Strategic Finance Lead

Our partner is looking for a Strategic Finance Lead, AI Infrastructure & R&D based in the United States. This position is listed on behalf of a partner company, who manages all applications and next steps.

• Serve as the primary finance partner to the CTO and R&D leadership, influencing investment decisions across AI, cloud and compute infrastructure, engineering capacity, and product development.
• Own the economic framework for AI, cloud, and compute by connecting usage, billing, operational, and financial data to forecasts and investment decisions.
• Lead financial evaluations for major R&D investments, from initial business cases and alternatives analysis through execution, measurement, and post-investment review.
• Own R&D planning, forecasting, and performance management across engineering headcount, AI and cloud infrastructure, compute, software, and external partners.
• Develop driver-based models that identify changes, risks, opportunities, and performance trends early enough for leadership to take action.
• Partner with AI, Engineering, Infrastructure, Procurement, and Accounting teams to improve infrastructure economics, evaluate major commitments, and optimize vendor and technology decisions.
• Analyze strategic questions around infrastructure commitments, workload architecture, technical investments, resource allocation, and build-versus-buy decisions.
• Translate complex R&D and infrastructure performance into concise executive and board-level narratives, clearly explaining what changed, why it changed, and what decisions should follow.
• Establish scalable financial frameworks, operating metrics, and decision mechanisms that can evolve with the organization’s AI and R&D footprint.
• Use AI, automation, and scalable systems to improve the speed, quality, and leverage of financial analysis while reducing manual reporting and recurring administrative work.
• Build trusted relationships across technical and business functions, challenging assumptions constructively while maintaining a practical, outcome-oriented approach.
• Help establish the foundations of an R&D finance function capable of scaling alongside increasingly complex AI, infrastructure, and product investments.

• 7+ years of experience in strategic finance, FP&A, investment banking, investing, consulting, business operations, or a related analytical discipline, with demonstrated ownership of complex and consequential work.
• Proven ability to independently take ambiguous problems from initial framing through analysis, recommendation, stakeholder alignment, and execution.
• Exceptional financial and analytical capabilities, including experience developing driver-based forecasts, investment cases, business models, and scalable decision frameworks from complex or incomplete data.
• Strong understanding of financial planning, forecasting, performance management, investment analysis, and resource allocation.
• Ability to quickly understand technical systems and learn how AI products, cloud infrastructure, compute environments, and modern technology organizations operate and scale.
• Experience supporting Engineering, Product, Data Science, AI, Infrastructure, or similar technical organizations is highly valuable.
• Relevant experience analyzing cloud, compute, AI infrastructure, usage-based technology costs, vendor commitments, product economics, or build-versus-buy decisions is preferred.
• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to translate sophisticated financial and technical concepts into clear recommendations for senior technical and business leaders.
• Demonstrated judgment and confidence to challenge assumptions constructively, influence senior stakeholders, and operate effectively without complete information.
• Applied AI fluency, including demonstrated use of AI to improve financial analysis, modeling, research, workflows, or decision-making, together with the ability to evaluate the reliability of AI-generated outputs.
• Strong ownership mentality, adaptability, curiosity, and comfort working in a fast-moving environment where priorities and assumptions can change quickly.
• Ability to operate as a senior individual contributor with substantial autonomy while collaborating closely across multiple functions.

• Opportunity to influence high-impact investment decisions across AI, cloud infrastructure, engineering, and product development.
• Direct exposure to senior technical and business leadership, with significant ownership from the outset.
• High-autonomy environment where you can design financial frameworks, operating mechanisms, and scalable systems.
• Opportunity to use AI and automation to expand individual impact and transform how strategic finance operates.
• Potential to shape and