Finance Business Partner, AI & Software

Lila Sciences; Cambridge (MA); On-site; USD 140,000 - 200,000; Full time

Job summary

Lila Sciences is scaling its Scientific Superintelligence platform, and we’re building the finance backbone to match. As the Finance Business Partner for our AI/ML and Infrastructure teams, you’ll partner with Technology leaders to turn data into decisions and bring structure to ambiguity.

You’ll lead end-to-end FP&A for compute, GPU infrastructure, AI/ML costs, data storage, and pipelines, designing KPI reporting and rolling forecasts that guide resource allocation and strategic choices at

Qualifications

• 7 to 10+ years in FP&A, strategic finance, investment banking, consulting, or similar analytical roles.
• Startup or scale-up experience strongly preferred.
• Driver-based models, annual planning, rolling forecasts, KPI dashboards, and management reporting experience.
• Experience with technology cost management, including cloud infrastructure, compute/GPU, or AI/ML cost structures.
• Clear communication and ability to present to executives and Board.

Responsibilities

• Serve as the primary finance business partner for AI/ML and Infrastructure teams, providing end-to-end financial leadership across planning, performance management, investment governance, and risk controls.
• Partner with Technology leaders to translate AI and infrastructure roadmaps into financial outcomes with clear P&L, cash, and capital implications.
• Produce Board and investor materials and support fundraising diligence with crisp analyses and data room preparation.
• Assist with cash runway modeling and scenario planning across compute, AI/ML, and infrastructure cost vectors.
• Lead headcount and capacity planning across rapidly growing technical teams, tracking hiring pace and resource allocation across critical projects.
• Translate complex technical cost data into clear narratives, recommendations, and decision frameworks for executives and cross-functional leaders.
• Own financial tracking and analysis of compute and GPU infrastructure spend, including utilization reporting and efficiency benchmarks.
• Build and maintain LLM usage and API cost models, partnering with ML teams to track inference costs, training runs, and optimization opportunities.
• Develop frameworks for data storage and pipeline cost visibility, driving accountability for storage efficiency and lifecycle management.
• Co-own financial models and rolling forecasts across headcount, OPEX, CAPEX, cloud and GPU spend, LLM API costs, and data infrastructure.
• Expand KPI frameworks, reporting packages, dashboards, and variance analyses for executives and budget owners.
• Help implement and operationalize FP&A tooling through integrations with core business systems.
• Partner with Accounting, IT, and Procurement to improve data quality, chart of accounts structure, and source-of-truth metrics for cloud and infrastructure cost allocation.

Skills

FP&A

Strategic finance

Cost management

KPI dashboards

Forecasting

Executive communication

Data analysis

Education

Bachelor's degree in finance, economics, engineering, math, or related field

Job description

Lila Sciences is scaling its Scientific Superintelligence platform, and we’re building the finance backbone to match. As the Finance Business Partner for our AI/ML and Infrastructure teams, you’ll partner with Technology leaders to turn data into decisions and bring structure to ambiguity.

You’re a builder-operator who partners with technical leaders to drive financial clarity across complex and fast-moving cost surfaces: compute and GPU infrastructure, LLM usage and API spend, data storage, and pipelines. You stand up dynamic planning processes, design the KPI and reporting engine leaders rely on, and shape resource allocation across cloud infrastructure and AI/ML workloads.

What You'll Be Building

• Serve as the primary finance business partner for AI/ML and Infrastructure teams, providing end-to-end financial leadership across planning, performance management, investment governance, and risk controls.
• Partner with Technology leaders to translate AI and infrastructure roadmaps into financial outcomes with clear P&L, cash, and capital implications.
• Produce Board and investor materials and support fundraising diligence with crisp analyses and data room preparation.
• Assist with cash runway modeling and scenario planning across compute, AI/ML, and infrastructure cost vectors.
• Lead headcount and capacity planning across rapidly growing technical teams, tracking hiring pace and resource allocation across critical projects.
• Translate complex technical cost data into clear narratives, recommendations, and decision frameworks for executives and cross-functional leaders.
• Own financial tracking and analysis of compute and GPU infrastructure spend, including utilization reporting and efficiency benchmarks.
• Build and maintain LLM usage and API cost models, partnering with ML teams to track inference costs, training runs, and optimization opportunities.
• Develop frameworks for data storage and pipeline cost visibility, driving accountability for storage efficiency and lifecycle management.
• Co-own financial models and rolling forecasts across headcount, OPEX, CAPEX, cloud and GPU spend, LLM API costs, and data infrastructure.
• Expand KPI frameworks, reporting packages, dashboards, and variance analyses for executives and budget owners.
• Help implement and operationalize FP&A tooling through integrations with core business systems.
• Partner with Accounting, IT, and Procurement to improve data quality, chart of accounts structure, and source-of-truth metrics for cloud and infrastructure cost allocation.

What You'll Need to Succeed

• 7 to 10+ years in FP&A, strategic finance, investment banking, consulting, or similar analytical roles.
• Startup or scale-up experience strongly preferred.
• Demonstrated zero-to-one build experience across driver-based models, annual planning, rolling forecasts, KPI dashboards, and management reporting.
• Hands-on experience with technology cost management, including cloud infrastructure, compute/GPU, or AI/ML cost structures.
• Strong financial acumen and accounting fluency.
• Ability to work with imperfect datasets and reconcile to source systems.
• Clear, concise communicator who can simplify complexity, influence cross-functionally, and present to executives and the Board.
• Thrives under tight timelines and changing priorities, balancing precision with pragmatism.
• Bachelor’s degree in finance, economics, engineering, math, or related field.

Bonus Points For

• Domain familiarity with AI/ML infrastructure and cloud economics.
• Experience building FinOps-style frameworks for cloud cost visibility, allocation, and optimization.
• Familiarity with LLM cost modeling, including inference and training cost structures.
• Experience implementing or scaling FP&A processes within planning tools.

About LILA

Lila Sciences is building Scientific Superintelligence™ to solve humankind's greatest challenges. We believe science is the most inspiring frontier for AI. Rather than hard-coding expert knowledge into tools, LILA builds systems that can learn for themselves.

LILA combines advanced AI models with proprietary AI Science Factory™ instruments into an operating system for science that executes the entire scientific method autonomously, accelerating discovery at unprecedented speed, scale, and impact across medicine, materials, and energy. Learn more at www.lila.ai.

Guided by our core values of truth, trust, curiosity, grit, and velocity, we move with startup speed while tackling problems of historic importance. If this sounds like an environment you'd love to work in, even if you don't meet every qualification listed above, we encourage you to apply.

Lila Sciences iscommitted to equal employment opportunityregardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender identity or Veteran status.

Information you provide during your application process will be handled in accordance with our Candidate Privacy Policy .