Vice President, Strategic Finance

Merlin Labs•Boston, MA

1d•Onsite

About The Position

Merlin is a venture backed aerospace startup building a non-human pilot to enable both reduced crew and uncrewed flight. Backed by some of the worldâs leading investors, Merlin is scaling alongside our customers to begin leveraging autonomy today to solve some of aviationâs biggest challenges. You are a strategic finance leader who thrives at inflection points, with experience guiding companies through the transition to a public-company operating model. You partner closely with the CFO, executive leadership, and Board to drive investor readiness, liquidity planning, capital allocation, and high-stakes financial decision-making, bringing clarity and rigor to complex situations. You have owned or led critical strategic finance functions including investor relations operations, cash and liquidity management, treasury, board reporting, financial systems, and corporate development finance. Comfortable in highly visible roles, you engage confidently with Boards, investors, banks, and external advisors, and enjoy building scalable processes and high-performing teams that support long-term growth.

Requirements

12+ years of experience in strategic finance, FP&A, investment banking, private equity, or a combination thereof.
Prior experience supporting a public company, IPO, or de-SPAC strongly preferred.
Deep understanding of investor-facing financials, liquidity management, and capital markets.
Strong modeling and analytical skills with the ability to translate complexity into clear executive-level insights.
Experience building or operating scalable financial systems and processes.
Proven ability to work effectively with Boards, investors, banks, and external advisors.
Excellent judgment, communication skills, and executive presence.

Nice To Haves

A finance leader who can operate at both 30,000 feet and ground level.
Someone who thrives in fast-moving, high-accountability environments.
A builder mindsetâcomfortable designing processes where none exist yet.
Strong sense of ownership, discretion, and partnership.

Responsibilities

Investor Relations & Public Company Readiness: Support the end-to-end investor relations operating model, including earnings preparation, investor and analyst materials, KPI definition and narrative consistency, guidance posture (as applicable), investor outreach tracking, and partnership with the CFO and CEO on disciplined investor communications and repeatable quarterly and annual IR workflows.
Cash Management & Liquidity Planning: Own short- and medium-term liquidity planning through 13-week cash forecasting, scenario and sensitivity modeling, runway and capital allocation analysis, covenant compliance, and ongoing engagement with banking partners.
Treasury & Risk Management: Lead treasury operations and strategy encompassing payments and disbursements, investment policy execution, debt facilities, FX exposure (as applicable), insurance coordination, and establishment of public-company-appropriate treasury policies and controls.
Financial Systems & Infrastructure: Partner with the Controller and IT to design and implement scalable, public-company-ready financial systems that support planning, forecasting, management and external reporting, unit economics, and investor-grade analytics.
Board & Executive Materials: Prepare and elevate finance-related Board and executive materials, including liquidity and capital structure updates, capital allocation frameworks, scenario analyses, and strategic finance deep dives, with a focus on clear, consistent financial storytelling.
Corporate Development & M&A Finance: Provide financial leadership for corporate development activities, including deal modeling, valuation, return and synergy analysis, integration planning, post-close tracking, and coordination with the Controller and external advisors on purchase accounting.
Team & Cross-Functional Leadership: Build and scale a high-performing Strategic Finance function while serving as a trusted partner across Product, Engineering, Operations, Legal, and People, and driving a culture of rigor, ownership, and sound financial decision-making.