Strategic Finance Lead (Compute)

Perplexity AI; United States; On-site; USD 140,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

Perplexity AI is seeking a Strategic Finance Lead for our GPU compute fleet. You will partner with inference and infrastructure teams to optimize compute investments, drive capacity decisions, and build financial models.

You will own internal-cost analyses, surface optimization opportunities, and translate infrastructure dynamics into clear financial narratives for leadership. This role requires deep AI compute economics expertise and a bias toward actionable outcomes.

Qualifications

• 4+ years of strategic finance or related infrastructure/AI compute experience.
• Proven ability to build bottoms-up financial models for large compute fleets.
• Experience with vendor contracts, pricing structures and cost drivers.
• Strong communication of complex financials to non-finance partners.
• Background in AI, ML, or high-performance infrastructure is highly desirable.

Responsibilities

• Own budgeting, monthly forecasting, variance analysis and financial plan maintenance for GPU compute spend.
• Build and maintain detailed financial models for capacity forecasts and investment scenarios.
• Analyze ROI of in-house inference and training, including chip-type economics and workload mix.
• Develop expertise in GPU vendor contracts and pricing to surface optimization opportunities.
• Partner with inference and infrastructure teams to translate technical dynamics into financial frameworks.
• Act as subject matter expert on capacity utilization and committed-versus-consumed spend.

Skills

Strategic finance

GPU compute economics

Capacity planning

Financial modeling

Vendor contracts

Pricing models

Token pricing

Stakeholder communication

Cross-functional partnering

Data-driven insights

Budgeting & forecasting

Scenario modeling

Tools

Excel

Python

SQL

Job description

• We are seeking a Strategic Finance Lead for our GPU compute fleet. In this role, you will be a key partner to our inference and infrastructure teams, providing financial expertise to optimize our compute investments and drive capacity decisions
• In this role, you’ll develop deep expertise in the economics of AI compute, from token-level serving cost to the long-range financial planning of our GPU fleet. You’ll build the models that inform Perplexity’s capacity and make-versus-buy decisions, own the internal-cost analysis that underpins internal and external token pricing, and translate complex infrastructure dynamics into clear financial narratives for leadership
• This is a high-impact role for someone who thrives at the intersection of finance and infrastructure, and who is energized by building frameworks from scratch in a fast-moving environment
• Finance lead for GPU compute spend, including budgeting, monthly forecasting, variance analysis, and financial plan maintenance
• Build and maintain detailed bottoms-up financial models for the GPU fleet, including capacity forecasts, cost driver analyses, and investment scenario modeling
• Develop deep expertise in GPU vendor contracts, pricing structures, and cost drivers, and surface optimization opportunities across the fleet
• Serve as subject matter expert for Perplexity’s compute capacity plan, owning source of truth on utilization, committed-versus-consumed spend, and capacity by vendor and cluster
• Build internal token-cost curves distinguishing marginal from fully loaded serving cost, and translate them into internal and external token pricing
• Analyze the ROI of in-house inference and training, including opportunity cost across chip types, cluster configurations, and workloads, distilled into a framework for capacity deployment
• Partner closely with inference and infrastructure engineering to understand how serving and training workloads scale, and translate those technical dynamics into financial frameworks

• Comfort being the finance person in the room with engineering leads and vendor counterparts, and adept at communicating complex financial information to non-finance audiences
• A proven track record of partnering with technical teams to drive financial optimization initiatives, building enough trust to become indispensable to their roadmap and resourcing decisions
• A bias toward action, strong work ethic, and experience driving operational outcomes under tight timelines
• Attention to detail and patience for getting to the source of truth on complex and interconnected contract and usage data
• Extraordinary problem-solving and critical thinking abilities to develop new frameworks for assessing utilization and capital efficiency in a rapidly evolving industry
• Background in AI, ML, or high-performance, large-scale computing infrastructure, including data centers and cloud service providers
• Exceptional analytical skills with an ability to synthesize data into compelling insights and develop complex financial operating models
• 4+ years of experience in strategic finance, infrastructure investment, private equity, growth equity, consulting, or investment banking, preferably with infrastructure or datacenter experience
• Experience in cloud or GPU infrastructure financial management, including direct work with major cloud service providers or neoclouds
• Direct experience with committed-use economics — reserved capacity, savings plans, committed-use discounts — and GPU procurement
• Experience with chip architecture economics and optimization strategies
• Deep expertise in GPU vendor economics, contract structures, and pricing models
• Proficiency with financial modeling tools