Director of Financial Planning & Analysis

Department: Finance

Location: Redondo Beach

Compensation: $185,000 - $215,000 / year

Description

As the Director of FP&A at Impulse, you will be responsible for leading budgeting, forecasting, financial modeling and strategic analysis across all parts of Impulse, with a specific focus on supporting complex manufacturing operations.


Responsibilities

• Lead company-wide financial planning, forecasting, and annual budgeting processes, ensuring alignment with operational goals and timelines
• Partner with manufacturing, engineering, and operations teams to model unit costs, production margins, capacity utilization, and capital expenditures
• Partner with support functions to create, manage and track budget and forecast for each department and major projects
• Create analysis and help support “Make vs Buy” decisions
• Create and manage Cash Flow budgeting/forecasting
• Ability to produce budgets/forecasts based on accrual basis including Profit & loss, Balance sheet and Cash flow
• Develop and maintain KPIs and scenario models to support executive-level decision-making and long-term strategic planning
• Analyze variances in cost of goods sold (COGS), labor, materials, and manufacturing overhead — and translate them into actionable insights
• Analyze actual GAAP financials with budget and maintain updated forecasts in alignment with company’s direction
• Provide leadership in pricing strategy, revenue projections, and margin optimization for spacecraft programs
• Support build-out of financial systems and processes to enable better forecasting and reporting with a focus on scale, efficiency and transparency
• Support investor reporting, fundraising efforts, and board-level financial presentations
• Hire, lead and mentor a high-performing FP&A team, fostering growth and cross-functional collaboration
  
  
  

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in finance, accounting, economics, or a related field
• 8+ years of demonstrated experience in FP&A or strategic finance roles, with at least 3+ years in a leadership role
• Strong experience supporting manufacturing or hardware-based operations — preferably in aerospace, automotive, or high-complexity tech
• Proven ability to translate complex operations into financial models and communicate insights clearly to technical and non-technical audiences
• Advanced Excel and financial modeling skills; experience with ERP (e.g., NetSuite, SAP) and FP&A software (e.g., Adaptive Insights, Anaplan, or Tableau)
• Strong business acumen, analytical skills, and a proactive, detail-oriented approach
  
  
  

Preferred Skills and Experience

• MBA or CFA preferred
• Demonstrated experience in a high-growth manufacturing or aerospace company
• Demonstrated experience with inventory costing methods, WIP tracking, and capital project modeling
• Exposure to government contract finance (e.g., cost-plus, fixed-price)

Additional Information:

Compensation bands are determined by role, level, location, and alignment with market data. Individual level and base pay is determined on a case-by-case basis and may vary based on job-related skills, education, experience, technical capabilities and internal equity. In addition to base salary, for full-time hires, you may also be eligible for long-term incentives, in the form of stock options, and access to medical, vision & dental coverage as well as access to a 401(k) retirement plan.


To conform to U.S. Government space technology export regulations, including the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) you must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the U.S., protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), or eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State. Learn more about the ITAR here.

Impulse Space is an Equal Opportunity Employer; employment with Impulse Space is governed on the basis of merit, competence and qualifications and will not be influenced in any manner by race, color, religion, gender, national origin/ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, mental or physical disability or any other legally protected status.