Vice President Strategic Finance

VP, Strategic Finance

Emergence (Automotive Group)

Location

San Francisco

Compensation

$200,000 to $375,000, depending on years of experience

Please apply through the Google form linked at the bottom.

ABOUT EMERGENCE AUTOMOTIVE

Emergence Automotive is the AutoTech portfolio within Emergence, a thematic holding company backed by The Pritzker Organization. We buy and build category-defining software businesses in and around the car business: vehicle acquisition, inventory management, dealer workflow, and the tools operators rely on every day. Emergence is not a passive investment platform and not a traditional Private Equity Fund. We work closely as an embedded team with our companies and continue to build the platform through acquisitions and organic growth initiatives inside the vertical.

Today the automotive portfolio represents more than $35 million of ARR across several businesses, with a live M&A pipeline that is active and accelerating. That mix, real operating companies today, plus a steady stream of acquisition opportunities, is what makes this role different from a traditional finance seat.

THE ROLE

This is a VP role on a small, high-ownership team reporting to the operating partners in Emergence Automotive and the Head of Strategic Finance. The center of gravity is operating finance: working directly with portfolio company CEOs and leadership teams to understand performance, improve decision-making, allocate capital, and build stronger software businesses. You will be close to real operating questions, what is working, what is not, where growth is coming from, where margin is hiding, and what the business should do next.

M&A is also a meaningful part of the job because it is a meaningful part of how we grow. We are acquiring at a high velocity inside the automotive vertical, so an investor skillset is genuinely helpful here: strong modeling judgment, comfort with diligence, downside-case discipline, combination models / forecasts and a clear view on whether a deal creates value after it closes. You should be comfortable with acquisition models, merger and mergerco models, synergy cases, integration economics, financing structures, and the post-close plan that turns a thesis into results.

The best person for this seat can move easily between the boardroom and the operating cadence. They can sit with a CEO and unpack retention, sales productivity, cash conversion, or pricing, then step back and ask whether we should buy, build, integrate, finance, or change course. We are looking for a strategic thought partner that can handle individual output like an analyst but with judgment, clarity, and a point of view that changes what we decide to do from a strategic standpoint.

WHAT YOU WILL DO

Own the strategic finance cadence across the automotive portfolio, including forecasting, performance management, KPI reporting, operating reviews, and CEO-level decision support.

Build operating models that go well beyond a budget, including scenario planning, retention and cohort economics, cash and working capital, unit economics, return frameworks, and capital allocation decisions.

Partner directly with portfolio company leadership teams to turn analysis into operating recommendations, what to change, where to focus, and what needs to be true for the plan to work.

Lead and support M&A work across the vertical, including acquisition modeling, diligence, synergy analysis, integration planning, financing considerations, and the value-creation roadmap after close.

Build board- and investor-quality materials, help set finance standards across the portfolio, and raise the bar for analysts and teammates through direct feedback, crisp writing, and strong modeling discipline.

BACKGROUNDS THAT TEND TO FIT

We are not looking for one perfect resume. Strong fits often come from strategic finance or FP&A roles inside SaaS or software companies; corporate development roles with hands-on M&A and integration work; private equity, venture capital, or investment banking with live deal reps early in their career; operating finance roles where you have worked directly with executives; or audit and accounting backgrounds that have since moved into commercial, strategic, or operating finance. What matters most is that you like this kind of work and have the pace, judgment, and ownership to do it well from both an organic and inorganic standpoint.

WHAT MATTERS MOST IN THIS SEAT

You can move from first principles to the exact cell in the model and back again without losing the thread. You like operating questions as much as transaction questions: why retention moved, why sales productivity changed, why cash conversion looks the way it does, what the margin profile should become, and what we should do about it. You do not need a big team or a perfect process to make progress, and you know how to communicate with busy executives: what matters, what does not, and what you recommend.

You take ownership in a way that makes other people's jobs easier. You hold a high bar for the work, but you are practical, collaborative, and not precious about how things get done. You are comfortable being in the room, defending your view, changing your mind when the facts change, and turning ambiguous problems into clean analysis and clear next steps.

WHAT WE ARE LOOKING FOR

We are looking for roughly 3 to 10+ years of relevant experience across strategic finance, operating finance, corporate development, investing, investment banking, FP&A, or accounting with a commercial finance arc. The broad background base is intentional because we don’t believe there’s a perfect route or set of experience for this role. You should have strong financial modeling ability and be comfortable owning operating models end to end. Experience with acquisition, merger, or mergerco models is a strong plus, especially given the pace of M&A, but this is primarily an operating role. The job is about helping build and operate better software businesses.

Strong writing and communication matter a lot here. You should be able to lead a room, work directly with senior stakeholders, move quickly without heavy process, and connect the analysis to a real decision. We value people who can bring structure without bureaucracy, intensity without ego, and a clear recommendation when the answer is not obvious.

APPLY

Apply here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfAGb6nt039TMM5ih20YnyV4Vo-7utv0LYJ1IpixwCyJxfRgA/viewform