Strategic Finance Lead

Sail Research; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 150,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Meals provided

High-quality workspace

Studio Display at desk

Job summary

Sail Research in San Francisco is seeking a Strategic Finance Lead, the first dedicated finance hire. This is a builder's role, focusing on creating financial systems from scratch.

Successful candidates will have 5-8+ years in finance with strong modeling skills. You'll be responsible for building and owning the company's operating P&L while establishing critical financial processes. If you're comfortable working in a fast-paced, early-stage environment and enjoy building the right systems, we encourage you to apply.

Qualifications

• 5-8+ years in finance roles with modeling depth.
• Experience in investment banking or high-growth company finance.
• Ability to build financial models from scratch.

Responsibilities

• Build and own Sail's operating P&L.
• Prepare board materials: financial modeling and diligence support.
• Establish Sail's first FP&A process.

Skills

Financial modeling

Investment banking

Strategic finance

Comfort with ambiguity

Job description

Sail is the foundation of useful, agentic AI. We are here to take a big swing at the most ambitious engineering challenge of our careers. Everyone working at Sail will become an expert; nothing less will do in our immensely competitive market.

We're hiring a Strategic Finance Lead as our first dedicated finance hire. This is a builder's role — you're not stepping into existing systems, you're creating them.

What you’ll do

• Build and own Sail's operating P&L — the single source of truth connecting GPU cluster unit economics (cost per GPU-hour, utilization, depreciation/useful life, power costs) and how it flows down to product pricing, unit economics, and actual financial performance
• Partner crossfunctionally on board materials: financial modeling, data room preparation, and diligence support
• Stand up Sail's first real FP&A process: budgeting and forecasting, sized appropriately for an early-stage company rather than over-built for one
• Develop the headcount and opex planning model as the team grows, and own burn rate and runway tracking

What we’re looking for

• 5-8+ years in finance roles with real modeling depth — investment banking, growth equity/private equity, corporate development, or strategic finance/FP&A at a high-growth company. Infrastructure or capital-intensive business experience (data centers, energy, equipment leasing, or similar) is a strong plus
• Genuine fluency in building financial models from scratch — not just maintaining someone else's template. You should be comfortable building an operating P&L and pro forma model without a lot of hand-holding
• Comfort with ambiguity and a preference for building the right-sized process rather than the most sophisticated one. We're early — judgment about what to build now vs. later matters as much as technical skill
• Bonus: prior exposure to revenue recognition for usage-based/consumption billing, or experience inside a GPU cloud, data center, or other infrastructure-as-a-service business

Life at Sail

We work out of a beautiful, sunny office in downtown San Francisco. All meals are on us (and actually great; SF is a food paradise and it would be a shame to eat only bowl slop). Everyone gets a Studio Display at their desk. We are serious about investing in anything that saves us time or energy. There are six different ways to make coffee or tea in the office. A friendly (hypoallergenic) black cat named Coco visits occasionally.