Principal, Strategic Finance & Analytics

airbnb, Inc.; Northern (KY); Hybrid; USD 124,000 - 206,000; Full time

Job summary

Airbnb is seeking a Principal in Strategic Finance & Analytics within Technology to lead the understanding, forecasting, and management of cloud and AI spend. You willPartner with Infrastructure and AI Platform teams to size and prioritize efficiency initiatives, and present cost narratives to senior leadership.

The role focuses on developing forecasts, tracking AI spend by category, and driving cost-optimization opportunities without impacting product or employee experience.

Qualifications

• 10 years of finance, FP&A, or cost management experience with cloud infrastructure exposure.
• Prior experience with AI/ML infrastructure costs preferred.
• Proven ability to build and maintain complex financial models and forecasts in fast-changing environments.
• Strong track record partnering with engineering/technical teams to translate usage data.

Responsibilities

• Build and maintain monthly/weekly cloud and AI cost forecasts, reconciling actuals against plan and explaining variance drivers to leadership.
• Track AI spend by category and model/provider mix, flagging shifts in usage or pricing that affect the forecast.
• Partner with Infrastructure and AI Platform engineering teams to size, validate, and prioritize efficiency initiatives.
• Own migration-tracking reporting and ensure data traceable to source systems.
• Prepare and present cost updates to a senior audience, translating technical usage data into clear financial narratives.
• Identify and quantify new cost efficiency opportunities with technical stakeholders and track them to savings.
• Run monthly and ad hoc reviews with Finance and Tech leadership.

Skills

Finance & FP&A experience

Cloud infrastructure costing

Financial modeling

Forecasting & variance analysis

Job description

Principal, Strategic Finance & Analytics, Technology

United States

Airbnb was born in 2007 when two hosts welcomed three guests to their San Francisco home, and has since grown to over 5 million hosts who have welcomed over 2 billion guest arrivals in almost every country across the globe. Every day, hosts offer unique stays and experiences that make it possible for guests to connect with communities in a more authentic way.

The Community You Will Join:

Technology Finance partners across Infrastructure, Engineering, and Product teams to plan, forecast, and manage the cost of running Airbnb's cloud and AI platforms. The team sits at the intersection of finance and technical infrastructure, translating usage trends — cloud compute, storage, and AI spend — into forecasts and cost narratives that inform company-wide investment decisions. Key cross-functional partners include Engineering, Procurement, and FP&A, among others.

The Difference You Will Make:

This role owns the understanding, forecasting, and influencing of Airbnb's total cloud and AI spend, spanning traditional AWS infrastructure and AI. Success looks like a cost narrative leadership can act on, and identified efficiency opportunities that measurably bend the cost curve without degrading product or employee experience. This includes leading planning cycles (FY26 close-out, FY27 guidance) and driving month-over-month rigor in cost variance analysis.

A Typical Day:

• Build and maintain the monthly/weekly cloud and AI cost forecast, reconciling actuals against plan and explaining variance drivers to leadership.
• Track AI spend by category and by model/provider mix, flagging shifts in usage or pricing that affect the forecast.
• Partner with Infrastructure and AI Platform engineering teams to size, validate, and prioritize efficiency initiatives (model routing, token optimization, provider migration).
• Own migration-tracking reporting (e.g., provider mix shifts, cost impact of model changes) and ensure the underlying data is traceable back to source systems.
• Prepare and present cost updates to a broad, senior audience, translating technical usage data into clear financial narratives.
• Identify and quantify new cost efficiency opportunities in partnership with technical stakeholders, and track them through to landed savings.
• Run monthly and ad hoc reviews with Finance and Tech leadership

Your Expertise:

• 10 years of finance, FP&A, or cost management experience, ideally including direct exposure to cloud infrastructure costs
• Prior experience with AI/ML infrastructure costs strongly preferred.
• Demonstrated ability to build and maintain complex financial models and forecasts in ambiguous, fast-changing environments.
• Strong track record partnering with engineering/technical teams to translate usage data

Our Commitment To Inclusion & Belonging:

Airbnb is committed to working with the broadest talent pool possible. We believe diverse ideas foster innovation and engagement, and allow us to attract creatively-led people, and to develop the best products, services and solutions. All qualified individuals are encouraged to apply.

We strive to also provide a disability inclusive application and interview process. If you are a candidate with a disability and require reasonable accommodation in order to submit an application, please contact us at: [e-mail] . Please include your full name, the role you’re applying for and the accommodation necessary to assist you with the recruiting process.

We ask that you only reach out to us if you are a candidate whose disability prevents you from being able to complete our online application.

Airbnb values diversity & belonging and is proud to be an Equal Employment Opportunity employer. All individuals seeking employment at Airbnb are considered without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, age, gender, sex, marital status, ancestry, physical or mental disability, veteran status, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, or any other legally protected characteristic.

How We'll Take Care of You:

Our job titles may span more than one career level. The actual base pay is dependent upon many factors, such as: training, transferable skills, work experience, business needs and market demands. The base pay range is dependent upon many factors and may not have better bargaining? Actually depends on job responsibilities? Well It's typically the job. The rest. The base pay range is subject to change and may be modified in the future. This role may also be eligible for bonus, equity, benefits, and Employee Travel Credits.

Pay Range

$168,000 — $206,000 USD

Reasonable Accommodations:

We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations throughout the recruitment process for applicants with disabilities. If you need assistance, or an accommodation, please let your recruiter know once you are contacted about a role.