Job Description
SpecBrief
VP Finance/CFO
Nyriad, is a software development company on the cusp of commercializing its first product, addressing the challenges and opportunities of the storage market. Nyriad is building the next generation of data storage systems by unifying the CPU, GPU, NVDIMM & storage media (HDD or Flash), enabling groundbreaking levels of performance, data integrity and resilience. The company was founded in Hamilton, New Zealand and is moving its HQ to Silicon Valley.
With today’s digital economy and exploding Big Data AI/ML applications, the need to store a petabyte of data or more is becoming commonplace. Existing data protection technologies, such as RAID controllers, erasure coding, and replication all have severe limitations and can’t cost effectively protect and store these vast data sets. RAID controllers have been the go-to solution for resilient storage arrays for the past several decades. Powerful erasure coding solutions provide an alternative to RAID but are very computation-intensive and consume too many CPU cycles to be viable for high-performance primary storage applications. As a result, erasure coding has been either combined with costly replication or relegated to lower performance applications such as archival storage. Further, many large-scale primary storage solutions depend on inefficient replication only. Hence, with the ever-growing demand for big data applications, the market is primed for a new approach to data protection that doesn’t require tradeoffs, one that combines performance, data protection, and resilience, while at the same time reducing cost and power.
With the rise of Artificial Intelligence, GPUs have shown their true value as the dominant accelerator for computation-intensive applications. To bring the power erasure coding to primary storage at scale, Nyriad has combined the processing power of CPUs and GPUs. In fact, Nyriad is the first company to coin the term “GPU Accelerated Storage” with its software-defined High-Performance-Storage-Controller (HPSC), achieving the highest levels of data protection, resilience, and performance with just one copy of the data.
The storage market is experiencing strong growth across all markets, including HPC, Backup and Archive, and primary storage. This has created a huge challenge for storage vendors to provided the necessary performance, data protection and relilience at scale, especially given there has been little innovation in this area. While storage volumes continue to increase dramatically, storage providers are trying to meet demand by increasing storage performance, while introducing more efficient methods of managing data across large multi-petabyte storage platforms. Nyriad’s GPU accelerated storage finally provides the innovative leap that can enable cost effective high performance storage at scale.
In total, Nyriad has raised US$34.4M from angel investors, high net worth individuals and VCs from NZ, Japan and the USA. Just as important as the sum raised, the more recent investors joining the company’s share register leave Nyriad well placed for subsequent investment rounds, particularly Guy Haddleton (see below) and associated lead investors who underwrote the last financing round and are seasoned technology investors.
EXECUTIVE MANAGEMENT/BOARD
Herb Hunt, Chief Executive Officer, Nyriad, as over 40 years’ experience in senior global operational and strategic roles in the technology industry with leading companies including IBM, Siebel Systems and Symphony Technology Group (STG). Hunt’s 30 year tenure with IBM included a three year stint as Chairman & CEO of IBM NZ before rising to lead operations in Asia Pacific and then Europe. His final role at IBM was to lead the transformation of IBM’s Global Sales and Services activities. After leaving IBM in 2001, Hunt spent five years with Siebel Systems and then a further five years with STG holding senior operational and strategy roles with both companies. Hunt currently heads his own company in the US which focuses improving performance in sales, services and product development for international technology companies. His client list includes SingTel, Objectivity, LG and MSC.
John Scaramuzzo, President and COO, Nyriad, most recently served as SVP of Enterprise Storage at Western Digital Corporation (WDC), formerly SanDisk, Scaramuzzo managed exceptional growth growing its startup enterprise flash business from $100M to over $1B annual run rate. He also pioneered technology for the world’s first storage product line using nonvolatile memory interface (NVMe) over Ethernet. In 2010, he founded Smart Storage Systems and served as President, building a new flash drive business to $100M annually in just three years, leading to its sale to SanDisk for $307M. John has been instrumental in several major M&A deals including serving as a key executive in the sale of Maxtor to Seagate for $2B in 2006. In 2011, John helped SMART Modular complete a sale to Silverlake Sumeru for $560M. Previously, as GM of Seagate Technology’s $4.5B Enterprise Compute Division, he directed a staff of 800+ worldwide, delivering an innovative roadmap, reducing operational costs and improving product time-to-market. Previously at Maxtor, he served as EVP responsible for $3.6B+ annual revenue. Scaramuzzo received a graduate degree from Harvard University and an undergraduate degree from Boston University.
