Senior Director, Engineering FP&A

Overview

symplr is seeking a Senior Director, Engineering FP&A to serve as the executive finance partner for the Technology/R&D organization and to build the financial operating system for engineering investment, workforce planning, capitalization discipline, productivity, and technology cost structure.

This role will partner closely with the CTO, Engineering leadership, Product & Professional Services FP&A, Accounting, HR, Procurement, and Corporate FP&A to translate engineering strategy, roadmap commitments, capacity, and technical cost drivers into clear financial insight and action.

The right candidate is a hands-on, intellectually curious finance leader who can operate at executive altitude while going deep in workforce models, capitalization logic, cloud/tooling spend, contractor mix, location strategy, and investment trade-offs.

Duties & Responsibilities

STRATEGIC FINANCE & BUSINESS PARTNERSHIP

• Serve as the primary FP&A business partner to Engineering/R&D leadership, bringing financial discipline to one of symplr’s largest investment bases.
• Translate engineering priorities, roadmap commitments, platform investments, security, technical debt, AI/platform work, and maintenance needs into financial plans and decision-ready analysis.
• Partner with Product & Professional Services FP&A on roadmap affordability, implementation implications, product commitments, and build-versus-buy economics.
• Maintain monthly CTO/Engineering financial review materials, variance narratives, investment trade-off analysis, and decision support.

PLANNING, FORECASTING & PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT

• Own Engineering/R&D planning, forecasting, and performance management in alignment with Corporate FP&A standards, calendars, templates, and forecast governance.
• Build and maintain the R&D workforce model by team, location, product/platform area, initiative, employee/contractor mix, and hiring status.
• Analyze R&D spend as a percentage of revenue, cost by product/platform/initiative, innovation versus maintenance capacity, location mix, and Bengaluru leverage.
• Provide timely, accurate, and explainable forecast submissions to Corporate FP&A and support consolidated enterprise forecast quality.

CAPITALIZATION, COST STRUCTURE & PRODUCTIVITY

• Own R&D capitalization and OpEx/CapEx discipline in partnership with Accounting/CAO, ensuring clear linkage between engineering activity, accounting treatment, and forecast assumptions.
• Analyze cloud, tooling, vendor, contractor, and technology infrastructure spend tied to engineering productivity and cost efficiency.
• Support engineering productivity and capacity reviews, including trade-offs across hiring, contractors, location strategy, vendor spend, and roadmap commitments.
• Support vendor rationalization and build-versus-buy decisions affecting engineering capacity, cost structure, and long-term scalability.

WORKFORCE PLANNING & GOVERNANCE

• Own the Engineering/R&D workforce model while operating within the enterprise workforce planning framework governed by Corporate FP&A.
• Partner with HR/People and Engineering leadership on hiring plans, attrition, geography, contractor strategy, and workforce governance.
• Ensure Engineering FP&A follows common FP&A definitions, KPI standards, model architecture, submission timelines, and quality-control expectations.
• Develop and manage the Engineering FP&A execution layer, including the U.S.-based Manager/Sr. Manager and Bengaluru-based analytics resource.

TEAM LEADERSHIP & FUNCTION BUILDING

• Build a high-quality Engineering FP&A capability grounded in business partnership, analytical rigor, curiosity, and accountability for outcomes rather than outputs.
• Coach and develop team members to deeply understand Engineering/R&D operations, technology cost drivers, and financial decision criteria.
• Create a practical, scalable operating cadence that gives Engineering leaders a clear view of investment, capacity, productivity, and trade-offs.

Skills Required

EXPERIENCE & BACKGROUND

• 10+ years of progressive finance experience, with meaningful experience supporting Engineering, Technology, Product, R&D, enterprise software, or similarly complex operating environments.
• Demonstrated success partnering with senior operating executives and translating technical or operational complexity into clear financial insight.
• Experience in PE-backed, growth, scaling, multi-product, healthcare technology, enterprise software, or operationally complex environments preferred.
• Experience building, improving, or restructuring FP&A processes, including workforce planning, forecast governance, and executive operating reviews.

TECHNICAL & ANALYTICAL CAPABILITIES

• Strong command of financial modeling, workforce planning, scenario analysis, variance analysis, and investment trade-off frameworks.
• Working knowledge of R&D capitalization, OpEx/CapEx discipline, contractor/vendor analytics, cloud/tooling cost analysis, and technology cost structures.
• Comfortable engaging with data architecture, BI tools, planning systems, and analytical automation to improve speed, quality, and repeatability of FP&A outputs.
• Able to create clear metrics and decision lenses around R&D spend, engineering productivity, capacity, capitalization, and cost efficiency.

LEADERSHIP & WAYS OF WORKING

• Intellectually curious, operationally sharp, and willing to ask why before accepting surface-level answers.
• Credible with executives and equally comfortable in the details of a model, dataset, or operating review package.
• Strong communicator who can translate complex engineering and financial trade-offs into clear, actionable recommendations.
• Builder mindset with a bias toward practical governance, scalable process design, and continuous improvement.

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