Senior Manager, Strategic Finance

About Zum:  

Zum is a rapidly expanding Series E startup backed by industry leaders Sequoia Capital, SoftBank, Spark Capital, and GIC, with a bold mission to transform the stagnant school transportation industry. Operating in over 15 states across the United States—with flagship hubs in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Seattle—we are actively extending our reach to the East Coast and Midwest regions. As a technology-driven company, we deploy cutting-edge solutions to manage and operate school district transportation systems while also launching our own charter platform and developing proprietary SaaS offerings. Additionally, we are spearheading a nationwide initiative to electrify school transportation fleets, simultaneously supporting local utilities by feeding much-needed energy back into the grid. We have been recognized as CNBC 50 disruptor, Financial Times 500 fastest growing companies, Fast Company World Changing Ideas.

About the Role:  

The Sr. Manager, Strategic Finance will partner cross functionally to identify areas of efficiency and growth to define Zum’s short-term and long-term business strategy. Reporting to the VP, Finance, you will play a key role in delivering compelling strategic recommendations to the business that will drive improved performance, higher returns and optimal resource allocation. This role will help manage the company’s annual business planning and quarterly reforecasting processes, develop & monitor companywide metrics & KPIs, report on trends and explain variances, and translate complex data into actionable insights to drive stronger business performance and profitability, ultimately helping to drive key-decision making across the organization. You will find innovative ways to measure financial performance against plan and use these insights to inform Zum’s investment decisions. This role will drive and build sophisticated, scalable, and airtight valuation, budgeting, forecasting, and reporting frameworks, processes and financial models. In this role, you will support the decision-making process of Zum giving insight on shareholder value optimization.

• Create, enrich and maintain financial models to support ROI based decision-making and inform key stakeholders across the organization of the financial implications of key business decisions
• Assist in the preparation of key stakeholder communications including Board of Director
• Conduct financial analysis, including variance analysis, scenario modeling and sensitivity analysis
• Design and implement financial modeling tools and software to enhance efficiency and accuracy of forecast and analysis
• Research and analyze industry trends, market dynamics and competition positioning, providing recommendations and informing and supporting the Company’s forecasting process
• Be a leader in a high functioning and collaborative team that is a central partner to the organization 
• Analyze current and past trends in key performance indicators including all areas of revenue, cost of sales, expenses and capital expenditures; highlight trends and analyze causes of unexpected variances; develop and present recommendations to executives and operational leaders
• Drive growth and improvements in margin and profitability through effective business planning partnering with the leadership team to achieve overall alignment on goals
• Advise cross-functional peers on ways to optimize the business through budget and resource management
• Evaluate all new business opportunities by quantifying forward-looking financial impact 
• Manage all ad hoc analysis for the Strategic Finance team
• Partner with the Data Team to provide key insights into performance and financial trends, linking leading indicators in current business drivers to future strategy

• Relevant work experience in Investment Banking, Private Equity, Strategic Finance, Corporate Finance, FP&A, Revenue/Sales Operations, and Strategy/Business Operations at fast-paced companies
• Expert knowledge of financial modeling, financial statements, ROI and new business analysis, in addition to corporate finance and accounting concepts. CFA or relevant certification is a plus
• Possess the ability to partner with and influence business partners and executives across the organization
• Strong problem solving and analytical skills; able to move quickly with little structure or guidance
• Strong interpersonal skills; collaborative working style; can communicate complex ideas effectively and simply to all levels of management
• Proven ability to translate large amounts of data and information into strategic and actionable insights, recommendations, and presentations
• Agile – you thrive in fast-paced and dynamic environments and are willing to get deep into the weeds where needed.

• Competitive salary and equity
• Flexible vacation policy
• Parental leave
• Full medical, dental, and vision packages, 401(k)
• Opportunity to work for a startup focused on driving real change in the school transportation industry

At Zum, we want to hire, develop, and retain the best talent, making Zum a top destination to accelerate your career. Our compensation framework is a key part of our vision, and we continually revisit and invest in our philosophy and framework to ensure we remain competitive and relevant, on a quest to achieve our vision. While we’re committed to remaining compliant and adhering to mandates, for us, pay transparency is more than a consideration of what’s lawful and unlawful but rather, an opportunity to disclose what’s required, and what we think is a fair and equitable compensation framework. The base salary range for this role is: $190,000-$230,000

For this role, the candidate must be located in the San Francisco Bay Area