Head of Financial Planning and Analysis

POSITION SUMMARY

Ouster is seeking a Head of FP&A, EMEA to serve as the senior financial partner and strategic advisor to the company’s European leadership, based in our Paris office. This director-level leader owns financial planning, analysis, and business partnership across our EMEA Sales, Operations, and R&D functions, with particular depth of engagement in France, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands.

This is a highly cross-functional role at the intersection of regional leadership and global finance. The successful candidate will be the trusted right hand to the Heads of our StereoLabs (Camera) Division and Lidar development organizations in Europe and to the Head of EMEA Sales — translating operating plans into financial rigor, and financial results into clear, decision-ready insight. The role also works daily across time zones and functions with our Shared Services team in Thailand and corporate FP&A and Accounting at our San Francisco headquarters, making it a critical connective node in Ouster’s global finance organization.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Regional FP&A Leadership – Sales, Operations & R&D

• Own end-to-end financial planning, budgeting, forecasting, and management reporting for Ouster’s EMEA Sales, Operations, and R&D functions.
• Serve as the lead financial business partner across our France, UK, and Netherlands operations, with regular on-the-ground engagement in each location.
• Build and maintain rolling forecasts, headcount plans, and opex/capex budgets in partnership with functional leaders; proactively flag risks and opportunities against plan.
• Drive monthly and quarterly business reviews for EMEA leadership, delivering clear variance analysis, KPI tracking, and actionable recommendations.

Strategic Partnership – Camera Division & Lidar Development (Europe)

• Act as the key financial partner to the Heads of StereoLabs Division and Lidar development organizations in Europe, embedding in their leadership routines and strategic planning.
• Provide program- and product-level financial visibility into R&D investment, engineering spend, and roadmap trade-offs to support prioritization decisions.
• Partner on business cases for new product investment, headcount build-out, and capital equipment tied to European engineering and development sites.

Strategic Partnership – EMEA Sales

• Serve as the key financial partner to the Head of EMEA Sales, owning revenue planning, pipeline-to-forecast analysis, and commercial performance reporting across the region.
• Partner on deal economics, pricing, discounting strategy, and channel/partner profitability across France, UK, Netherlands, and the broader EMEA territory.
• Support sales compensation planning and quota-setting in coordination with Sales leadership and corporate FP&A.

Cross-Functional & Global Finance Collaboration

• Partner daily with Ouster’s Shared Services team in Thailand on transactional accounting, close support, and reporting handoffs, ensuring clean, timely, and accurate regional financials.
• Work closely with corporate FP&A, Accounting, and Treasury at San Francisco headquarters to align EMEA plans with global consolidated forecasts, guidance, and Board reporting.
• Support global initiatives (annual operating plan, long-range plan, systems rollouts) with an EMEA lens, ensuring regional nuances are reflected in company-wide models.
• Coordinate across time zones (EMEA / APAC / U.S. Pacific) to keep planning cycles, close calendars, and reporting deadlines on track.

Reporting, Systems & Controls

• Own EMEA data integrity and reporting within the company’s ERP and FP&A planning tools, partnering with corporate systems teams on enhancements and automation.
• Ensure financial reporting and statutory support for France, UK, and Netherlands entities aligns with local requirements and public-company (SOX / internal controls) standards.
• Develop dashboards and self-service reporting that give EMEA leaders real-time visibility into their financials without manual, ad hoc requests.

Team Leadership

• Build, lead, and develop an EMEA FP&A team as the region scales, setting a high bar for analytical rigor, business partnership, and executive-ready communication.
• Mentor and coach analysts, fostering a culture of ownership, accuracy, and proactive problem-solving.

QUALIFICATIONS & EXPERIENCE

• Has the ability to be a leader and drive consensus and thought leadership at Ouster
• 10+ years of progressive FP&A experience, including several years in a leadership capacity managing both business partnership and, ideally, a direct team.
• Public company experience required, with working familiarity with SOX controls, quarterly reporting cycles, and the discipline of guidance-linked forecasting.
• Prior hands-on use of a large-scale ERP (Oracle, SAP, or NetSuite) strongly preferred; comfort partnering with systems/IT teams on process and reporting improvements.
• Experience with modern FP&A planning and reporting tools (e.g., Workday Adaptive Planning, Anaplan, OneStream, Hyperion/Oracle EPM, or similar).
• Track record supporting Sales, Operations, and/or R&D/engineering organizations, ideally within a hardware, technology, or industrial products company.
• Demonstrated ability to operate as a true business partner to senior functional leaders, not solely a reporting function — comfortable in the room shaping strategy, not just summarizing results.
• Experience working within a global finance organization, including regular collaboration with shared services and/or offshore finance teams and a U.S. headquarters.
• Multi-country / multi-currency EMEA experience, with working knowledge of French statutory and reporting requirements; exposure to UK and Dutch requirements a plus.
• Fluent English and French required; Dutch a plus.
• Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Accounting, Economics, or related field; MBA, CFA, DSCG, or equivalent professional qualification a plus.
• Willingness to travel regularly across France, the UK, and the Netherlands, with periodic travel to San Francisco headquarters and other global sites.
• Proficiency in both French and English. 

KEY COMPETENCIES

• Trusted strategic partner – builds credibility quickly with senior functional and regional leaders and is sought out as a thought partner, not just a numbers provider.
• Cross-cultural, cross-time-zone operator – works effectively across EMEA, APAC (Thailand), and U.S. Pacific stakeholders and rhythms.
• Structured and analytically rigorous – translates complex, multi-function data into clear, decision-ready insight.
• Systems-minded – comfortable owning and improving ERP-driven and FP&A-tool-driven reporting processes rather than relying on manual workarounds.
• People leader – builds and develops talent as the regional team scales.
• Comfortable with ambiguity and scale – thrives in a fast-moving, growth-stage public company balancing global consistency with regional nuance.