Finance roles in European defence tend to look different from their counterparts in commercial tech. Government contract accounting follows national defence procurement rules and EU grant reporting standards that most private-sector FP&A teams never encounter. Grant management for EU-funded defence programmes, such as the European Defence Fund, means tracking co-financing obligations and eligible cost categories across multiple reporting frameworks. At growth-stage defence startups, finance hires often cover an unusually broad remit, from runway planning and investor reporting to export licence documentation and compliance with dual-use regulations. Larger primes like Rheinmetall, BAE Systems and Thales maintain dedicated finance teams with narrower, more specialised roles across treasury, cost accounting and programme finance.
