8+ years in FP&A or corporate finance with R&D support experience.
Deep understanding of SaaS and AI economics, including CoR and gross margin.
Proficient in SQL (BigQuery preferred) and advanced Excel modeling.
Thorough knowledge of R&D spend impact on P&L.
Ability to communicate financial insights to technical leaders.
Self-directed with clear and concise work methodology.
Preferred: Experience in high-growth AI/ML environments and finance pipeline development.
Responsibilities
Serve as a strategic finance partner to Engineering, Product, and Data leaders.
Conduct analyses for build-vs-buy and pricing strategies.
Negotiate with cloud vendors using data-driven insights.
Provide detailed reporting and commentary to the CFO and board.
Manage the R&D budget, forecasts, and headcount planning.
Establish a rigorous approach to tracking LLM and cloud compute costs.
Model the financial implications of product changes and infrastructure decisions.
Benefits
Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision insurance plans.
Life, accident, and critical illness insurance options.
Flexible paid time off and sick leave, as well as disability coverage.
10 US holidays plus Canadian statutory holidays.
Home office stipend for remote work.
401(k) for US employees and RRSP for Canadian employees.
Paid parental leave benefits.
Opportunity for local in-person meet-ups.
Access to hubs in San Francisco and Toronto.
Full Job Description
The Director of FP&A, R&D acts as the strategic finance partner to Engineering, Product, and Data/ML leadership, owning the R&D operating plan and establishing LLM economics as a fundamental financial discipline. This role manages the P&L for R&D headcount and Cost of Revenue (CoR) for AI in production, driving efficiency through direct engagement with our data stack (BigQuery/dbt).
What You'll Do
Partner day to day with engineering, product, and data leaders as their trusted finance counterpart.
Build the analyses that shape build-vs-buy, pricing, and infrastructure decisions.
Support foundation-model and cloud vendor negotiations with data-backed positions.
Deliver clear, concise reporting and variance commentary to the CFO, FP&A leadership, and the board.
Own the R&D budget, forecast, and headcount plan across Engineering, Product, and Data/ML. Drive the re-forecast cycle and keep hiring plans tied to output and priorities.
Make LLM/inference and cloud compute cost a first-class, closely monitored metric. Build the model that tracks unit costs; monitor spend daily; and partner with engineering to find and defend efficiency. This is not a monthly-close afterthought, it's a core operating metric of the business.
Own the connection between usage, inference cost, and gross margin. Model the margin impact of new products, pricing changes, and model/infrastructure choices, and make the tradeoffs legible to leadership.
Bring financial rigor to major R&D spend decisions including foundation-model and API contracts, cloud commitments, data, and dev tooling, including negotiation support and ROI cases.
What We Look For
8+ years in FP&A / corporate finance, with meaningful time supporting R&D, Engineering, or a technical/product org.
Deep comfort with SaaS and AI/usage-based economics: CoR, gross margin, unit economics, and how infrastructure/inference cost drives them.
Strong SQL (BigQuery a major plus) and expert Excel/Sheets modeling, with clean, maintainable model architecture.
Strong grasp of how R&D spend flows through the P&L.
Ability to be a genuine partner to technical leaders, holding substantive conversations with engineering or ML leads to translate technical work into financial views.
Precise, low-ego, self-directed, and concise work ethic.
Nice to have: Experience at a high-growth AI/ML company, familiarity with modern data stacks, contract negotiation experience, people management experience, and CPA/CA/CFA.
Nice to have: Familiarity with a modern data stack (dbt, EPMs) and building repeatable, auditable finance pipelines.
Benefits & Perks:
As part of our total rewards package, we offer attractive benefits and perks to our employees, including:
Choice of medical, dental, and vision insurance plans for you and your family.
Additional insurance coverage options for life, accident, or critical illness.
Flexible paid time off, sick leave, short-term and long-term disability.
10 US observed holidays, and Canadian statutory holidays by province.
A home office stipend.
401(k) for US-based employees and RRSP for Canada-based employees.
Paid parental leave.
A local in-person meet-up program.
Hubs in San Francisco and Toronto.
Please note the above benefits & perks are for full-time employees
