Director, FP&A - Product & Engineering

Company Description

Organizations everywhere struggle under the crushing costs and complexities of “solutions” that promise to simplify their lives. To create a better experience for their customers and employees. To help them grow. Software is a choice that can make or break a business. Create better or worse experiences. Propel or throttle growth. Business software has become a blocker instead of ways to get work done.

There’s another option. Freshworks. With a fresh vision for how the world works.

At Freshworks, we build uncomplicated service software that delivers exceptional customer and employee experiences. Our enterprise-grade solutions are powerful, yet easy to use, and quick to deliver results. Our people-first approach to AI eliminates friction, making employees more effective and organizations more productive. Over 72,000 companies, including Bridgestone, New Balance, Nucor, S&P Global, and Sony Music, trust Freshworks’ customer experience (CX) and employee experience (EX) software to fuel customer loyalty and service efficiency.

And, over 4,500 Freshworks employees make this possible, all around the world.

Fresh vision. Real impact. Come build it with us.

Job Description

We re looking for a seasoned FP&A leader to join our R&D Finance team as a Director, partnering closely with our Product and Engineering organizations. Reporting to the VP of Finance, this role sits at the intersection of strategy, cloud economics, and execution.

You ll be a trusted advisor to senior leaders, helping drive smart investment decisions, financial discipline, and operational excellence in a high-growth, cloud-first environment.

• Act as a trusted finance partner to Product and Engineering leadership, supporting 1-year and 3-year strategic planning
• Proactively surface risks and opportunities tied to growth, product roadmap, and investment trade-offs
• Influence decisions and outcomes through data-backed insights, storytelling, and strong executive presence

• Lead and track public cloud optimization initiatives in close partnership with Engineering teams
• Build clear visibility into cloud spend, unit economics, and run-rates for leadership
• Drive savings through rightsizing, reserved instance/committed use management, storage optimization, and workload scheduling
• Develop and maintain cloud cost dashboards using native tools (e.g., AWS Cost Explorer, Google Cloud Billing) and third-party platforms

• Build robust forecasts and budgets for R&D and cloud spend based on headcount, usage patterns, and product plans
• Create financial models to support strategic initiatives, go-to-market investments, and ROI analysis
• Partner with Corporate and GTM FP&A teams to align assumptions, KPIs, and financial plans

• Lead large cloud and infrastructure purchase orders, renewals, and negotiations
• Support vendor selection with pricing analysis, build-vs-buy evaluations, and business cases
• Ensure strong financial controls, compliance, and cost-effective procurement

• Prepare month-end close packages, variance analyses, and executive reporting to provide transparency into business performance
• Partner closely with Accounting and cross-functional teams to ensure accuracy and alignment
• Define and track KPIs that drive better decision-making and execution

Please note this is a hybrid role with onsite expectations of 3x/week (Tuesday - Thursday) from our San Mateo, CA headquarters

• 15+ years of experience in FP&A
• Deep expertise in public cloud financial management (AWS and Azure), including cost governance, forecasting, and optimization
• Ability to influence all levels of leadership to drive actions, behaviors, decisions, and business outcomes
• Advanced proficiency in Microsoft Excel/ Google Sheets to analyze complex business scenarios by building/improving financial models
• Proven experience partnering with senior Product and Engineering leaders
• Solid accounting foundation, ideally in a SaaS or software environment
• Excellent communication skills with the ability to present complex…