Business Intelligence Director

About Highnote 

Founded in 2020 by a team of leaders from Braintree, PayPal, and Lending Club, Highnote is an embedded finance company that sets the standard in modern card platform management. As an all-in-one card issuer processor and program management platform, we provide digital-first organizations with the flexibility to seamlessly issue and process payment cards, embed virtual and physical card payments, and integrate ledger and wallet functionalities—empowering businesses to drive growth and profitability.

We’ve raised $145M+ and have grown our team to 125+ employees. Headquartered in San Francisco, we’ve managed to build one of the most advanced payments teams in the industry, with team members in 25+ US states. 

Operating through our core values of customer obsession, executional excellence, intentional inclusion, we’re helping businesses grow for the future by creating the payment products demanded by tomorrow, with the ability to solve for use cases that don’t exist yet.

We are fast-moving, hands-on, and strongly believe everyone deserves a seat at the table. We believe we’re unlocking incredible opportunities that can change the future of payments, as long as we have the right people to make it happen. 

The Role: 

As the Business Intelligence Director you will build out and refine our metrics, reporting, and business analyses. This role is hands-on, proactive and self guided. This very experienced analytical wizard will create standard reporting, dashboards and insightful KPIs that help us to run the business and see around corners. You will also be the go-to person for time sensitive analysis into business questions and issues. You will work closely with the executive team and broadly across the company to help inform decisions, identify trends and anomalies, and translate business insights into tangible actions. The ideal candidate will have the answers to the questions we haven’t yet thought to ask. 

Key Responsibilities

1. Metrics Definition & Reporting
• Define, monitor, and refine key metrics that align with company goals and strategies.
• Collaborate with leadership and other stakeholders to identify evolving business intelligence needs and implement appropriate reporting.
• Develop and maintain dashboards and automated reports (using Tableau, Looker, Power BI, or similar tools) to provide real-time visibility into key performance indicators.
• Partner with Finance to support budgeting, forecasting, and scenario planning, ensuring alignment between operational metrics and financial models.
2. Business Insights 
• Synthesize complex data analyses into clear insights and actionable recommendations for senior leadership and cross functional teams
• Conduct deep-dive analysis on business performance to support data-driven decision-making across various teams (Product, Operations, Finance, etc.).
3. Hands-On Data Extraction & Analysis
• Write SQL queries (and/or use other data tools) to pull, merge, and analyze datasets from our internal systems.
• Investigate trends and anomalies to uncover root causes and opportunities.
• Identify key business drivers and models to assist with more accurate forecasting and modeling. 
4. Cross-Functional Collaboration
• Work closely with Customer Success, Finance, Product, Operations, and other departments to understand data needs, prioritize analytics projects, and deliver insights that drive decision-making.
• Serve as a trusted advisor on data best practices, bridging the gap between technical data pipelines and business objectives.
• Advocate for a data-driven culture, mentoring peers on how to interpret dashboards, reports, and analyses effectively.

Required Qualifications

• Education & Experience
• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Data Analytics, Computer Science, Engineering, Mathematics, or related field;8-10+ years in a business analytics or data analytics role, ideally within fintech, payments, or other high-growth financial tech sectors.
• Demonstrated ability to own analytics projects end-to-end, from data extraction and analysis to stakeholder presentation.
• Technical Expertise
• Advanced proficiency in SQL (or equivalent querying languages) and proven experience pulling data from complex databases or data warehouses.
• Familiarity with BI and data visualization tools (e.g., Tableau, Looker, Power BI) for building user-friendly dashboards.
• Experience with scripting languages like Python or R for more advanced analytics is a plus but not required.
• Understanding of data warehousing and ETL concepts (Snowflake, Redshift, BigQuery) highly valued.
• Business & Financial Acumen
• Solid understanding of business operations, financial metrics, and/or product performance metrics in a startup or high-growth environment.
• Strong grasp of business metrics and payments business drivers like CAC, LTV, churn,TPV, interchange etc..
• Autonomy & Communication
• Self-starter who thrives in an entrepreneurial environment, with a proven track record of working independently and proactively.
• Excellent communicator who can distill complex information into actionable insights.
• Skilled at managing multiple priorities in a fast-paced, high-growth setting.
• Teamwork & Culture Fit
• Collaborative mindset, eager to support and collaborate with teammates on analysis, findings and recommended actions
• Passionate about fostering a data-driven culture and improving processes to accelerate growth.
• High integrity, curiosity, and a drive to innovate.

Why Highnote?

• We’re a startup that allows for our employees to truly build from the ground up and impact every layer of our organization. 
• We’re a team of payments obsessed individuals. While some of us come from the fintech world, some of us don’t. We value the varied backgrounds and the diverse perspectives of our employees. 
• We’re small on hierarchy and big on growth. We’re a flat organization that allows everyone to have direct exposure to our leadership team. We are looking for builders who thrive in ambiguity. 
• We’re backed by Oak HC/FT, Costanoa Ventures, Adams Street Partners, Westcap, and Pinegrove Venture Partners. Angel Investors include Bill Ready (CEO at Pinterest) and Renaud Laplanche (Co-Founder & CEO of Upgrade).

Highnote benefits

• Flexible Paid Time Off 
• 100% healthcare coverage + 75% coverage for dependents
• 401k program
• Paid Parental Leave: Up to 16 weeks paid leave for the birth parent, and up to 6 weeks paid leave for the non-birth parent
• Equity in Highnote
• Stipend to build out your home office; internet and phone reimbursement
• At Highnote we have built a total rewards philosophy that includes fair, equitable, geo-based compensation that is performance and potential based. Our compensation packages are competitive based on robust market research and are a combination of a cash salary, equity, and benefits. In compliance with the Equal Pay for Equal Work Act, the annual salary range for applicants is $180,000-$250,000. 

Please note that positions located in San Francisco are hybrid and include core working days of Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday in office.  We provide flexible work options based on distance from our downtown SF office. Highnote believes in the power of face-to-face, personal connection. As a result, we prioritize in-person candidates. 

Highnote is a diverse and inclusive company committed to growing a diverse and inclusive team. We invite people from all backgrounds and identities to apply. We do not discriminate based on gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, race, religion, age, national origin, citizenship, disability, pregnancy status, veteran status, or any other characteristics protected by US federal state or local laws, or the laws of the country or jurisdiction where you work. Additionally, we encourage everyone to share which pronouns you wish for us to use when addressing you (i.e.: she/her, he/him, they/them, etc).