Senior Finance Manager, Engineering and R&D

Are you ready to build America’s clean energy future with the team that will deliver? Form Energy is an American energy technology and manufacturing company. We are pioneering a new class of iron-air batteries to enable our electric grid to run on renewable, reliable, and affordable energy, every day of the year. 

Form Energy has been recognized by TIME as “One of the Best Inventions of 2023” for its battery technology and by MIT Technology Review as a “Top Climate Tech Company to Watch”. We are making rapid progress on our mission of delivering energy storage for a better world, and are growing just as rapidly to meet demand. Our team has more than doubled in size in the past year, and continues to expand every day. We have signed contracts with leading electric utilities across the United States. Pilot production of our iron-air batteries has already begun, and later this year, production will take off to high volumes at our new factory in West Virginia. 

Working for Form Energy is more than just a job, it’s a chance to be part of something extraordinary. And right now might be the most exciting moment in the company’s history to join. We are assembling a team of some of the most talented and motivated individuals across the country. Driven by our core values of humanity, excellence, and creativity, our team is determined to deliver on our mission and transform the energy landscape for the better.

Feeling energized to make a meaningful impact on the world? Then keep reading - you’ve come to the right place.

Role Description

Form Energy is hiring a Senior Manager to grow, develop, and lead our Engineering and R&D Finance team. This role reports to the Director of Finance. 

As a critical leader in our Finance organization, you and your team will work closely with our Engineering and R&D leads to identify, quantify, report out, and drive consistent execution on key aspects of cost-down for our first-of-a-kind Iron-Air battery. Additionally, you will partner closely with our Supply Chain, Manufacturing, and Programs team to ensure success in change management and cut-in of engineering changes in a live production environment. Lastly, your team will be responsible for driving key inputs into our monthly product cost forecast (partnering closely with our product cost forecasting lead), and for identifying in real-time, opportunities and risks to our projections. 

The engineering finance function is responsible for accelerating our progress toward lowest possible installed cost, and thereby accelerating the progress toward full decarbonization of our energy grid.  

Success in this role requires a deep commitment to our mission, experience in a dynamic hardware manufacturing environment, bias toward details & ownership, and strong team-building & communication skills.

What you'll do:

• Build, develop, and manage a team of experienced engineering finance professionals, who will partner closely with our battery R&D, electrode engineering, cell engineering, and system engineering teams on key cost-forecasting, roadmapping, and budget development activities. 

• Manage reporting on engineering-led cost-down initiatives and related metrics (ex. material cost impact, tooling impact, performance impact, expected cut-in timeline, level of risks) that are core to our product development and battery performance roadmap. Partner with engineering, R&D, and programs teams to identify weekly progress, risks, related mitigations. 

• Drive rigorous and detailed should-costing activities (at the part-level) to inform engineering design changes, and design-for-manufacturing sprints. Continuously mature and improve on existing should-costing framework, to incorporate latest learnings from supply chain quotes. 

• Lead the bi-weekly and monthly refresh of engineering and battery performance inputs into our product cost forecasting process. Manage detailed communication and consistent report-out (to VP-level executives) of changes and underlying drivers. Proactively identify risks and jump-start initiatives on related mitigations. 

• Develop strong partnerships with key engineering leaders, manufacturing leaders, and supply chain leaders. Identify key pain points and blockers in execution toward cost-downs, and work consistently to reduce barriers where there are solutions that the finance team can enable.

What you'll bring:

• 10 to 15 years of experience in Finance (preferably in a hardware manufacturing setting), and experience in managing a team of experienced finance professionals 

• Demonstrated skill in partnering with engineering teams (including senior leaders), and creating frameworks for detailed analytics and reporting 

• Excellent communication and stakehold