Strategic Finance Director

Job description

## **About Beacon Software** [Beacon](https://beaconsoftware.com/) is building the essential technology infrastructure for the everyday economy: the businesses, organizations, and services that make real life work, and that mainstream tech has largely left behind. We acquire, operate, and grow vertical market software companies. They are niche, founder-built businesses serving industries that are often overlooked and too profitable to ignore. Our model is simple: we seek out founders who have built their business by spending years understanding their market and prioritizing their customers' specific needs. We buy great businesses, invest in their continued growth, and hold them permanently, accelerating that growth with an AI-native platform built specifically for vertical market software. No mandate to cut, flip, or roll up into something unrecognizable. We are not a financial firm. We are technology entrepreneurs and operators who believe the most important businesses in the world are already running quietly in industries most people never think about. Our job is to find them, support the people who built them, and make them better. Beacon is backed by a diverse base of investors, with $550M+ raised to date, including General Catalyst, Lightspeed, D1 Capital, CPMG, the family offices of the founders of Stripe, DoorDash, and Ramp, and evergreen funds built for the long game. ## **Role and Mission** This is an exciting and entrepreneurial opportunity to join a fast-paced technology company with a very significant growth trajectory. Beacon Software is making its first hire on the Strategic Finance team. This is a role where investing turns into building. The individual will report to Beacon’s VP, Strategic Finance and work closely with Beacon’s CEO, CTO, M&A Directors, industry pod leaders, and the General Managers of Beacon’s portfolio companies. The Strategic Finance team’s mandate spans the financial decisions that shape Beacon: partnering with portfolio companies on growth and value creation, building AI-native systems that let functions scale non-linearly with the portfolio, owning Beacon’s capital allocation across organic and inorganic strategies, leading new strategy extensions beyond core software M&A, and building Beacon’s capital markets capability. Team members work across a mix of these areas based on their interests and skillset. This is an asymmetric opportunity to build a company, with decision authority and velocity over process driving compounding equity. You’ll sit next to the CEO on capital allocation and capital markets, or fill a CFO role across dozens of companies on their most consequential decisions. The playbook will be shaped by you with the goal of building Beacon into a $100B company. To succeed in this role, this individual should be an enthusiastic and energetic self-starter, with the ability to translate operator intuition into financial decisions and build the analytical rigor behind Beacon’s platform-level bets. The ability to manage multiple workstreams simultaneously across portfolio companies and platform initiatives will be essential. We are seeking a collaborative professional who wants to contribute ideas on how to improve the status quo and create best-practices that will accelerate our execution. Teamwork and positivity are key foundations of this growing team’s culture and ethos. **Location:** for discussion. Beacon has offices in Toronto, San Francisco, New York, and Chicago. ## **What You'll Do** **Finance partner to acquired companies** - Partner with industry sector leaders and portfolio company General Managers as the financial decision-making engine across Beacon’s portfolio companies. - Translate product, AI, and operator intuition into investment decisions: pricing changes, sales hires, direct marketing investments, engineering allocation, and tuck-in M&A. - Build value creation plans, set budgets and targets, and make the day-to-day capital decisions that drive growth across companies. **Beacon capital allocation** - Help own platform-level capital allocation: organic platform investment vs. inorganic M&A, platform-level acquisitions vs. tuck-ins, debt vs. equity at the corporate level. - Build the analytical rigor behind Beacon’s platform-level bets, ensuring capital is deployed where returns are most asymmetric. **Strategy extension beyond core software M&A** - Own thesis through acquisition through ownership for new strategy extensions, starting with software-plus-services vertical integration in end markets where Beacon already owns software. - Partner with the M&A team for execution while driving the strategy, the diligence, and the post-close build. **Capital markets** - Lead Beacon’s debt strategy, support future equity raises, and prepare Beacon for an eventual IPO. - Build best-in-class debt and equity investor relations and position Beacon as an institutional-grade capital allocator. **Build AI-native finance systems** - Partner with Beacon’s CTO and engineering leadership on the company-wide tools that scale across the portfolio, including BeaconOS and AI-native financial systems. - Build the systems, dashboards, and decision frameworks that let sector