Director of Finance

As Director of Finance & Analytics, you will play a critical role in strengthening Pinkston’s financial foundation by improving visibility, reliability, and scalability across our finance systems, reporting, and planning processes. This role combines financial analysis with systems and analytics expertise, emphasizing automated reporting, reliable data, and scalable tools that support faster, more informed decision-making.

You will partner closely with the CEO and senior leaders on budgeting, forecasting, pricing, and financial insights, while operating within an existing finance environment that is evolving, with established systems today and meaningful opportunity to modernize and scale over time. Because Pinkston is a professional services firm, success in this role requires a strong understanding of—or the ability to quickly master—the financial and operational levers unique to services businesses, including utilization, project-based financials, and margin management.

This is a finance-first role that also touches adjacent areas such as pricing, compensation planning, insurance renewals, and contract financials. It is well-suited for a rising finance professional who enjoys building systems and processes today and growing into broader financial leadership and ownership over time.

Ideal candidates bring approximately 5–8 years of progressive finance experience, with increasing ownership of financial modeling, reporting, and planning, as well as proven expertise in building or improving the financial systems that power those functions.

Additional Details

• Status: Exempt, Salaried
• Work Location: Falls Church, VA
• Travel: 0%
• Reports to: Christian Pinkston, CEO

     Finance Core 

• Lead financial planning, reporting, and analysis across the firm, including P&L reporting, cash flow forecasting, and working capital monitoring
• Support the annual planning and forecasting cycle (monthly and quarterly), and prepare executive-level financial reporting
• Develop forward-looking financial models and scenario analyses to support growth goals such as margin expansion, pricing decisions, and operational scalability
• Partner with service-line leaders to analyze profitability by client and engagement, and support pricing strategy for large projects and RFPs, including maintaining and improving firm-wide rate cards
• Coordinate with external CPA firm for tax strategy/execution.
• Build a strong understanding of Pinkston’s business model to deliver clear, actionable financial insights to leadership

Finance Systems & Analytics

• Own and improve Pinkston’s finance and business systems (e.g., PSA, accounting, expense management), with a focus on data accuracy, integration, and usability
• Build and maintain automated reporting and dashboards that provide timely insight into utilization, margins, cash flow, and key performance indicators
• Identify opportunities to streamline workflows and reduce manual processes through improved tooling, system configuration, integrations, or automation
• Partner with internal stakeholders to ensure financial data supports better operational and strategic decision-making 

Cross-Functional Responsibilities

• Collaborate with HR and practice leaders to support annual headcount and compensation planning 
• Analyze benefits and insurance renewals to support the selection of optimal packages  
• Review and support financial and commercial terms in client and vendor contracts, collaborating with leadership and external counsel as needed
• Evaluate and implement financial tools and improve processes to increase efficiency and scalability

Requirements

Required

• Approximately 5-8 years of progressive finance experience, including FP&A, financial modeling, and operational finance
• Experience supporting budgeting and forecasting cycles and translating business goals into practical financial models and insights
• Strong analytical skills with the ability to work confidently with data, systems, and financial models
• Comfort working with financial and business systems; experience building dashboards, automations, or system integrations strongly preferred
• Ability to communicate financial information clearly and pragmatically to non-finance stakeholders
• Alignment with Pinkston’s guiding principles.

Preferred

• Experience in professional services economics (utilization, rate cards, project-based accounting, revenue recognition)
• Exposure to compensation planning, benefits analysis, or contract negotiations
• Demonstrated ability to improve or build financial processes in growing organizations
• Technical curiosity and aptitude (e.g., BI tools, PSA optimization, APIs, SQL, Python, or automation platforms)
• Demonstrated history of advancing responsibility within an organization, coupled with a desire to grow into broader finance leadership over time

Pinkston is a full-service branding, marketing, and communications agency offering integrated public relations, creative, digital, and research services to transform companies and organizations. As an outcome-driven agency, Pinkston is committed to delivering customized, strategic solutions that drive real-world impact. 

We serve a broad portfolio of clients across sectors — including government and public sector organizations, corporations and consumer brands, public affairs initiatives, and a significant number of faith-based organizations and mission-driven non-profits.

Benefits

Pinkston offers a comprehensive benefits package that includes company-sponsored health, dental, and vision plans accompanied by employer-funded life insurance, HRA, and short-term disability plan. Optional long-term disability and additional Life Insurance are also available. Pinkston provides a 401k retirement plan and contributes to each employee’s retirement annually regardless of employee participation.

At Pinkston, we believe great things happen when people come together and are committed to building a collaborative in-person work environment. Pinkston is also committed to a healthy work-life balance. We offer flexibility through an innovative hybrid work model that gives team members the opportunity to work from home up to 30% of the time. Pinkston provides generous holiday and vacation policies, paid parental leave, and an additional week of paid “volunteer time off” to encourage employees to invest time in a 501C non-profit of their choice.

Pinkston is an equal opportunity employer that is committed to diversity and inclusion in the workplace. We prohibit discrimination and harassment of any kind based on race, color, sex, religion, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, genetic information, pregnancy, or any other protected characteristic as outlined by federal, state, or local laws. This policy applies to all employment practices within our organization, including hiring, recruiting, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, leave of absence, compensation, benefits, training, and apprenticeship. Pinkston makes hiring decisions based solely on qualifications, merit, and business needs at the time.