpretation skills
Familiarity with R&D, COGS, and cloud infrastructure economics in a SaaS environment
Excellent communication and executive presence; able to translate complex financial concepts into clear, actionable insights
Proven track record of managing a team and working with senior-level executives
Proficiency in financial modeling and reporting skills
Proactive, collaborative, and comfortable operating in ambiguity and scale

Why Join Us:
Partner directly with senior engineering and product leaders on high-impact initiatives
Influence roadmap-level decisions in a company that values strategic finance
Help build a world-class finance function in a scaling SaaS business
Competitive compensation and benefits
Flexible, hybrid culture built on trust and performance

The US annualized base salary range for this position is $168,000.00-$252,000.00. This position may also be eligible for bonus, benefits, or related incentives. While this range reflects the minimum and maximum value for new hire salaries for the position across all US locations, the offer for the successful candidate for this position will be based on job related capabilities, applicable experience, and other factors such as work location. Please note that the compensation details listed in US role postings reflect the base salary only (or OTE for commissions based roles), and do not include bonus, benefits, or related incentives.

Hybrid: In this role, our hybrid experience is designed at the team level to give you a rich onsite experience packed with connection, collaboration, learning, and celebration - while also giving you flexibility to work remotely for part of the week. This role must attend our local office for part of the week. The specific in-office schedule is to be determined by the hiring manager.

The intelligent heart of customer experience

Zendesk software was built to bring a sense of calm to the chaotic world of customer service. Today we power billions of conversations with brands you know and love.

Zendesk believes in offering our people a fulfilling and inclusive experience. Our hybrid way of working, enables us to purposefully come together in person, at one of our many Zendesk offices around the world, to connect, collaborate and learn whilst also giving our people the flexibility to work remotely for part of the week.

Zendesk is an equal opportunity employer, and we're proud of our ongoing efforts to foster global diversity, equity, & inclusion in the workplace. Individuals seeking employment and employees at Zendesk are considered without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, age, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, marital status, medical condition, ancestry, disability, military or veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law. We are an AA/EEO/Veterans/Disabled employer. If you are based in the United States and would like more information about your EEO rights under the law, please click here.

Zendesk endeavors to make reasonable accommodations for applicants with disabilities and disabled veterans pursuant to applicable federal and state law. If you are an individual with a disability and require a reasonable accommodation to submit this application, complete any pre-employment testing, or otherwise participate in the employee selection process, please send an e-mail to with your specific accommodation request.

About Us

Zendesk is on a mission to simplify the complexity of business and make it easy for companies and customers to create connections.

Our customer experience software unlocks the power of billions of interactions, enabling businesses to build rich, meaningful relationships with their customers.

More meaningful moments. Fewer Zoom calls.
What's it like to work here? Our offices reflect the global cities we call home, and have spaces for collaboration, quiet, and events.

With our hybrid approach, you'll experience flexibility and connection, collaboration, and learning with your team.

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