Head of Finance - Civilian and Defense Operations

Job Description

Job Description

US Citizen or Permanent Resident

In-Person

Starts Immediately

Join us in building the Worlds’s Humanitarian Air Force. Orb is turning autonomous aircraft into infrastructure. We’re a small mission-driven team where your initiative, creativity, and dedication will be used to reach every village on the planet with power, logistics, and communications.

Your Role at Orb: Orb needs a key player to assist on the operations side of finance, DoD contracts, partner relations, customer engagement and more. Scale a hardware business with us and learn to run a business with a world class team from the inside out.

If you’re ready to take ownership, embrace complexity, and thrive in a role where your work truly matters, we’d love to hear from you.

Key Responsibilities:

• Financial Leadership & Strategy
• Lead financial planning, budgeting, forecasting, and cash-flow management.
• Develop long-term financial models to support growth strategy, capital planning, and program execution.
• Partner with the CEO and CFO on runway management, capital allocation, and board/investor communications.
• Support fundraising activities including diligence materials, financial models, and investor reporting.

• Accounting, Reporting & Compliance
• Oversee accounting operations, financial close, and GAAP-compliant reporting.
• Manage external accounting firms, auditors, and tax advisors.
• Ensure compliance with applicable regulations (e.g., government cost allowability, audit readiness, internal controls).

• Contracts & Commercial Management
• Own the full contract lifecycle including review, negotiation, execution, and administration.
• Support commercial, government, and strategic partnership contracts (e.g., NDAs, MSAs, SOWs, purchase orders, and government-funded agreements).
• Partner with business development and legal counsel to evaluate contract terms, financial exposure, and risk.
• Track contract performance, milestones, invoicing, and revenue recognition.
• Ensure alignment between contract obligations and financial forecasts.

• Operational Finance & Program Support
• Establish systems and processes for purchasing, vendor management, and program cost tracking.
• Monitor program margins, cost performance, and contract profitability.
• Support pricing strategy and proposal development for new customer and government opportunities.

• Team & Infrastructure Building
• Build scalable finance and contracts processes as the company grows.
• Hire and mentor finance and contracts team members over time.
• Implement financial systems and tools appropriate for a regulated aerospace environment.
• Represent the Orb brand, service to others through aviation, to customers and stakeholders.

What You'll Need:

• Resilience, critical thinking, communication and a commitment to transparency.
• Exceptional organizational and project management abilities with a focus on execution. 
• Advanced in Microsoft suite
• Ability to obtain and maintain Secret Security Clearance. 
• A genuine curiosity and desire for continuous learning and professional growth. 
• Unwavering integrity and a commitment to serving others with empathy and purpose. 
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with a knack for translating ideas into action.

+ Additional options and incentives

About Orb Aerospace: Orb was started with the mission to bring aviation to the 80% of the world that’s never had it; turning autonomous aircraft into tools to decentralize infrastructure, connect continents, protect soldiers, provide for families, and run economies.“Less like the flying taxis, more like the flying cowboys,”Orb is at the intersection of manned and unmanned aviation, reindustrializing the Midwest, and building the future we know is possible and want to live in.

About Node One: Node One is a small team of engineers and operators who have dedicated their lives to solving some of the world’s hardest problems through a new kind of aviation. Orb’s live-work-fly R&D HQ. Node One is all about reducing the cycle time to design, build, and fly aircraft from years to months and building the systems and platforms we’ll use to reach every village on the planet.

We stand on the shoulders of giants. Their great work allows us to accomplish ours. If you’vebeen a rocket/airplane nerdand have a passion for designing, building, and flying airframes, autopilots, power systems, and embedded systems, or you love to push a new product through new manufacturing methods to a new market, come join the team at Node One and make history.

Orb Employees Are:

High Agency and Biased Towards Action

Have a History of Self-Starting, Pacing, and Finishing Projects

Thrive with Autonomy to Design New Solutions to Partially Defined Problems

Are Curious and Continue Learning

Have Integrity and a Desire to Serve Others

Standard Benefits Package:

Orb provides a monthly flat rate towards medical, dental, and vision

$500 flat rate for individuals; $850 flat rate for married/family

Medical, Vision, Dental, Short/Long Term Disability, and Group/Voluntary Life Insurance

Opt-In 401K Options (Pre-Tax or Roth) with a 3% Employer Match

Perks:

Support in Getting your Pilots License and Ratings

Support for Continuing Education

Annual Customer Demos all over the World

We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support parts of the hiring process, such as reviewing applications, analyzing resumes, or assessing responses and identifying potential inconsistencies or verification signals in application materials based on available information. These tools assist our recruitment team but do not replace human judgment. Final hiring decisions are ultimately made by humans. If you would like more information about how your data is processed, please contact us.