leaders and GMs self-serve the financial answers they need, allowing the finance function to scale non-linearly with the portfolio. ## **Qualifications** - 3-8 years of post-undergrad experience in strategy consulting, private equity, or other finance roles (e.g., investment banking, growth equity, corporate development, or strategic finance). - Strong academic record from a competitive institution with a degree in Business, Finance, Economics, or a related quantitative field. - Investor mindset, analytical toolkit, and operator instinct: equally comfortable building a model and being in the room with a product leader or GM helping them make the call. - Expertise in building financial models, value creation plans, and analytical frameworks for capital allocation decisions. - Strong ability to synthesize complex systems and communicate clearly to senior stakeholders. - Familiarity with vertical market software, buy-and-build models, and the operating dynamics of small-to-mid-sized software businesses is a plus. - Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, with the ability to interact effectively with founders, CEOs, GMs, board members, and investors. - Ability to translate high-level objectives into actionable work plans and to manage multiple priorities simultaneously. - High attention to detail combined with the ability to zoom out and see the bigger picture. - Demonstrated high agency: comfort building the playbook, not just running it. - Curiosity and willingness to use AI tools heavily as part of the day-to-day workflow. - Conducts all interactions with a high level of integrity and trust. ## **What You Will Get From Beacon** - A first-team seat on a small, high-leverage Strategic Finance group at the center of Beacon’s platform, with the opportunity to shape the playbook from day one. - Direct exposure to M&A, capital markets, AI-native systems, and IPO-grade operations. - Network and learn from leading public and private equity investors who are Beacon LPs, including the founders of Stripe, DoorDash, and Ramp. - Attend exclusive Beacon Speaker Series fireside chats with legendary venture capital, private equity, and hedge fund investors as well as eminent technology leaders. - Work directly with Silicon Valley product and engineering teams on portfolio value creation and platform technology investments. - Compounding equity in a company structured as a permanent capital vehicle, with no pressure to exit. - A clear line of sight from your work to enterprise value creation across dozens of operating companies. - A unique work environment that combines a high-growth technology startup with a long-term buy-and-hold investment platform. ## **Ideal Candidate** - Based in or willing to work from Chicago. Location is for discussion for the right candidate. ## **Potential Personas** - Experience working at a top private equity, growth equity, or hedge fund. - Experience working at a top strategy consulting firm (MBB or equivalent). - Strategic finance or corporate development - Experience working at another serial acquirer, especially in software or vertical-market roll-ups. - Investment banking experience at a top-tier firm with software, technology, or M&A coverage. ## **Minimum Expectations** - Highly motivated with a strong work ethic. - Ability to manage multiple projects and deliverables simultaneously, with different timelines. ## **Descriptors of Personas That Succeed At Beacon** - High agency - Impatient with actions, patient with results - Play for front of the jersey - Intellectually curious - Perpetual learner - Low bureaucracy - Systems thinker - Optimistic - Commercial - Ambitious **Our Values at Beacon Software** - Humility: We acknowledge that the path to getting to the right answer involves being wrong along the way. We have strong beliefs which are weakly held. We actively seek new ideas and believe we can learn from anyone at any time. - Honesty: We are truth seeking in our approach to business problems. Business is a repeat game and we believe that human relationships generate alpha. We understand that trust is earned over a lifetime and can be lost in an instant. - Hunger: We play to win. We hold ourselves to high standards and will not be outworked. We take pride in having a deep sense of responsibility to ourselves, each other, our partners, and our customers. We believe to whom much is given much is expected. - Horizon: We seek to build a generational software company. This will take decades. We manage our expectations and those of our partners to take advantage of the 8th wonder of the world - compounding growth. ***How We Use AI in Our Hiring Process:** To ensure transparency, we want candidates to know that Beacon Software uses Artificial Intelligence and AI-enabled tools to assist with screening, reviewing, organizing and highlighting profiles and applications that match the key requirements for each role.* ***AI does not make hiring decisions:** Every application is reviewed by a member of our team, and all decisions throughout the process are made by humans. We use AI to support efficiency and consistency, not to replace human judgment. We are committed to a fair, thoughtful, and equitable experience for every candidate.*