Director of Finance

The Role

Reporting to the Chief Financial Officer, the Director of Finance will be responsible for leading the day-to-day budgeting, forecasting, planning, financial modeling, cash management, and fundraising support across the entire company. The Director of Finance will work very closely with the Chief Financial Officer and other members of the management team to effect change in a quick pace environment. This person is responsible for the annual budgeting, financial reporting, cash management and support all fundraising activities of the company. The position requires the individual be capable of working in a fast-paced culture, openly interacting with most departments in the company. The opportunity for the right individual will be to contribute to a future liquidity event for employees and investors. We are located in the Energy Corridor in West Houston.

Responsibilities include:

Manage existing banking and other financial relationships, including with existing and potentially new investors, and in delivering accurate work product to support the internal organization needs, including the following:

Short term (3-6 months)

• Drive the day-to-day fundraising activities along with the CFO to ensure banks and investors have what they need, progressing investors through an organized process to close funding.
• Learn to tell the story along with the CFO, working with bankers to make sure we have the right story to close funding.
• Work with existing investors to ensure we are crafting and providing the right content that unfolds in our fundraising activities.
• Own the various company financial models – long term, project, investor, etc. Know them inside and out, making adjustments as necessary and explaining those adjustments.
• Develop annual budgets, by department, and work with the Controller to ensure reporting packages provide sufficient granularity to activities, including information critical to project(s), capital spend, R&D, assets & liabilities, etc.
• Gain access and comfort to bank accounts to manage cash most effectively.
• Learn the loan covenants and monitor constantly to ensure no defaults occur.
• Work with the commercial and engineering organizations to respond to investor questions in a timely manner, put proposals together supported by sound, error-free modeling.
• Report weekly on cash balances, cash flow forecasts, status of NDA’s, and develop new reporting that does not exist today as essential to understanding the direction of the company.
  
  

Longer term (6 months and beyond)

• In concert with the CFO, support other staff to build an internal finance and accounting and team. Ensure the team can work from the office regularly.
• Support the review, demonstration, selection and deployment of the next ERP system, taking into account finance functional department needs.
• Develop and distribute required periodic reports, supporting the Control function as necessary to ensure an understanding of the latest financial state of affairs.
• Maintain and understand the investor cap table, modeling for changes as investments are set to occur.
• Lead the preparation of the monthly and annual financial statements and issue timely and accurate reporting of statements.
• Don’t simply report the results. Take the time to compare to budget and past periods to understand and explain what’s happening. Understand the past to help influence the future!
• Be aware of continuing changes in the Company’s operations, corporate finance practices, accounting, headcount, payroll, capital spend, assets & liabilities, insurance and taxes in order to keep up to date policies and procedures, to reduce Company costs and/or improve efficiencies.
• Work with operations team members to understand revenue and expense drivers, influencing as necessary to help improve performance.
• Work with department heads to assist in understanding their costs and performance drivers – help the company become more cost conscious and focused.
• Assist in preparing, reviewing and filing any borrowing base, compliance and incurrence certificates in accordance with the requirements underlying the Company’s credit facility and/or loan documents.
• Understand proposed transactions, capital projects, M&A or other opportunities and advise management on the permissibility and feasibility pursuant to limitations imposed by funding sources, tax, or limitations in financing documents.
• Ensure transactional team members performing payroll, invoicing, purchasing, payables, receivables, invoicing, etc. all have operational metrics that are measured monthly, instilling a discipline of optimal transaction processing.
• Manage, facilitate and fully utilize the Company’s financial related information, reporting systems and business intelligence tools and develop real time dashboard reports from the ERP.
• Prepare presentations as necessary for the board of directors and senior management team.
• Get in front of events and be prepared. Own the calendar and upcoming events like board meetings, investor meetings, etc.
• Put in place appropriate policies and procedures to minimize fraud and opportunities for fraud around bank accounts, cash management, travel cards, etc.
• Analyze current and past trends in key performance indicators including all areas of revenue, cost of sales, expenses and capital expenditures.
• Ad-Hoc reporting and analysis as required
  
  

Qualifications:

• Bachelor's Degree in Finance is a minimum, MBA preferred
• Ability to work in the office weekdays.
• 15 years’ experience including finance professional.
• Would like knowledge and high skill levels in Netsuite, Dynamics or other enhanced ERPs.
• Private Company experience critical. Public-company experience a plus.
• Demonstrated ability to roll-up sleeves and work with team members in a hands-on management capacity
• Energy industry experience very helpful.
• Articulate with excellent verbal and written communication skills.
  
  

Experience and Skills:

• Maturity and leadership skills required. Must be able to exemplify having helped others develop and grow.
• Highest standards of accuracy and precision. The individual needs to be highly organized and accurate. Mistakes are human, but minimizing repeated mistakes are critical to this role.
• Ability to think creatively, highly-driven and self-motivated. Must be able to step away from the numbers and answer ‘what is happening?’ in the business.
• Must be able to tell the story and focus on the important message, not just run the numbers, while also knowing the numbers.
• Needs to demonstrate intellectual curiosity in carrying out their daily role.
• Solid experience interacting and presenting to stakeholders including executive management, financial partners, and/or shareholders.
• Some experience with non-investment grade bank and bond covenants, and should demonstrate through the interview process a solid grasp of both legal and financial understanding of key covenants and possible “pitfalls” while managing through all periods of an economic cycle.
• Must be a leader of great integrity, high ethics and motivated to succeed, and helping his/her team members succeed.
• Must show the ability to get projects done on time, quick with analysis and reporting.
• The candidate should display a good track record of success through on-the-job examples of projects completed, positions held, and samples of high-quality work product.
• The candidate should desire to continue to advance in his/her career, and a sound demonstration in this job will position the candidate to assume more responsibilities.
• Stay in your lane and perform well, while being prepared to do more when asked.
• Evidence of inherent drive, high energy level, intellectual curiosity, willingness to do what it takes to be a key contributor and top performer, and a sense of urgency to achieve business growth and success.
• Personal and organizational maturity (balance of confidence, courage, humility, and self-awareness) that forms the foundation for superior relationship-building skills.
• Must be willing to work with and assist others in the organization – a collaborative work style. One who enjoys getting out of the office and working with colleagues in their environment.
• Must be willing to occasionally travel.
• References will be validated for the candidates’ experiences and acumen to the appropriate industry.