Director of Strategic Finance

Director, Strategic Finance

Reports to: SVP, Finance

Function: Corporate Finance

Position Summary

The Director, Strategic Finance will serve as a key analytical and strategic partner to senior leadership, helping drive decisions around investment, acquisitions, capital allocation, and growth. Reporting to the SVP of Finance, this role will have regular exposure to the CFO, CEO, and Board of Directors.

The Director will own the company’s integrated financial model and long-range planning process, lead the finance workstream for M&A, licensing, and joint-venture opportunities, and partner with leaders across the organization to translate strategic priorities into measurable financial outcomes.

This is a highly visible, hands-on leadership role focused on building scalable financial models, processes, and analytical capabilities while developing the team and establishing best practices across Finance.

Key Responsibilities

Strategic Planning & Financial Modeling

• Own the company’s integrated operating model, long-range plan, and scenario framework, including assumptions, governance, and version control.
• Lead annual and multi-year corporate planning cycles, partnering with business leaders to translate strategic initiatives into financial plans and quantify key trade-offs.
• Develop and pressure-test sensitivity analyses around portfolio mix, channel economics, licensing structures, capital allocation, and cost structure.
• Establish financial modeling standards across Finance, including reusable model architecture, documented assumptions, and analysis that can withstand detailed diligence.

Capital Structure, Lenders & Investors

• Lead analysis supporting capital structure decisions, including debt capacity, covenant headroom, liquidity forecasting, and refinancing scenarios.
• Review and interpret credit agreements and other governing documents and communicate their financial implications to senior leadership.
• Oversee recurring lender, investor, and shareholder reporting.
• Evaluate returns and financial implications for current and prospective capital providers.

M&A, Licensing & Joint Ventures

• Lead the finance workstream for M&A, licensing, and joint-venture opportunities from initial screening through diligence, valuation, negotiation support, and post-close tracking.
• Develop valuation and returns analyses, including DCF, accretion/dilution, IRR, and synergy cases.
• Present transaction analyses and recommendations to the CFO and executive leadership.
• Coordinate bankers, advisors, outside counsel, and cross-functional diligence teams to meet transaction deadlines.
• Partner with commercial and business leaders to validate transaction assumptions and translate deal models into actionable operating plans.

Executive & Board Reporting

• Own monthly and quarterly financial reporting packages for the Board and shareholders, including financial results, narrative, and recommendations.
• Prepare and present materials for executive leadership and Board meetings, with direct interaction with the CFO and CEO.
• Translate complex financial analysis into concise, clear, and actionable recommendations.

Business Partnership & Value Creation

• Serve as a strategic finance partner to leaders across sales, sourcing, supply chain, operations, and other business functions.
• Identify opportunities to improve margins, working capital, productivity, and overall business performance.
• Develop business cases, quantify potential opportunities, and track results through implementation.
• Influence cross-functional decisions while maintaining strong financial discipline and analytical rigor.

Team Leadership & Capability Building

• Lead, coach, and develop finance professionals and project teams.
• Establish clear goals, development plans, and performance expectations.
• Build scalable processes, tools, and reporting standards that improve the speed, accuracy, and quality of financial analysis.
• Develop and retain high-performing analytical talent and foster a culture of continuous improvement.

Qualifications

Required

• 6+ years of progressive corporate finance experience, including investment banking, private equity, corporate development, strategic finance, or FP&A within a growth or sponsor-backed organization.
• Proven experience owning complex, integrated three-statement financial models and long-range plans, including scenario and sensitivity analysis.
• Direct experience leading or supporting M&A, licensing, or joint-venture transactions through diligence and close.
• Strong understanding of credit agreements, covenant mechanics, liquidity, and capital structure.
• Experience preparing and presenting financial materials to C-suite and Board-level audiences.
• Experience managing, mentoring, or leading analysts or finance professionals.
• Strong accounting and finance foundation with the ability to connect GAAP results to cash flow and business performance.
• Advanced Excel and financial modeling skills.
• Excellent written, verbal, and executive communication skills.
• Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Accounting, Economics, Business, Mathematics, Data Analytics, or a related field.

Preferred

• Experience in apparel, footwear, accessories, beauty, consumer products, or other branded consumer businesses.
• Understanding of wholesale, licensing and royalty models, and direct-to-consumer economics.
• Experience with seasonality, inventory, and working capital dynamics.
• MBA, CFA, or CPA.
• Experience with planning and BI platforms such as Anaplan, Adaptive, OneStream, Power BI, or Tableau.
• Experience working with large and complex datasets.
• Experience in a private equity-backed or leveraged environment.

Core Competencies

• Commercial Judgment: Develops informed perspectives and confidently communicates recommendations.
• Continuous Improvement: Identifies opportunities to improve processes, analysis, and business performance.
• Enterprise Perspective: Considers the broader business impact beyond the Finance function.
• Executive Presence: Communicates with credibility, confidence, and professionalism with senior stakeholders.
• Capability Building: Strengthens processes, financial models, and teams for long-term scalability.
• Bias for Action: Operates effectively with incomplete information, competing priorities, and tight deadlines.