Vichara is a financial services–focused products and services firm headquartered in New York, building technology systems for some of the largest investment banks and hedge funds in the world.

The Director of Finance Technology is a senior technology leader responsible for managing and evolving Vichara’s financial systems ecosystem. This role bridges finance, technology, and operations—ensuring that the company’s financial platforms, data architecture, and processes are efficient, secure, and strategically aligned with business objectives. The Director will partner closely with Finance, IT, and business leadership to modernize systems, enhance automation, and deliver insightful financial analytics that drive operational excellence and informed decision-making.

Duties and Responsibilities

• Develop and execute a finance technology roadmap aligned with corporate goals and finance transformation initiatives.
• Collaborate with the CFO, CIO, and business leaders to identify opportunities for process automation, analytics enhancement, and systems optimization.
• Lead modernization of financial systems—including ERP, FP&A, Treasury, Procurement, and Reporting platforms.
• Oversee the design, implementation, and ongoing maintenance of finance applications and their integration with other enterprise systems (HR, CRM, Data Warehouse, BI).
• Drive adoption of cloud-based and AI-enabled finance tools, improving speed, accuracy, and scalability.
• Ensure system compliance with financial, regulatory, and data governance requirements (SOX, GDPR, audit standards).
• Implement and enforce IT controls, cybersecurity, and access management for financial platforms.
• Partner with Finance and Operations teams to translate business requirements into robust technical solutions.
• Manage relationships with technology vendors, consultants, and system integrators.
• Lead, mentor, and grow a high-performing finance technology team focused on delivery excellence and innovation.
• Establish and monitor KPIs to evaluate system performance, data integrity, and project success.

Skills, Knowledge & Abilities

• Strong background in finance systems and process automation, with a proven track record in ERP, analytics, and reporting platforms (SAP, Oracle, Workday, or similar).
• Deep understanding of financial processes—accounting, treasury, FP&A, procurement, tax, and reporting.
• Experience in IT governance, risk management, and compliance frameworks.
• Familiarity with AI/LLM technologies and their potential in finance operations and analytics.
• Working knowledge of cloud architecture, data integration, and API-driven systems.
• Experience managing or collaborating with teams using modern software development practices (CI/CD, agile, DevOps).
• Proficiency in software and project management tools such as JIRA, Confluence, GitHub, Bitbucket, and SQL Management Studio.
• Strong analytical, communication, and stakeholder engagement skills.
• Hands-on approach balanced with strategic thinking and execution leadership.

Education & Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Information Technology, Computer Science, or a related discipline (Master’s or MBA preferred).
• 10–15 years of experience in finance technology or IT leadership roles, including ERP/financial system implementation and digital transformation.
• Experience in financial services or investment management environments strongly preferred.

Benefits

• 401(k)
• Health and dental insurance
• Paid time off
• Collaborative, technology-driven culture focused on innovation in financial systems

GenAI Framework Development – Develop custom frameworks using GPT APIs or LLaMA for alternate data analysis and insights generation. Optimize LLM usage for investment-specific workflows, including data enrichment, summarization, and predictive analysis.

Automation & Orchestration – Design and implement document ingestion workflows using tools such as n8n (or similar orchestration frameworks). Build modular pipelines for structured and unstructured data.

Infrastructure & Deployment – Architect deployment strategies on cloud (AWS, GCP, Azure) or private compute environments (CoreWeave, on-premises GPU clusters). Ensure high availability, scalability, and security in deployed AI systems.

Strong proficiency in Python with experience in frameworks such as TensorFlow or PyTorch.

2+ years of experience in Generative AI and Large Language Models (LLMs).

Experience with VectorDBs (e.g., Pinecone, Weaviate, Milvus, FAISS) and document ingestion pipelines.

Familiarity with data orchestration tools (e.g., n8n, Airflow, LangChain Agents).

Understanding of cloud deployments and GPU infrastructure (CoreWeave or equivalent).

Proven leadership skills with experience managing cross-functional engineering teams.

Strong problem-solving skills and ability to work in fast-paced, data-driven environments.

Experience with financial or investment data platforms.

Knowledge of RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) systems.

Familiarity with frontend integration for AI-powered applications.

Exposure to MLOps practices for continuous training and deployment.