Strategic Finance Lead

Kx; United Kingdom; On-site; GBP 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid work model

Office in Newry two days per week

Job summary

KX is seeking a Strategic Finance Lead to join the central Strategic Finance team and drive financial planning for the global R&D organization. You will own budgeting, headcount, and business-case development, partnering with engineering, product leadership, and the CFO to shape capital allocation and growth.

This role offers exposure to senior leadership across the US and UK time zones, with a hybrid work pattern and opportunities to influence strategic decisions in a fast-moving data/AI

Qualifications

• Strong technical finance background with a focus on strategic finance and FP&A.
• Experience in Transaction Services, due diligence, or deal advisory shaping investment decisions.
• Proven ability to build multi-scenario financial models and present insights to executives.
• Fluency with software/SaaS metrics (ARR, CAC, LTV, gross margin).
• Advanced Excel modelling and PowerPoint storytelling for board-level audiences.
• Degree in Finance, Accounting, Economics, or related field; professional certification is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Lead annual budgeting, rolling forecasts, and performance management for R&D.
• Partner with engineering and product leaders to translate roadmaps into financial plans.
• Own headcount, spend governance, and ROI analyses for major initiatives.
• Prepare updates for SVP Finance and executive leadership; communicate with board-level audiences.
• Evaluate acquisition opportunities and strategic partnerships; support capital allocation.

Skills

Finance

Strategic finance

Transaction services

Due diligence

Financial modelling

Excel

PowerPoint

SaaS metrics

ARR

ACCA/ACA/CIMA

MBA

Tools

ERP/Finance systems

Job description

About KX

KX software powers the time-aware data-driven decisions that enable fast-moving companies to outpace competitors, realising the full potential of their AI investments. The KX platform delivers transformational value by addressing data challenges related to completeness, timeliness and efficiency, ensuring companies understand change over time and can achieve faster, more accurate insights at any scale, cost-effectively.

KX is essential to the operations of the world's top investment banks, aerospace and defence, high-tech manufacturing, healthcare and life sciences, automotive and fleet telematics organisations. The company has established offices and a robust customer base across North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific.

Overview Of The Role

KX is hiring a Strategic Finance Lead to join our existing Strategic Finance team and sit at the centre of our R&D organisation, partnering directly with engineering and product leadership. You will lead financial planning and strategic decision support for our global R&D organisation within a company of approximately 700 employees, supporting one of KX’s most significant areas of investment.

We are open to hiring this role at different levels. For a high-potential candidate earlier in their career, this is an opportunity to step into significant ownership, work closely with senior leaders, and grow rapidly within Strategic Finance. A more experienced hire will be expected to operate with greater independence from the outset, acting as a senior finance partner to R&D leadership and helping shape the strategic agenda. Title and level will be calibrated to the successful candidate’s experience, demonstrated capabilities, and readiness to lead the mandate.

You will own the budget and headcount process for R&D, and just as importantly, you will be trusted to independently build the business cases, market analyses, and investment recommendations that shape our capital allocation decisions. You will also build the financial connective tissue between go-to-market and product investment, helping ensure R&D spend is directed to the areas of the roadmap most likely to drive growth.

You will work closely with the SVP of Strategic Finance and our CFO, and partner directly with the Chief Product & Engineering Officer and his leadership team, with regular exposure to the broader executive team, including our CEO. You will need to understand our products well enough to have a real point of view on where the opportunity is. Given our organic growth trajectory and M&A strategy, the environment is fast-moving and priorities can evolve quickly. We value people who take ownership, exercise sound judgment, and drive their work from an ambiguous starting point through to a clear decision.

Skills

• 3–10years of experience, with significant experience in Transaction Services, Financial Due Diligence, Deal Advisory, or a similarly rigorous analytical environment. We care more about the complexity of your work, the level of ownership you have demonstrated, and the speed of your development than your exact number of years.
• This role is particularly well suited to a high-performing Transaction Services professional who wants to move from advising on businesses to helping operate and shape one. You do not need to have held a Strategic Finance title before. We are looking for the analytical rigor, accounting grounding, pace, judgment, and ownership developed in demanding transaction environments.
• Prior exposure to the software sector is strongly preferred, whether through Transaction Services deal work, corporate FP&A, or another finance function.
• Fluency with core software and SaaS metrics.
• Advanced financial modelling and Excel skills. You can build robust three-statement, ARR snowball, and unit economics models from scratch, without relying on a template.
• Strong PowerPoint skills for translating analysis into a clear executive narrative.
• Solid grounding in accounting principles.
• A degree in Finance, Accounting, Economics, Business, or a related field; professional certification (ACA/ACCA/CIMA/CPA/CFA) or an MBA is a plus, not a requirement.
• Demonstrated ability to take an ambiguous question, define the analytical approach, identify the required data, manage stakeholders, and deliver a clear recommendation with limited supervision.
• Intellectual curiosity and the ability to get into the technical detail of a complex product enough to have an informed opinion.
• Comfort with, or genuine interest in learning, how private equity sponsors think about value creation.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the presence and judgment to work directly with the CFO, CEO, and other senior leaders.
• Able to maintain pace, judgment, and quality when priorities change or multiple high-value requests overlap. You communicate trade-offs early and make thoughtful decisions about where additional analysis will and will not change the answer.
• Willingness to work from our Newry, Northern Ireland office 2 days per week, with occasional travel and flexibility to support colleagues in US time zones.

Location & Workplace Type

Hybrid working model based out of our Newry office - 2 days in the office

Strategic & Value Creation Projects

• Independently lead ad hoc strategic finance projects with minimal oversight. Examples include building a full business case for a product line (total addressable market, serviceable addressable market, product-market fit, ideal customer profile, pricing and packaging) and the associated R&D investment required.
• Support evaluation of acquisition and partnership opportunities that advance our product strategy, working alongside corporate development as needed.
• Partner with product and engineering leaders to evaluate the ROI of major R&D investments and prioritise the roadmap accordingly.
• Assess the economics and ROI of LLM token consumption across engineering use cases and establish appropriate cost and investment guardrails.

Business Partnering

• Build the financial connective tissue between go-to-market and product investment: ensure R&D spend is directed to the areas of the roadmap most likely to drive revenue growth, in partnership with sales and marketing leadership.
• Act as the trusted financial advisor to engineering and product leadership: translate technical roadmaps and product strategy into financial plans, and translate financial constraints back into product and engineering terms.
• Bring a strong point of view grounded in software and SaaS fundamentals (ARR, net revenue retention, CAC, LTV, gross margin, R&D efficiency) to influence decisions, not just report on them.
• Operate effectively across US and UK time zones, given leadership is based on both sides of the Atlantic.

Headcount & Spend Governance

• Review and approve headcount and non-headcount requisitions for the R&D organisation.
• Support the Chief Product & Engineering Officer in headcount planning, org design trade-offs, and spend prioritisation.
• Bring a long-term, value-creation lens to headcount decisions rather than a purely annual-budget mindset.

Financial Planning & Performance Management

• Lead the annual budgeting process and rolling forecasts for the R&D organisation, partnering directly with engineering and product leaders to build credible, well-supported plans.
• Own monthly variance analysis against budget and forecast, identifying drivers and working with R&D leaders to course-correct.
• Track R&D spend against plan across both headcount and non-headcount categories.

Reporting & Communication

• Prepare R&D financial and strategic updates for the SVP of Strategic Finance and executive leadership, with a level of polish suitable for board and investor audiences.
• Deliver detailed financial analysis, models, and write-ups, for both recurring reporting and ad hoc strategic projects, that hold up to scrutiny from executive and board audiences.