Strategic Finance Lead (Artificial Intelligence)

Perplexity AI; United States; On-site; USD 180,000 - 280,000; Full time

Job summary

Perplexity AI is seeking a Strategic Finance Lead to shape the economics of our AI products. You will partner with product, inference, and data teams to optimize model spend, pricing, and margins, building frameworks from scratch in a fast-moving environment.

You will own budgeting, monthly forecasts, variance analyses, and the consolidated model-cost forecast, translating roadmap and model transitions into spend and margin trajectories.

Qualifications

• Deep expertise in AI product economics and cost per request.
• Experience partnering with product, inference, and data teams to optimize spend and margins.
• Strong analytical skills to translate usage data into financial narratives.
• Proven ability to build and maintain product-margin models across a portfolio.
• Comfort communicating complex financial information to non-finance audiences.

Responsibilities

• Lead budgeting, monthly forecasting, variance analysis, and financial plan maintenance for inference and model spend.
• Build and maintain product-margin models reconciling revenue, serving cost, and gross margin.
• Own cost-per-request metrics and margin by product, tier, and customer segment.
• Analyze pricing, packaging, and model-deployment decisions to inform strategy.
• Translate product roadmaps into forward-looking spend and margin trajectories.
• Collaborate with product, inference, and data engineering teams to scale usage costs into margins.

Skills

Strategic finance

Unit economics

Financial modeling

Pricing strategy

Cross-functional collaboration

Data storytelling

Clear communication

Forecasting & budgeting

Tools

Financial modeling tools

Job description

• We are seeking a Strategic Finance Lead to help lead the economics of our AI products. In this role, you will be a key partner to our product, inference, and data teams, providing financial expertise to optimize model spend and drive pricing and margin decisions
• In this role, you’ll develop deep expertise in the unit economics of AI products, from per-request serving cost to consolidated product-level margin across our portfolio. You’ll build the models that inform Perplexity’s pricing, packaging, and model-deployment decisions, own the product-margin methodology that reconciles revenue and inference cost from production data, and translate complex model economics into clear financial narratives for leadership
• This is a high-impact role for someone who thrives at the intersection of finance and AI product strategy, and who is energized by building frameworks from scratch in a fast-moving environment
• Finance lead for inference and model spend, including budgeting, monthly forecasting, variance analysis, and financial plan maintenance
• Build and maintain product-margin models across the product portfolio, reconciling revenue, serving cost, and gross margin from production usage data
• Develop deep expertise in model provider contracts, pricing structures, and cost drivers, and surface optimization opportunities across the model portfolio and routing mix
• Serve as subject matter expert for product unit economics, owning source of truth on cost per request, margin by product and tier, and customer‑segment and feature‑level economics
• Own the consolidated model‑cost forecast, translating product roadmaps and model transitions into forward‑looking spend and margin trajectories
• Analyze the margin impact of pricing, packaging, and model‑deployment decisions, distilled into a framework for product and pricing strategy
• Partner closely with product, inference, and data engineering to understand how usage and serving cost scale, and translate those technical dynamics into financial frameworks

Sound commercial judgment across pricing, packaging, discounting, and the tradeoffs between growth and marginAttention to detail and patience for getting to the source of truth on complex and interconnected usage, revenue, and cost dataBackground in AI, ML, or consumption-based business models with complex cost structuresExceptional analytical skills with an ability to synthesize data into compelling insights and develop complex financial operating modelsA bias toward action, strong work ethic, and experience driving operational outcomes under tight timelinesComfort working cross‑functionally and are adept at communicating complex financial information to non‑finance audiencesA proven track record of partnering with technical and product teams to drive financial optimization initiativesExtraordinary problem‑solving and critical thinking abilities to develop new frameworks for assessing product margin and unit economics in a rapidly evolving industry4+ years of experience in strategic finance, private equity, growth equity, consulting, or investment banking, preferably with software or AI product experienceDeep expertise in usage‑based pricing, subscription economics, and gross‑margin and COGS attribution by customer and model familyExperience in AI or LLM product financial management, including direct work with model providers or inference platformsProficiency with financial modeling toolsExperience with model serving economics, including how latency, throughput, and token usage flow through to margin performance