Director, FP&A

Category-defining tech. Career-defining work. For more than a decade, Cockroach Labs has built database technology trusted to power some of the world's most mission-critical applications. Now, as AI transforms how software is created and operated, the infrastructure behind it has to keep pace. Cockroach Continuum is built to meet this moment, bringing individual databases together into one fleet designed for agentic applications, where AI agents help teams provision, scale, and optimize workloads at machine speed.   At Cockroach Labs, you'll help build the systems, programs, and operating foundation behind a category-defining company. You'll work alongside people who think deeply, move with purpose, and understand that how we scale matters as much as how quickly we do it. The people who thrive here are the ones who want to own that opportunity.   The Role Cockroach Labs is seeking a Director of FP&A to reimagine our FP&A function from the ground up and lead it into the next era of finance. Reporting directly to the CFO, you'll architect a fundamentally different way of working, one where AI handles the routine, data-intensive work that consumes most finance team bandwidth today, and where FP&A operates as a real-time decision engine rather than a retrospective reporting function. This is a lean, high-leverage role built for someone who wants to stay close to the work. You'll run a small, fast-moving team and lean heavily on AI to extend what the team can do. You’ll stay hands-on yourself, building models and strategic analysis directly rather than running the function purely through others. At a moment when FP&A is being reinvented at the best companies in the world, you'll be the one doing the reinventing here. To be eligible for this role, you must be based in the Bay Area or New York City. You Will   Reimagine the FP&A operating model. Lead the transformation of the function from a reporting-and-analysis team to an AI-native intelligence hub — in partnership with Cockroach Labs' Data & Applied AI team, who build the underlying agentic infrastructure — where the team focuses on judgment, strategy, and business partnership Own long-range strategic planning. Build a long-range financial model that supports the company's next phase of growth, addressing planning and financial resource allocation along the way — with direct involvement in pricing and packaging, a revised go-to-market motion, and sales compensation design aimed at driving the right field behavior Own the company-wide planning and forecasting process and rebuild it for the AI era. Shift from static, calendar-driven cycles to rolling, continuously updated forecasts that incorporate real-time signals: revenue pipeline, product usage, churn indicators, and headcount inputs, all modeled and refreshed dynamically Serve as strategic finance partner to the CFO and executive team. Translate complex, AI-generated financial signals into clear, board-ready insights and actionable business recommendations. You will be the human judgment layer on top of machine intelligence. Lead the design and delivery of board materials and investor-facing packages. Leverage AI to accelerate narrative generation and scenario modeling, while ensuring every output reflects the precision and credibility required for a public company audience Drive interactive, real-time scenario modeling. Move from manual sensitivity tables to AI-powered "what if" analysis, enabling the business to model the implications of pricing changes, investment shifts, or revenue tailwinds/headwinds in minutes rather than days. Deploy self-serve financial intelligence across the business. Enable R&D, GTM, and G&A leaders to answer their own financial questions through natural language interfaces and live dashboards — reducing FP&A's role as a data provider and expanding its role as a strategic advisor. Partner cross-functionally with R&D, GTM, and G&A leadership. Build a business partnering model that is rigorous, trusted, and powered by real-time data, not last month's numbers Lead a lean, high-impact FP&A team. Manage a small team that punches above its weight by making AI fluency, analytical judgment, and strategic communication core competencies, favoring hands-on, high-leverage contribution over growing headcount The Expectations First 30 Days: Get deeply oriented in the business, revenue model, go-to-market motion, R&D investment strategy, and current financial systems. Assess honestly where the team's time is going to work that AI should own. Build strong relationships with the CFO, the Executive Leadership team, and your team. By 60 Days: Establish yourself as a trusted partner with a clear-eyed diagnosis of planning process, forecasting cadence, data architecture, and AI readiness. Begin shaping a phased transformation roadmap, starting with the highest-ROI automation opportunities. By 90 Days: Deliver an AI-Native FP&A Transformation Roadmap, a Data & Metrics Foundation Plan, a redesigned Planning & Forecasting process, and a long-range strategic financial model supporting the company's next phase of growth. You Have 8+ years of progressive experience in finance, spanning investment banking, private equity, and/or FP&A at a high-growth company, with a strong foundation in financial modeling and analysis. We're open to candidates earlier in their career with particularly strong investment banking or transaction experience, provided they bring exceptional modeling speed and fluency with modern AI tools. Fluency with recurring and consumption-based revenue models and the metrics that drive them — ARR, net and gross retention, cohort economics, payback — or clear evidence you'll get there fast. A strong ownership instinct and a bias toward speed. You take problems across the finish line without being asked twice, and you'd rather land a good answer this week than a perfect one next month. A track record of driving AI or tech