The remaining members of the Executive Leadership Team include: Michael Macrides – CFO, Dr. Stuart Inglis – CTO, Kevan Pennington – Head of Engineering.
GENERAL DUTIES:
This position is an integral part of the Company’s management team, and works closely with the Company’s CEO to develop and implement the Company’s growth plan including, evaluating and executing on product and/or company acquisitions. Contributes to the Company’s yearly and long term business planning process, conducts analysis, and provides strategic financial advice on the overall direction of the Company and each individual project. This position directs and plans the financial activities and oversees all Accounting and Finance, as well as works to produce accurate and timely financial statements and reports for those inside and outside of the organization. This position also partners closely with our financial investors. This position requires the ability to make sound financial decisions, effectively communicate with outside parties regarding the financial affairs of the company, and remain focused on increasing the bottom line and maximizing profit.
POSITION RESPONSIBILITIES:
Work with CEO in planning financial goals/objectives for and maintaining financial stability for the company.
Work with CEO and senior management to develop and implement strategic business plans and operating initiatives
Responsible for maintaining monthly and quarterly financial updates for the Board of Directors, the investors,) external auditors, analysts, and all other external parties that require financial information
Oversee the month, quarter and year-end close process.
Maintain and update P&L, balance sheet, and cash flow forecast.
Complete all standard and ad-hoc financial analysis, as needed for the business planning process.
Oversee the System’s accounting/finance departments, procurement process, reimbursement, leases and purchased services contracts
Work with outside CPA in preparation of annual audit and tax returns.
Develop and maintain working relationship with banks, lenders, auditor, landlord, investors, and other relevant outside parties.
Develop a strategic plan for the financing of the future of the organization.
Prepare annual operating budget and maintain/monitor pro forma statements.
Maintain a system-wide cost reduction & expense management perspective while maximizing revenue.
Plan and direct financial activities of the company.
Forecast revenue
Manage cash flow
CRITICAL SKILLS/EXPERIENCE NEEDED:
Proven Operational CFO: Strong in Cash Mgt. and FP&A. Hands on leader, with expertise in start-up and growth phases. Expertise in establishing processes, controls and positioning a company for growth.
Functional expertise beyond Finance to include: Legal, Procurement and possibly HR.
Has high quality operational discipline. Ideally rode growth wave from $5M to $100M.
Worked for VC ownership w/growth exp., w/consistent reporting/accountability, been through a transaction. Articulate, can raise $, has dealt with investors, strategic. Drive M&A process. Looks the part, evokes confidence, experienced.
Infrastructure software background desirable. Domain experience in Storage a huge plus, it is critical that this individual really understands the business.
PREFERRED CERTIFICATIONS BUT NOT REQUIRED:
Certified Public Accountant (CPA)
Certified Management Accountant (CMA) license/certification,
REQUIRED SKILLS AND COMPETENCIES:
Must have a Bachelor’s Degree in Accounting, Finance, or related field and at least 10 years of general accounting and management experience; a Master’s Degree and/or MBA is preferred.
M&A participation from due-diligence, strategy, and integration perspectives.
Ability to be an active participant on the executive management team—thinking about strategy, operational, and organizational development efforts
Ability to work in a collaborative fashion with other functional leaders to support driving their business objectives
Possess a high level of professionalism and integrity.
Ability to communicate effectively and confidently to world class, industry savvy Board Members
Must be highly organized with a strong attention to detail.
Possess ability to successfully manage and prioritize multiple projects.
Must be proficient in MS Office (Excel, Word, & Outlook) and Accounting software such as NetSuite, Microsoft Dynamics, etc.
Strong written & verbal communication skills – heavy involvement with board & investor communications
Experienced with high growth (20%-100% per year) situations and highly demanding, deadline driven environments.
Excellent analytical skills with problem solving abilities.