STAGE OTT - Director - Finance

Director - Finance

Own financial strategy and operations for 20M+ users across 15+ regional languages with scope to go global soon. Build systems that enable disciplined growth and turn financial data into strategic advantage - not just close books.

Location: Noida, STAGE HQ

Company: STAGE OTT

Reports to: CEO

Team: 3 direct reports

Compensation: Competitive, commensurate with experience

Start Date: Immediate

What You Will Own (Non-Negotiable):

This role owns the financial health and strategic clarity of the business, not just accounting.

You are the final authority on:

1. How STAGE allocates resources (content budgets, marketing spend, expansion decisions)

2. How STAGE plans for the future (fundraising, runway, scenario modeling)

3. What the real numbers are - and what they mean for decision-making

4. How STAGE leverages AI to automate, predict, and optimize financial operations

5. How STAGE communicates with investors - with clarity, confidence, and credibility

6. The systemic rigor that turns financial data into strategic advantage

7. Your mandate spans FP&A + Accounting + Compliance + Treasury + Strategic Finance + Investor Relations + AI Adoption.

The Mission:

1. STAGE is an Entertainment Platform for India's Regional Cultures.

- We exist to celebrate, represent, and elevate the stories, emotions, and identities that define India - across regions, communities, and cultural worlds that mainstream entertainment has historically underrepresented.

2. The Finance function ensures that this mission is financially sustainable, strategically sound, and operationally rigorous.

3. We are looking for a Custodian of Financial Truth - someone who owns how STAGE allocates capital, measures success, manages risk, and makes growth decisions.

4. You will own the end-to-end Finance function, from daily operations to board-level strategy. Your mandate is to build a finance engine that is transparent, AI-enabled, forward-looking, and decision-enabling - at scale.

Key Responsibilities:

1. Financial Planning & Analysis (Strategic Finance Engine):

1. Build STAGE's Financial Command Center - the single source of truth on business performance, unit economics, and growth levers.

2. Own monthly/quarterly financial reviews with sharp insights on:

- Revenue trends by region, language, and content category

- Subscriber cohorts, churn, LTV, and payback periods

- Content ROI and acquisition efficiency

- Cash burn and runway projections

3. Present a monthly Finance Insights Deck to leadership with clear, articulate recommendations on - resource allocation and strategic pivots.

4. Influence Content, Marketing, Product, and Growth roadmaps with financial clarity and strategic foresight.

5. Build predictive financial models using AI/ML tools for forecasting, anomaly detection, and scenario planning.

2. Content Economics & Unit Economics Mastery (OTT-Specific Intelligence):

Finance at an OTT platform is fundamentally different from SaaS or e-commerce.

Build and continuously refine the unit economics model:

Subscriber acquisition cost (CAC) by channel, region, and language

Lifetime value (LTV) by cohort, content genre, and user behavior

Content cost per hour watched and per subscriber

Revenue per user (ARPU) trends and payment method analysis

Churn drivers and retention economics

Master content economics:

Content amortization schedules for library valuation

Licensing vs. original content ROI trade-offs

Content asset valuation and depreciation

Regional content performance (Haryanvi vs. Gujarati economics)

Structure content deals from a finance lens:

Minimum guarantees, revenue shares, licensing windows

Creator contract economics and payout structures

Content investment cycles and working capital management

Identify margin leaks and partner with Growth, Product, Content, and CX teams to improve efficiency.

Use financial data to uncover hidden consumer pain points - subscription drop-offs, regional pricing mismatches, payment gateway issues.

Your job is to make financial performance transparent, actionable, and deeply connected to user experience.

3. Fundraising & Investor Relations (Capital Strategy & Articulation):

- This is a senior-level, strategic mandate requiring exceptional articulation skills.

Own all fundraising activities:

- Build compelling pitch decks and financial models

- Lead investor conversations with clarity, confidence, and strategic depth

- Coordinate due diligence processes with legal, product, and operations teams

- Manage data room preparation and investor queries

Growth-stage fundraising expertise required:

- Series B/C dynamics: growth metrics scrutiny, path to profitability, valuation defense

- Secondary transactions and cap table optimization

- Investor syndicate management

Own investor communication:

- Monthly investor updates with sharp insights and honest assessment

- Quarterly board decks that tell the business story through numbers

- Annual audited financials and investor reporting

- Board relationship management and governance

- Manage cap table, ESOP administration, and equity documentation.

- Design equity compensation structures - not just administer them - to drive retention and alignment.

- Translate company vision into compelling financial narratives that resonate with investors.

4. Accounting, Compliance & Regulatory Rigor (Operational Foundation):

- Own ALL finance verticals with zero gaps:

Accounting Operations:

- P&L, Balance Sheet, Cash Flow statements

- Accounts Receivable (AR) and Accounts Payable (AP) management

- Month-end and year-end close processes

- Fixed asset management and depreciation schedules

- Revenue recognition under Ind AS 115 (subscription complexity, bundles, ads, B2B licensing)

Compliance & Statutory:

- GST (registration, filing, reconciliation, audits across multiple states)

- TDS (deduction, payment, returns - especially for content creators and licensing)

- Income Tax (advance tax, returns, assessments)

- ROC filings (annual returns, financials, director KYC)

- Audit coordination (statutory, tax, internal)

- FEMA compliance (for foreign investments and international content deals)

- Digital Media regulations (Intermediary Guidelines compliance)

- Audit Committee readiness and governance

Treasury & Banking:

- Cash flow management and liquidity planning

- Bank account management and signatories

- Forex management for international content licensing

- Vendor payment systems and approval hierarchies

- Crisis/runway management under stress scenarios

5. Payment Infrastructure & Tier 2/3 Economics:

- STAGE serves Bharat, not just India. Understand and optimize:

- Payment gateway economics and transaction costs

- Carrier billing partnerships and economics

- UPI, wallets, and regional payment behavior

- Payment failure patterns and recovery

- Regional pricing strategy and elasticity

- Connect payment data to financial performance and user experience.

