Finance Manager, R&D

Company Description

LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network, built to create economic opportunity for every member of the global workforce. Our products help people make powerful connections, discover exciting opportunities, build necessary skills, and gain valuable insights every day. We’re also committed to providing transformational opportunities for our own employees by investing in their growth. We aspire to create a culture that’s built on trust, care, inclusion, and fun – where everyone can succeed.

Join us to transform the way the world works.

Job Description

At LinkedIn, we trust each other to do our best work where it works best for us and our teams. This role offers a hybrid work option, meaning you can both work from home and commute to a LinkedIn office, depending on what’s best for you and when it is important for your team to be together. 

This role will be based in the Bay Area (Sunnyvale, San Francisco, or Mountain View).

We are looking for a Manager to support our Engineering organization. You will have a highly visible role engaging with executives and senior leaders. Expectations also include working cross-functionally and establishing/improving processes to enable the continuous growth of R&D. 

In this role, you will be responsible for managing the financial forecasting for our Engineering organization. You will be partnering with senior Engineering leadership, including their direct and cross functional support teams, as their strategic financial advisor. You will play a central role in driving resource planning and prioritization decisions, evaluating trade-offs as well as intelligent investment opportunities that will grow and scale the business. Responsibilities include building processes around managing and tracking headcount and other cost drivers, as well as providing analyses that will influence and enable teams to find efficiencies and evaluate trade-offs. You will own the development and operational excellence of forecast models as well as partner with operational teams to ensure financial and operational rigor of the business. As a pivotal partner to the Engineering teams, the clarity, energy, and results you deliver will be visible across the R&D leadership team. 

Responsibilities: 

• Collaborate with internal FP&A teams and cross-functional partners to lead and support strategic analyses to address the evolving business dynamics
• Provide management with insights into drivers of headcount, expenses, and risks and opportunities
• Manage and perform month-end close and forecasting activities related to headcount and expenses
• Audit and review of complex financial models to ensure they are both accurate and updated to reflect changing business needs, including their development, improvement, and maintenance
• Partner closely with leadership, cross functional leads, and key finance leaders across the company to represent Engineering
• Take a leadership role in the coordination of the various planning cycles (annual planning, quarterly/monthly forecasts, weekly outlooks)
• Maintain a consistent meeting cadence between key leaders and cross functional business partners
• Develop and implement tools, systems, and processes to support the successful completion of timely and accurate close-periods and forecasts     
• Manage the variance analysis of expenses and headcount by clearly explaining the business reasons for variances, adjusting the forecast models to reflect changes, and review variance drivers and outlook with business partners

Qualifications

Basic Qualifications:  

• Bachelor’s Degree in Finance or Accounting, related discipline, or relevant work experience
• 6+ years of financial analysis experience 
• Analytical background working directly in an FP&A, Strategic Finance, Business Operations, or related environment  

Preferred Qualifications: 

• Experience in accounting concepts, financial planning, and headcount planning 
• Ability to lead with strong executive presence, interpersonal skills, influence capability and social intelligence 
• Ability to demonstrate thought-leadership, teamwork, anticipate business needs, and manage relationships with senior stakeholders 
• Perform month-end close activities related to headcount and expenses
•   Manage and perform month-end close and forecasting activities related to headcount and expenses
• Ability to think critically and to question the output of financial models or investment cases and consider options for improvement or provide thoughtful alternatives 
• Proactive, results oriented, with a can-do attitude and strict attention to detail in meeting critical deadlines 
• Detail-oriented, organized