Strategic Finance Lead - Compute
perplexity
Híbrido
San Francisco
Advertising
Job Score
90 pts
Hybrid model (+80)
Advertising (+10)
About the Role
We are seeking a Strategic Finance Lead for our GPU compute fleet. In this role, you will be a key partner to our inference and infrastructure teams, providing financial expertise to optimize our compute investments and drive capacity decisions.
In this role, you'll develop deep expertise in the economics of AI compute, from token-level serving cost to the long-range financial planning of our GPU fleet. You'll build the models that inform Perplexity's capacity and make-versus-buy decisions, own the internal-cost analysis that underpins internal and external token pricing, and translate complex infrastructure dynamics into clear financial narratives for leadership.
This is a high-impact role for someone who thrives at the intersection of finance and infrastructure, and who is energized by building frameworks from scratch in a fast-moving environment.
This position is based in San Francisco and requires in-person attendance 2-3 days per week.
Key Responsibilities
Finance lead for GPU compute spend, including budgeting, monthly forecasting, variance analysis, and financial plan maintenance
Build and maintain detailed bottoms-up financial models for the GPU fleet, including capacity forecasts, cost driver analyses, and investment scenario modeling
Develop deep expertise in GPU vendor contracts, pricing structures, and cost drivers, and surface optimization opportunities across the fleet
Serve as subject matter expert for Perplexity's compute capacity plan, owning source of truth on utilization, committed-versus-consumed spend, and capacity by vendor and cluster
Build internal token-cost curves distinguishing marginal from fully loaded serving cost, and translate them into internal and external token pricing
Analyze the ROI of in-house inference and training, including opportunity cost across chip types, cluster configurations, and workloads, distilled into a framework for capacity deployment
Partner closely with inference and infrastructure engineering to understand how serving and training workloads scale, and translate those technical dynamics into financial frameworks
You May Be a Good Fit If You Have
Exceptional analytical skills with an ability to synthesize data into compelling insights and develop complex financial operating models
Extraordinary problem-solving and critical thinking abilities to develop new frameworks for assessing utilization and capital efficiency in a rapidly evolving industry
Attention to detail and patience for getting to the source of truth on complex and interconnected contract and usage data
Comfort being the finance person in the room with engineering leads and vendor counterparts, and adept at communicating complex financial information to non-finance audiences
A proven track record of partnering with technical teams to drive financial optimization initiatives, building enough trust to become indispensable to their roadmap and resourcing decisions
A bias toward action, strong work ethic, and experience driving operational outcomes under tight timelines
Background in AI, ML, or high-performance, large-scale computing infrastructure, including data centers and cloud service providers
Preferred Qualifications
4+ years of experience in strategic finance, infrastructure investment, private equity, growth equity, consulting, or investment banking, preferably with infrastructure or datacenter experience
Experience in cloud or GPU infrastructure financial management, including direct work with major cloud service providers or neoclouds
Direct experience with committed-use economics — reserved capacity, savings plans, committed-use discounts — and GPU procurement
Deep expertise in GPU vendor economics, contract structures, and pricing models
Experience with chip architecture economics and optimization strategies
Proficiency with financial modeling tools
What did you think of this job?
Loading comments...
About Advertising
The Advertising area is aimed at the planning, creation, and delivery of communication campaigns to promote brands, products, ideas, or services. Professionals in the sector work in advertising agencies or in-house marketing departments in creative fields (art direction, copywriting), strategic planning, account management, and media buying.
Discover Other Areas
Understand the scope of work, key skills, and tools used in different career areas.
About Cloud Solutions
The Cloud Solutions area is responsible for designing, implementing, and managing cloud infrastructure and services (AWS, Azure, GCP) for companies. Cloud professionals architect scalable, secure, and cost-optimized solutions, from data center migrations to serverless and multi-cloud architectures.
Key skills include IaC (Terraform, CloudFormation), containers (Docker, Kubernetes), serverless (Lambda, Cloud Functions), managed databases (RDS, DynamoDB, BigQuery), cloud networking (VPC, CDN, load balancer), and security (IAM, WAF, KMS). Knowledge of FinOps, cloud governance, and AWS/Azure/GCP certifications is a differentiator.
Cloud Solutions professionals in technology companies are highly valued, especially those who master multi-cloud architectures, FinOps, and can optimize costs while maintaining performance and security. The field offers opportunities from cloud engineer to cloud solutions architect, head of cloud, and chief cloud architect.
About Backend
The Backend area is responsible for all server logic, APIs, databases, and infrastructure that support web and mobile applications. Backend professionals ensure that systems are scalable, secure, and performant.
Key skills include languages like PHP, Java, Python, Ruby, Go, and Node.js, frameworks like Laravel, Spring Boot, Django, and Express, databases (MySQL, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, Redis), software architecture (clean architecture, DDD, microservices), and API security (OAuth, JWT).
Backend developers in technology companies are highly valued, especially those who master microservices architecture, cloud computing, and high-scale performance. The field offers opportunities from junior developer to software architect, with a focus on scalability, security, and efficiency.
About Web Master
The Web Master is the professional responsible for maintaining, securing, and ensuring the technical performance of websites and web applications. They manage servers, hosting infrastructure, uptime monitoring, and ensure everything runs fast and reliably.
Key skills include server management (Apache, Nginx), hosting (AWS, Google Cloud, Azure), CDN (Cloudflare), SSL, DNS, web security (WAF, firewall), performance (Core Web Vitals, cache, compression), and versioning (Git, CI/CD). Knowledge of Docker, WordPress, cPanel, and monitoring (Sentry, New Relic) is a differentiator.
Web Masters in technology companies are highly valued, especially those who master DevOps, SRE, and can guarantee uptime and performance at scale. The field offers opportunities from junior webmaster to SRE and infrastructure engineer, with a focus on reliability, security, and speed.
About Traffic Analyst
The Traffic Analyst (paid media/performance specialist) is the professional responsible for creating, managing, and optimizing sponsored ad campaigns on digital platforms such as Google Ads, Meta Ads, LinkedIn Ads, and TikTok Ads. They monitor conversion metrics, analyze return on investment (ROAS), perform A/B testing on ads and landing pages, and manage the marketing budget to maximize lead generation and qualified sales.
About Fullstack
Fullstack developers are versatile professionals capable of working on both frontend and backend of web and mobile applications. They master multiple technologies and can build complete products end-to-end, from the user interface to server infrastructure.
Key skills include proficiency in at least one complete stack (React/Vue/Angular + Node.js/PHP/Python/Java), databases (SQL and NoSQL), REST/GraphQL APIs, Git versioning, CI/CD, and basic infrastructure knowledge (Docker, cloud). Clean architecture, DDD, and testing are important differentiators.
Fullstack developers are highly valued in startups and companies that need versatile and autonomous professionals. The field offers opportunities from junior developer to software architect, with a focus on complete delivery, holistic product vision, and ability to work across multiple application layers.
Comments 0