6. AI Adoption & Finance Automation (Future-Ready Finance):

- This is a core requirement, not a nice-to-have.

- Lead AI adoption across the finance function:

- Implement AI-powered tools for expense categorization, invoice processing, and reconciliation

- Build predictive analytics for cash flow, churn, and revenue forecasting

- Automate financial reporting and dashboard generation

- Use AI for fraud detection, vendor analysis, and spend optimization

- Evaluate and deploy finance tech stack (ERPs, FP&A tools, automation platforms).

- Train the finance team to work alongside AI systems - not resist them.

- Stay ahead of AI trends in finance and continuously improve automation maturity.

- Goal: Make STAGE's finance function 10x more efficient and intelligent through technology.

7. Strategic Thinking & Cross-Functional Leadership:

- You are not just the Finance head - you are a strategic thought partner to the CEO and leadership team.

- Challenge strategic assumptions with financial rigor:

- "Should we invest - 2Cr in Bhojpuri content or Gujarati content? Here's what the cohort data says."

- "Our CAC is rising in Tier 2 cities - here are three scenarios to fix it."

- "This pricing experiment will break our unit economics unless we change retention."

- Build scenario models for major decisions (new language launch, content partnerships, pricing changes).

Evaluate strategic opportunities:

- M&A targets and financial due diligence

- Strategic partnership economics

- International expansion financial modeling

- Translate complex financial concepts into clear, compelling narratives for board, investors, and teams.

- Influence company culture around financial discipline, data-driven decisions, and long-term thinking.

- Your strategic thinking must elevate every major business decision.

8. Team Building & Finance Culture (Leadership Excellence):

- Create a culture of curiosity, rigor, and continuous improvement within finance.

- Train non-finance teams to understand key financial metrics and think like owners.

- Foster an AI-first mindset where automation is embraced, not feared.

- You create the systems and culture that make the finance engine run predictably, intelligently, and with quality.

Who You Are?

- You are obsessed with clarity, truth, and financial discipline as business levers.

- You operate at the intersection of numbers, strategy, and storytelling.

- You are a systems builder - not a bookkeeper.

- You thrive on diagnosing patterns, not just recording transactions.

- You can zoom out to build a three-year financial model - and zoom in to question a suspicious expense line.

- You are strong enough to challenge founders and business leaders with financial truth - backed by data and calm conviction.

- You have led Finance teams before, but remain hands-on when needed.

- You have earned respect through competence, not title, and lead with humility while never compromising on rigor.

Requirements:

Experience:

- 10-15+ years in Finance, with at least 5 years in senior leadership roles (Head of Finance, CFO, VP Finance, or equivalent).

Proven ownership of:

- Financial planning & analysis (FP&A)

- Accounting operations (AR, AP, GL, fixed assets)

- Compliance & statutory (GST, TDS, Income Tax, ROC, FEMA)

- Treasury & cash management

- Fundraising & investor relations

- Strategic finance & unit economics

Must-have experience:

- Growth-Stage Fundraising (Series B/C+) - Series C scrutiny is different - path to profitability, valuation defense, investor syndicate management

- AI Adoption - Implemented automation tools or used AI/ML for forecasting/analytics

- Content Deal Structuring - Experience structuring content licensing deals, MGs, revenue shares from finance POV

- Compliance Mastery - Zero compliance delays or penalties in previous roles

- Consumer Business - OTT, fintech, e-commerce, SaaS, food delivery, or mobility with deep understanding of unit economics

- Payment Infrastructure - Understanding of Tier 2/3 payment behavior, gateway economics, carrier billing

- Revenue Recognition (Ind AS 115) - Subscription revenue complexity - bundles, ads, B2B licensing

- Strategic Thinking - Changed business strategy or resource allocation through financial insights

- M&A / Strategic Partnerships - Evaluated acquisition targets or structured strategic deals (preferred)

- International Finance - Multi-currency, transfer pricing, international entity setup (preferred, given global expansion plans)

- Crisis Management - Runway extension under stress, turnaround scenarios

- Audit Committee Experience - Board-level governance and audit processes

- CA (Chartered Accountant) Qualified

- Deep analytical ability + exceptional communication + calm, structured problem-solving.

- Experience working closely with Product, Engineering, Content, Growth, and Marketing teams.

- Familiarity with regional business contexts and Tier 2/3 consumer behavior is a strong plus.

This Role Is NOT For:

- Pure accountants or compliance-only finance managers who have never influenced strategy.

- People who want to "close books on time" instead of enabling strategic decisions.

- Reactive operators who prefer month-end firefighting over forward-looking planning.

- Candidates who cannot translate complex financials into clear business insights.

- Those uncomfortable with AI, automation, or technology-driven transformation.

- Finance leaders who have never been involved in fundraising or investor communication.

- Anyone who sees finance as a back-office function rather than a strategic partnership.

- Leaders without growth-stage (Series B/C+) fundraising experience.

- Those unfamiliar with content/entertainment business economics.

Why This Role Matters?

- Finance is not a back-office function at STAGE. It is the strategic nervous system of the business.

- This role will define whether STAGE becomes:

- Just another OTT that burns cash without clarity, or

- A financially disciplined, strategically sound platform that investors and employees trust.

Your work will directly impact:

- Fundraising success

- Runway extension

- Resource allocation efficiency

- Unit economics improvement

- Board and investor confidence

- Strategic decision quality

- Consumer experience

- Regulatory safety