Product Finance Director: R&D Capital & Engineering Ops

Databricks; Mountain View (WA); On-site; USD 224,000 - 308,000; Full time

Job summary

Databricks seeks a Product Finance leader to own R&D capital allocation and engineering operations, partnering with senior Engineering and Product Operations to drive ROI and scalable finance processes.

The role focuses on product-level ROI, global workforce strategy, and cost optimization for AI-enabled software development, with a strong emphasis on building and leading a high-performance finance team.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience in Strategic/Product Finance or R&D FP&A.
• Deep experience managing large-scale R&D OpEx, headcount capacity modeling, and multi-site workforce planning in a high-growth software/cloud company.
• Proven track record partnering with senior Engineering, Product Operations, and People/Workplace executives to drive capital allocation and operational rigor.
• Systems-level thinker with ability to re-engineer financial processes from scratch—headcount tracking, procurement, close, and SOX controls.
• Experience building, leading, and developing high-output finance teams in fast-moving environments.

Responsibilities

• Drive product-level ROI and R&D capital allocation.
• Establish frameworks to measure product ROI across a fast-moving platform.
• Operationalize ROI metrics to inform product investment and resource allocation decisions.
• Define engineering economics in the AI era and model AI tooling and token spend vs. headcount.
• Measure end-to-end cost of AI-enabled engineering and optimize investments.
• Shape global workforce and location strategy with multi-year headcount planning.
• Coordinate with Workplace and Facilities on real estate and CapEx planning.
• Scale R&D finance operations with automated workflows across headcount, PO planning, accruals, and SOX.

Skills

Financial planning

R&D FP&A

Strategic finance

Headcount planning

SOX controls

Leadership

Tools

SQL

Python

Job description

Databricks seeks a Product Finance leader to own R&D capital allocation and engineering operations, partnering with senior Engineering and Product Operations to drive ROI and scalable finance processes.

The role focuses on product-level ROI, global workforce strategy, and cost optimization for AI-enabled software development, with a strong emphasis on building and leading a high-performance finance team.