Finance & Strategy Manager at Hopper | Pre-IPO Role in Columbus

About the Role

As a Finance & Strategy Manager at Hopper, you will be a finance partner to business leaders across the company, helping them understand performance, evaluate opportunities, and make better decisions. You will build the models behind our forecasts, partnerships, and strategic plans, lead business reviews, and turn analysis into clear recommendations for senior leadership and the CFO.

This role is a great fit for someone who has built rigorous models under pressure in investment banking or private equity and now wants to apply those skills in-house, closer to the decisions. We are a lean team that moves fast, and we use SQL and AI tools like Claude to automate the manual work so we can spend our time on analysis and strategy.

What Would Your Day-to-Day Look Like

• Build and maintain integrated financial models, scenario and sensitivity analyses, and business cases for new products, partnerships, and investments
• Evaluate the economics of new commercial agreements (pricing, revenue share, unit economics, ROI) and help shape deal terms with business leaders
• Support fundraising, M&A, and capital allocation decisions, including the models and analysis behind them
• Own the monthly and quarterly forecast for the areas you support, and contribute to the annual budget and long-range plan by building driver-based models and inputs that connect operational metrics to P&L outcomes
• Lead monthly and quarterly reviews of actuals vs. plan and forecast, explain variances, and flag risks and opportunities to business leaders
• Partner with leadership on high-impact questions such as market sizing, investment prioritization, and cost optimization
• Prepare clear, executive-, board-, and investor-ready materials that tell the story behind the numbers
• Use SQL, BigQuery, and AI tools to automate recurring reporting and analysis so the team spends less time handling data and more time on insight

An Ideal Candidate Has

• 4+ years of experience in investment banking, corporate development, private equity, strategic finance, or FP&A. Investment banking or private equity experience (Analyst or Associate) is preferred
• Advanced financial modeling skills: three-statement models, DCF, scenario and sensitivity analysis. Expert in Excel / Google Sheets
• Solid understanding of accounting and how the three financial statements connect
• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to explain financial concepts to non-finance partners and present confidently to senior leaders
• Working knowledge of SQL, or a demonstrated ability to pick up technical tools quickly
• Hands-on use of AI tools (Claude, ChatGPT, Copilot, etc.) to work faster and automate repetitive work
• Strong ownership, comfort with ambiguity, and a builder mindset. Hopper moves fast
• A degree in Finance, Economics, Business, Math, Engineering, or another quantitative discipline

Nice to Have

• Experience in tech, fintech, travel, marketplaces, or B2B partnerships
• Experience with Python and/or BI tools (Looker, Tableau, etc.)
• CFA, CPA, or MBA

Perks and Benefits of Working With Us

• Well-funded and proven startup with large ambitions, competitive salary, and the upsides of pre-IPO equity packages
• Unlimited PTO
• Carrot Cash travel stipend
• Access to co-working space on demand through FlexDesk AND work-from-home stipend
• Please ask us about our very generous parental leave, much above industry standards!
• Entrepreneurial culture where pushing limits and taking risks is everyday business
• Open communication with management and company leadership
• Small, dynamic teams = massive impact
• 100% employer-paid Medical, Dental, and Vision coverage for employees
• Access to Disability & Life insurance
• Health Reimbursement Account (HRA)
• DCA/FSA and access to 401(k) plan

About Hopper

At Hopper, we're building the leading travel technology platform in the world, and we're doing it by solving real problems for real travelers globally. Our Hopper consumer booking platforms and HTS (Hopper Technology Solutions), our B2B business, work together to give travelers something the industry has never reliably offered: transparency, flexibility, and real savings on every trip. We combine massive amounts of data and AI with proprietary fintech products to make that happen — not just another booking engine, but a fundamentally better way to plan and experience travel for our customers and our partners. We're proof that better-for-the-customer and better-for-the-business can be one and the same.

And we're continuing to grow fast! The Hopper app has been downloaded over 120 million times, with 70% of our users being Gen Z and Millennials — next-generation travelers. Today, our biggest opportunity is powering travel fintech, commerce, and loyalty for some of the biggest brands in the industry. Our first HTS partnership with Capital One helped launch a dedicated travel portal for a major financial brand's cardholders, and we've since expanded across some of the biggest names in travel and banking, including Air Canada, Uber, Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), and Nubank, powering everything from a single fintech integration to a full end-to-end travel loyalty portal.

That's our trajectory: we started as a small, disruptive app within the travel space, and now we're the engine under the hood powering how Travel Tech works.

What that looks like in practice:

• Billions of dollars in travel and travel fintech move through Hopper and HTS every year
• Our fintech products, including Cancel for Any Reason and Disruption Assistance for Any Reason, post exceptionally strong customer satisfaction because the terms are clear and resolutions are instant — no questions asked
• Nearly 30% of app customers add a fintech product to their booking, and those customers are 1.6x more likely to book with us again
• HTS now drives more than 90% of the business — proof of how fast B2B has scaled
• Through HTS, any travel provider (airlines, hotels, banks, travel agencies) can plug the company's fintech, commerce, and AI solutions into their own channels, whether that's a single integration or a full end-to-end travel portal

Come take off with us!

At Hopper, we leverage AI-driven tools to assist our team in efficiently reviewing applications. These tools help us assess qualifications fairly and objectively. By submitting your application, you acknowledge the use of these automated screening technologies.