Lead, Cost Analytics (Finance Control)

Building world-class hardware and running an integrated production operation requires significant investment – and smart management of costs can be the difference between a sustainable business and one that falters. As Lead, Cost Analytics (Finance Control) at Ultrahuman, you will be the financial detective and strategist ensuring that our deep engineering efforts are also economically sound. This isn’t just about cutting costs; it’s about understanding them at a granular level and guiding the company to invest wisely. You’ll work in tandem with engineering, production, and supply chain teams to illuminate how every design choice, manufacturing step, or supply decision impacts our bottom line. In a culture inspired by first principles, you’ll delve into cost structures from the ground up — much like analyzing each part in a Tesla car’s bill of materials to optimize value. Your insights will help Ultrahuman deliver superior products while driving efficiency and maintaining healthy financial control.

Responsibilities:

• Comprehensive Cost Analysis: Develop a deep understanding of Ultrahuman’s cost structure across the board – from component costs in our devices (sensors, chips, materials) to manufacturing expenses (labor, machine time, yields) and logistics (freight, duties, warehousing). Create models that map out how costs accumulate through the value chain, and identify key cost drivers.

• Financial Control & Reporting: Own the process of tracking actual costs vs. budgets or targets. Establish robust cost accounting practices that allow real-time or monthly visibility into cost performance. Provide regular reports to leadership that highlight areas of concern or overspend, and areas where we are performing better than expected.

• Cost Optimization Projects: Proactively identify tactical and strategic opportunities to optimize costs. This could mean working with the engineering team to suggest a design change that uses a more affordable material without quality loss, renegotiating with suppliers for better volume discounts, or finding efficiencies in production (like reducing waste or energy usage). Lead cross-functional task forces as needed to implement these cost-saving initiatives and monitor their impact.

• Scenario Planning & Forecasting: When the company is considering a new product or a change (like entering a new market or scaling production), take the lead on financial scenario planning. Use first-principles thinking to estimate costs for new endeavors (e.g., what’s the cost impact if we increase battery size? Or what’s the fully loaded cost per unit if we double our output?). Help the finance and strategy teams in budgeting and long-term planning by providing detailed cost forecasts and sensitivity analyses.

• Governance & Compliance: Ensure that our cost control processes align with overall financial governance standards. Work with Finance Controllers to prepare for audits, maintain documentation on cost accounting procedures, and enforce financial controls that prevent errors or fraud. Be the go-to expert for cost-related questions during investor meetings or board reviews, substantiating how our cost structure supports our business model.

Requirements

• Educational Background: Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Accounting, Engineering, or related field. A combination of technical and financial education (e.g., engineering plus an MBA, or finance plus exposure to manufacturing) is ideal.

• Experience: 5+ years in financial analysis, cost accounting, or similar roles, preferably in a manufacturing or hardware technology company. Experience in a finance control or FP&A team that dealt with product costing.

• Financial Acumen: Strong understanding of cost accounting methodologies, BOM (Bill of Materials) analysis, and margin calculations. Able to dissect a P&L and pinpoint where costs are concentrated.

• Analytical Tools: Highly proficient in Excel and data analysis; comfortable handling large datasets (e.g., thousands of line items of component costs or transactions). Experience with ERP systems and pulling cost data from databases (Zoho, SAP, Oracle, or a custom system) is a plus. Ability to create clear visualizations or summaries for communication.

• Cross-Functional Communication: Excellent communication skills to work with non-finance teams. Ability to translate financial findings into actionable insights for engineers or operations folks (e.g., explain how a slight spec change could save X amount). Comfortable presenting to leadership and making a compelling case with data.

Preferred Experience:

• Hardware/Manufacturing Insight: Direct experience working on costing for electronics or similar hardware. Understanding of concepts like yield loss, scrap, tooling costs, and how engineering decisions influence these.

• Project Leadership: A track record of leading or heavily contributing to cost reduction initiatives that resulted in significant savings. Could be an example like reducing COGS by a certain percentage through vendor changes or process improvements.

• First-Principles Approach: Demonstrated ability to approach financial problems creatively. For instance, devising a new method to allocate overhead that more accurately traced cost drivers, or questioning a long-standing expense and finding a way to eliminate it entirely.

• Certifications: Professional certifications like CMA (Certified Management Accountant) or CIMA, or Lean Six Sigma training (as it relates to process improvement and cost savings) can be a plus, underscoring your expertise in cost management.