Senior Financial Analyst - R&D

About this role

As a Senior Financial Analyst at Ridgeline, you'll serve as the trusted finance business partner for our R&D organization, supporting Product, Engineering, Design, Security, and other technology teams. You'll help guide strategic investment decisions by connecting product priorities, workforce planning, cloud infrastructure, vendor spend, and technology investments to Ridgeline's financial goals. You'll leverage cutting-edge technologies and approved AI-enabled tools to improve forecasting, automate analysis, surface actionable insights, and scale repeatable financial processes while maintaining the highest standards of confidentiality, accuracy, and financial stewardship.

At Ridgeline, how we work matters as much as what we build. Ridgeliners act like owners, choose growth over comfort, and communicate with transparency. We assume positive intent, bias toward action, and bring solutions—not just problems. We celebrate wins, learn from setbacks, and thrive in a resilient, collaborative, high-performing culture. If this excites you, we’d love to meet you!

You must be work authorized in the United States without the need for employer sponsorship.

This is a hybrid in-office position that requires a minimum of 3 days per week onsite in either our San Ramon, CA or Reno, NV office.

The impact you will have

• Partner with Product, Engineering, Design, Security, and technology leaders to provide financial guidance that informs roadmap and resource allocation decisions

• Lead R&D budgeting, forecasting, annual planning, and long-range planning across headcount, contractors, cloud infrastructure, software, AI, and vendor investments

• Build and maintain financial models that translate product roadmaps, hiring plans, technology architecture, and vendor commitments into clear financial outcomes

• Evaluate strategic tradeoffs across hiring, cloud consumption, vendors, and build-versus-buy decisions while identifying financial risks and opportunities

• Develop executive-ready dashboards and reporting that improve visibility into R&D spend, workforce trends, forecast accuracy, cloud costs, and operational performance

• Prepare business cases and scenario analyses that support new products, platform investments, and strategic technology initiatives

• Partner with Engineering and Infrastructure teams to improve cloud cost allocation, tagging, unit economics, forecasting, and FinOps best practices

• Identify cloud optimization opportunities including reservations, savings plans, vendor commitments, architecture improvements, and usage efficiencies while balancing cost, performance, security, and reliability

• Own monthly close activities including variance analysis, accrual support, reforecasting, executive communications, and budget-to-actual reporting

• Collaborate with Accounting to support purchase commitments, vendor management, accruals, prepaids, and internal-use software capitalization

• Maintain reliable workforce and operating expense forecasts by reconciling planning, ERP, HRIS, procurement, and project data

• Improve financial processes through automation, AI-assisted workflows, stronger controls, enhanced documentation, and scalable reporting capabilities

• Foster a collaborative environment by communicating financial insights clearly, encouraging informed decision-making, and continuously improving how R&D investments are measured

What we look for

• Bachelor's degree in Finance, Accounting, Economics, Business, or a related quantitative field, or equivalent practical experience

• 5-7 years of progressive experience in FP&A, corporate finance, accounting, strategic finance, or a related analytical role

• Experience supporting Product, Engineering, R&D, or technology organizations within a SaaS, cloud, or high-growth software company preferred

• Strong financial modeling, forecasting, budgeting, and business partnership skills

• Working knowledge of FinOps principles, cloud cost management, allocation methodologies, usage-based forecasting, and cloud unit economics

• Experience with planning, ERP, HRIS, procurement, BI, cloud billing, and AI-enabled analytics platforms such as Adaptive Planning, Workday, NetSuite, Coupa, AWS Cost Explorer, Looker, Tableau, or similar systems

• Familiarity with headcount planning, vendor management, purchase orders, accruals, cloud infrastructure spend, software capitalization, and financial controls

• Ability to analyze large, complex data sets, reconcile inconsistencies, and develop clear, actionable recommendations

• Demonstrated ability to responsibly leverage AI tools to improve analysis, identify anomalies, automate repetitive work, and enhance decision-making while maintaining appropriate human oversight

• Strong business judgment, attention to detail, and commitment to confidentiality

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills with the ability to explain financial concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences

• Strong problem-solving skills with the ability to balance strategic thinking and operational execution

• Continuous learning mindset with enthusiasm for improving processes, adopting new technologies, and helping build scalable finance operations

• Serious interest in having fun at work

Bonus

• Experience supporting cloud infrastructure financial planning in AWS or similar cloud environments

• Familiarity with internal-use software capitalization and software development accounting

• Experience building executive dashboards and financial reporting using BI tools

• Exposure to AI-enabled finance workflows, automation, or advanced analytics

• CPA, CFA, MBA, or other relevant professional certification

About Ridgeline

Ridgeline is the first front-to-back system of record for investment managers. Founded by visionary entrepreneur Dave Duffield (co-founder of both PeopleSoft and Workday), the company was created to modernize an industry held back by outdated, disconnected technology. Powered by

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