Strategic Finance Manager, Manufacturing

The role

You will own manufacturing finance reporting, forecasting, and variance analysis. You will partner with various departments to build financial models and improve data systems for scalable manufacturing.

What you will do

• Own manufacturing finance reporting, forecasting, and variance analysis across cost, labor, inventory, cash, and operating expense.
• Partner with Manufacturing, Supply Chain, Quality, Engineering, Operations, and Accounting to understand performance drivers.
• Build financial models and decision support for product cost, production planning, capacity, cost-down initiatives, make-buy analysis, and manufacturing investments.
• Develop dashboards, reporting, and operating cadences for manufacturing performance and unit economics.
• Analyze key operational drivers such as labor efficiency, material usage, rework, scrap, yield, throughput, WIP, E&O, and production volume.
• Improve data, systems, and processes including ERP, inventory, and operational reporting workflows.

Required qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Finance, Accounting, Economics, Engineering, or another quantitative discipline.
• Approximately 3+ years of experience in Manufacturing Finance, FP&A, Operations Finance, Cost Accounting, Supply Chain Finance, or another analytical finance role.
• Strong understanding of budgeting, forecasting, variance analysis, financial statements, and operational performance drivers.
• Experience analyzing manufacturing, hardware, supply chain, inventory, or other operational cost drivers.
• Advanced Excel or Google Sheets skills, including financial modeling and scenario analysis.
• Experience working with ERP, MRP, MES, inventory, or operational data systems such as NetSuite, SAP, Oracle, Zerp, or similar tools.
• Ability to work with large datasets, identify business drivers, and communicate findings to finance and non-finance stakeholders.
• Strong problem-solving skills, high ownership, and the ability to operate effectively when processes and data are still evolving.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.

Nice to have

• Experience in high-growth hardware, aerospace, robotics, automotive, consumer electronics, advanced manufacturing, or similarly complex operational environments.
• Familiarity with SQL, Looker, Tableau, Power BI, or similar analytics and business intelligence tools.
• Experience with inventory analysis, WIP, E&O, cycle counts, rework, scrap, yield, throughput, or capacity planning.
• Experience supporting manufacturing cost reduction, product cost modeling, make-buy decisions, or supplier cost analysis.
• Familiarity with standard costing, expected cost models, BOM governance, or cost accounting concepts.
• Experience partnering with Engineering, Manufacturing, Supply Chain, Quality, Operations, Accounting, and systems teams.
• Passion for building scalable processes, improving data quality, and turning ambiguity into operating clarity.

Benefits

• Equity compensation
• Discretionary annual or performance bonuses
• Sales incentives
• Medical insurance
• Dental insurance
• Vision insurance
• Paid time off

About the company

Zipline is the world’s largest and most experienced drone delivery service. They design, build, and operate an autonomous logistics system to deliver food, medicine, and essential goods.