Head of Finance (gn) @ DefenceTech Venture, Konstanz

About The Venture

HIGHCAT builds technology that protects those who protect us. We develop advanced systems for military units, delivering tools that enhance situational awareness, improve decision-making, and save lives in high-stakes environments. Our customers operate in conditions where technology failure means mission failure, and mission failure can mean loss of life. We take that responsibility seriously.

We're backed by leading venture capital and strategic partners who understand that defense, public safety, and critical infrastructure represent not just massive markets, but moral imperatives. Our team combines deep technical expertise with operational experience in the domains we serve. We're building for scale while staying primarily focused on the people who depend on our technology most. If you believe that technology should serve those who serve, and that financial excellence is imperative to how mission-driven companies turn vision into reality, HIGHCAT is where you belong.

Your Role & Responsiblities

As Head of Finance at HIGHCAT, you'll build and own the financial engine that turns novel technology into mission-ready equipment that saves lives. You'll design the processes and systems that guide major decisions, from pricing and margins to CapEx, cash runway, and project financing, ensuring HIGHCAT scales fast and remains in control.

This is a highly critical finance role where you will work closely with our CEO and leadership. While reporting numbers is a must, you'll also shape strategy, influence cross-functional executives, and make consequent calls with incomplete information. You will have the authority to build and guide the finance team with your judgment directly impacting our ability to deliver reliable products to soldiers and other critical teams in environments with no margin for error.

Accounting & Financial Reporting

• Own and drive the monthly close process to ensure accurate and reliable financial reporting.

• Coordinate the preparation of annual financial statements (HGB) together with external accountants and auditors.

• Ensure our financial data is accurate, structured, and audit-ready at all times.

• Establish simple, clear accounting processes that ensure compliance while keeping the company operationally fast.

Margin & Cost Controlling

• Turn cost and margin data into decisions: identify margin leaks in COGS, supplier costs, rework, warranty, and operational inefficiencies.

• Build cost transparency across products and projects. Enable engineering, operations, and sales to make better tradeoffs.

• Establish pricing logic and profitability frameworks that balance growth, competitiveness, and long-term sustainability.

Budgeting & Performance Management

• Build and maintain company-wide and departmental budgets.

• Define and track key financial and operational KPIs.

• Conduct variance analysis (actual vs plan) and identify key drivers.

• Provide financial insights that support strategic and operational decision-making.

Liquidity, Working Capital & Cash Planning

• Own HIGHCAT's cash position and runway with real-time clarity.

• Monitor and optimize working capital drivers.

• Build future-oriented cash plans that allow leadership to move decisively.

Scalable Systems and Infrastructure

• Implement tools, workflows, and metrics that provide real-time visibility into financial health while minimizing bureaucracy.

• Build dashboards that make financial performance legible to non-finance teams so the entire company can operate with financial intelligence.

• Anticipate financial bottlenecks before they constrain growth, and deploy solutions that scale without adding unnecessary headcount.

Financing CapEx & Funding Strategy

• Own CapEx planning end-to-end: evaluate investments, prioritize build vs buy decisions, and ensure capital is deployed where it compounds mission impact.

• Identify and pursue public funding, grants, subsidies, and strategic financing opportunities aligned with HIGHCAT's markets and growth trajectory.

• Build narratives, models, and reporting that strengthen HIGHCAT's fundraising readiness and strategic leverage.

What You Can Expect

Compensation and Ownership

• Competitive compensation package with a significant equity stake that reflects the strategic importance of this role and allows you to share meaningfully in the company's success.

Mission and Impact

• Daily work with tangible real-world consequences: your systems and decisions directly affect the safety and effectiveness of firefighters, soldiers, and emergency responders.

• Opportunity to shape company strategy at the highest level, with a seat at the table for all major decisions.

Culture and Environment

• High-trust, low-bureaucracy culture where ownership is real, decisions move fast, and competence is rewarded with increasing responsibility.

• Work alongside our company executives, Jan Hartmann, Dominik Faißt, and Mario Lebherz, who are builders first and optimise for mission success over politics.

• Transparent communication from leadership about company performance, strategic challenges, and growth trajectory.

Professional Growth

• Complexity that will stretch your capabilities and accelerate your development as a financial leader.

• Exposure to novel technology deployment in some of the world's most demanding operational contexts.

• Foundation-building experience at a company where your financial expertise will shape organizational DNA for years to come.

What you need to succeed

• Substaintial experience in finance, accounting, or controlling leadership roles at high-growth scale-ups, consumer electronics companies, overseeing hardware and software integration or transaction environment (M&A / fundraising).

• Track record of building financial systems from scratch in hyper-fast-paced environments where the demand for dashboards, metrics, and cost transparency is high.

• Strong financial modeling and cash management skills, building operating models that leadership actually trusts and uses.

• Proven ability to lead cross-functionally without direct authority, influencing decisions through clarity, relationships, and strong judgment.

• Exceptional decision-making under pressure: you've made consequential calls with incomplete information, owned the results, and earned trust through performance.

• Demonstrable experience with investor reporting, budgeting, and strategic finance, including fundraising readiness.

• Genuine passion for HIGHCAT's mission and motivated by the reality that financial excellence directly enables people who operate in harm's way.