Director, Product and Engineering Financial Analysis & Strategy

Job Description

Job Summary:

We are seeking a high-impact Director of F&S to lead Finance & Strategy for our Product and Engineering organization. This role sits at the intersection of innovation, analytics, and business leadership—partnering with our President of Product, Engineering, and AI, the CTO, and their leadership teams to ensure our R&D investments are aligned with company priorities and delivering maximum value.

You’ll be a key thought partner on product roadmap planning, infrastructure scaling, and long-term investment strategy, helping steer the company through data-driven decision-making. This is an ideal opportunity for a technically minded finance leader with a passion for driving innovation and operational rigor.

What You’ll Do:

• Strategic Partnership: Act as the primary finance advisor to the Product and Engineering leadership teams, providing data-backed insights and recommendations to guide investment decisions.

• Planning & Forecasting: Lead the annual, quarterly, and monthly planning processes for R&D, including opex, headcount, COGS, and infrastructure expenditures. Identify risks and opportunities in achieving forecasts and explain variances.

• Business Case Development: Build business cases for strategic bets across AI/ML, platform investments, and tooling infrastructure, and help define success metrics for major product initiatives.

• R&D Efficiency & KPIs: Create and manage reporting that ties investment to outcomes—tracking metrics such as engineering productivity, cost per initiative, and cloud usage efficiency.

• Resource Allocation: Help leaders prioritize initiatives and allocate budgets based on impact, risk, and strategic alignment.

• Cross-functional Alignment: Partner with Operations teams  to ensure financial data is integrated with operational metrics and roadmap plans. Work closely with the broader finance team (accounting, tax, treasury, revenue operations, and functional finance & strategy teams), business leaders, and executive team, including the CFO, to align financial forecasts and strategic initiatives.

• Manage a team of six finance professionals, providing mentorship, support, and guidance.

What We’re Looking For:

• 10+ years of related experience in FP&A, corporate strategy, or investment banking, with at least 3 years supporting SaaS organizations; engineering or technical background (e.g., undergraduate degree in CS, EE, or related field) strongly preferred

• Bachelor's degree in Business, Finance, or a technical degree; an MBA or CPA preferred

• Solid experience with metrics-driven business models in the SaaS industry, including strong modeling, forecasting, and data interpretation skills

• Familiarity with R&D, COGS, and cloud infrastructure economics in a SaaS environment

• Excellent communication and executive presence; able to translate complex financial concepts into clear, actionable insights

• Proven track record of managing a team and working with senior-level executives

• Proficiency in financial modeling and reporting skills

• Proactive, collaborative, and comfortable operating in ambiguity and scale

Why Join Us:

• Partner directly with senior engineering and product leaders on high-impact initiatives

• Influence roadmap-level decisions in a company that values strategic finance

• Help build a world-class finance function in a scaling SaaS business

• Competitive compensation and benefits

• Flexible, hybrid culture built on trust and performance

The US annualized base salary range for this position is $168,000.00-$252,000.00. This position may also be eligible for bonus, benefits, or related incentives. While this range reflects the minimum and maximum value for new hire salaries for the position across all US locations, the offer for the successful candidate for this position will be based on job related capabilities, applicable experience, and other factors such as work location. Please note that the compensation details listed in US role postings reflect the base salary only (or OTE for commissions based roles), and do not include bonus, benefits, or related incentives.

Hybrid: In this role, our hybrid experience is designed at the team level to give you a rich onsite experience packed with connection, collaboration, learning, and celebration - while also giving you flexibility to work remotely for part of the week. This role must attend our local office for part of the week. The specific in-office schedule is to be determined by the hiring manager.

The intelligent heart of customer experience

Zendesk software was built to bring a sense of calm to the chaotic world of customer service. Today we power billions of conversations with brands you know and love.

Zendesk believes in offering our people a fulfilling and inclusive experience. Our hybrid way of working, enables us to purposefully come together in person, at one of our many Zendesk offices around the world, to connect, collaborate and learn whilst also giving our people the flexibility to work remotely for part of the week.

Zendesk is an equal opportunity employer, and we’re proud of our ongoing efforts to foster global diversity, equity, & inclusion in the workplace. Individuals seeking employment and employees at Zendesk are considered without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, age, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, marital status, medical condition, ancestry, disability, military or veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law. We are an AA/EEO/Veterans/Disabled employer. If you are based in the United States and would like more information about your EEO rights under the law, please click here.

Zendesk endeavors to make reasonable accommodations for applicants with disabilities and disabled veterans pursuant to applicable federal and state law. If you are an individual with a disability and require a reasonable accommodation to submit this application, complete any pre-employment testing, or otherwise participate in the employee selection process, please send an e-mail to peopleandplaces@zendesk.com with your specific accommodation request.