Divisional Chief Financial Officer — Data-Centre Silicon Platform

The mandate

A US data-centre silicon platform has announced important customer engagements and is managing deployment dates, software adoption, system qualification and production volumes. Engineering investment and external capacity commitments continue against lifetime forecasts that distinguish evaluation from scaled workload use. The board has created a Divisional Chief Financial Officer role to establish one economic truth from design engagement through deployed revenue.

Approximately 1,400 employees and material partners span silicon, systems, software, commercial, operations and functions. The CFO owns divisional planning, control, programme finance, cash, investment and commercial challenge and reports to the Group Chief Executive and relevant board committee.

Programme stages must reflect customer evidence. Evaluation silicon, platform qualification, software port, workload validation, deployment approval and production order carry different probability and cost. The CFO will build milestone economics and prevent headline lifetime value from funding every upstream request.

The full product stack belongs in margin. Masks, wafers, advanced packages, boards, firmware, compilers, field engineering, cloud validation and warranty cannot sit in disconnected budgets. A silicon gross margin that excludes adoption cost is not a divisional return.

Capacity commitments require staged approval. Foundry and packaging reservations are valuable but can become stranded when tape-out or customer deployment moves. The CFO will price flexibility, cancellation and inventory exposure against evidence.

Revenue and contract accounting require acceptance and collectability. Upfront NRE, milestones and volume rebates must match actual obligations. Finance will challenge a programme without weakening engineering sign-off or customer relationships.

The role is urgent because the next roadmap funding decision cannot use the existing pipeline model. The CFO will build an embedded programme-finance team and clarify interfaces with group control.

Customer concentration needs explicit downside. One large deployment can drive architecture, inventory and support while retaining cancellation or performance rights. The CFO will model delay, partial rollout, workload migration and pricing renegotiation, including how engineering can be reused. A strategic logo cannot exempt a programme from cash and return thresholds.

Software economics will track continuing obligation. Compiler optimisation, firmware updates, security response and developer support persist after silicon ships. Headcount cannot be classified entirely as future R&D when it sustains contracted deployments. Cohort reporting will show acquisition, enablement, run support and renewal value.

Inventory valuation must distinguish engineering samples, customer evaluation units, production-released systems and constrained components. Product that cannot satisfy current configuration or quality requirements is not interchangeable stock. Finance will reconcile physical status, ownership and recoverability and will not use channel transfers to delay an obsolescence decision.

Benefits from roadmap simplification will be evidenced through actual avoided masks, capacity, engineering and support, net of transition. Reassigned engineers are not cash savings. The CFO will stop double counting across product, operations and transformation initiatives.

Tax and incentive cases must follow the technical operating model. IP location, engineering services, prototype transfers and customer support can create cross-border obligations that differ from invoice flow. Specialist advice will precede any restructuring, and incentives will be recognised only where performance conditions and continuing eligibility are evidenced.

Working-capital decisions will include supplier deposits, prepaid capacity and customer-owned development assets. Finance will distinguish recoverable rights from sunk commitments and negotiate release or transfer without jeopardising a viable programme. Cash gains cannot rely on unilateral supplier delay.

What you will own

• Establish probability-based customer and roadmap programme economics.
• Integrate silicon, software, systems, field and lifecycle cost.
• Govern capacity, masks, NRE, inventory and capital commitments.
• Lead divisional forecast, cash, control and board reporting.
• Challenge pricing, commercial terms and customer concentration.
• Validate revenue, provisions and investment benefits.
• Reallocate resources when deployment evidence changes.
• Build commercial and programme-finance talent.

The first 12 months

In the first 60 days, rebuild the largest customer cases, reconcile milestones to spend and identify unsupported capacity or revenue assumptions. Establish interim approval gates.

By month six, deploy one programme-economic model, renegotiate priority commitments and align funding to customer adoption. Complete the finance team and portfolio downside scenarios.

At twelve months, improve deployment-revenue forecast accuracy by 35%, avoid or recover US$75 million of unsupported programme spend and place 95% of capacity commitments behind approved evidence. Divisional margin should improve by three points without deferring lifecycle obligations. Audit should identify no significant programme-accounting control failure.

What the board will measure

• Customer engagement translated into adoption probability.
• Full-stack cost visible in product economics.
• Capacity and NRE staged against technical and commercial evidence.
• Resources moved when deployment assumptions fail.
• Revenue and cash forecasts trusted across functions.
• Finance challenging without becoming product management.

The person

You bring 22–28 years in semiconductor or infrastructure-technology finance, including divisional CFO responsibility. You have governed long product cycles, advanced manufacturing commitments and software-enabled customer adoption.

Your prior scope should exceed US$1 billion investment or revenue and 1,000 employees and partners. Evidence must include a design-win valuation you reduced, a capacity commitment changed and a full-stack margin correction. Audit-committee credibility is required.

Compensation and terms

Base compensation is US$430,000–575,000 plus annual incentive and equity linked to programme value, cash, forecast, control and leadership. This permanent onsite Austin role reports to the Group Chief Executive and relevant board committee. Prompt appointment supports the funding cycle.

Confidentiality

The platform, customers, products, roadmap, economics and suppliers are confidential. Detail follows suitability, conflicts and signed confidentiality. Applicants must not contact customers or advisers to identify the enterprise.