Strategic Finance Lead, R&D

Apply; Northern (KY); Hybrid; USD 150,000 - 230,000; Full time

Job summary

TRM Labs is seeking a Strategic Finance Lead for R&D and AI to guide investment decisions in AI, cloud, and compute infrastructure. You will partner with the CTO and R&D leadership to turn complex usage, billing, and headcount data into actionable recommendations, designing the financial architecture for R&D from the ground up.

You will own planning, forecasting, and capacity models, drive AI-assisted scenarios, and shape major infrastructure and R&D commitments with clear executive

Qualifications

• Seven-plus years in strategic finance, FP&A, business ops, or related roles.
• Experience owning end-to-end work: framing questions, structuring analysis, forming points of view, driving actions.

Responsibilities

• Shape TRM's AI, cloud, and compute spend by building driver-based models across hundreds of SKUs.
• Define AI spend strategy with leadership and track ROI by tool and workload.
• Own planning, forecasting, and headcount capacity modeling with automated workflows.
• Develop investment cases from model to decision, including scenario analysis.
• Turn R&D performance into clear narratives for executives and the board.
• Rebuild R&D finance around AI, automation, and Pigment to speed decision-making.

Skills

Strategic finance

FP&A

Driver-based forecasting

AI in finance

Cloud/AI cost analysis

Executive partnership

Pigment

Tools

Pigment

Job description

Build a Safer World.

TRM Labs provides AI-powered intelligence solutions that help public and private sector agencies investigate and disrupt crime. TRM's platforms enable investigators to trace illicit activity, build cases, and construct operating pictures of threat networks. Leading agencies and businesses worldwide rely on TRM to make the world safer and more secure.

TRM is hiring a Strategic Finance Lead, R&D and AI to help decide how the company invests in AI, cloud and compute infrastructure, and the engineering capacity behind its products. You'll be the dedicated finance partner to the CTO and R&D leadership, turning complex usage, billing, and headcount data into recommendations that shape major investment decisions before they're made. Reporting to Pharoah Green, Head of Strategic Finance and FP&A, within the FP&A and Strategic Finance Business Partnership function, you'll design the financial architecture for R&D from the ground up, with AI built into how the work gets done.

The impact you will have:

• Shape how TRM invests in AI, cloud, and compute by building an AI-assisted, driver-based economic model that connects usage and billing data across hundreds of SKUs to forecasts and decisions.
• Lower R&D costs as a % of revenue without slowing product velocity, using AI to surface optimization opportunities in infrastructure spend and partnering with Engineering to act on them.
• Define TRM's AI spend strategy with the Head of AI, using AI-powered analysis to track spend against ROI by tool and workload and to recommend where to commit, consolidate, or build.
• Give R&D leaders an early view of change by owning planning, forecasting, and the headcount capacity model, with automated workflows that flag risks while there is still time to act.
• Influence major infrastructure and R&D commitments by leading investment cases from business case to decision to measurement, with AI-assisted scenario analysis that makes tradeoffs clear.
• Turn R&D performance into a clear executive and board narrative: what changed, why, and which decisions should follow.
• Rebuild R&D finance around AI, automation, and Pigment so more time goes to shaping decisions and less to assembling reports.

What we're looking for:

• 7+ years across strategic finance, FP&A, business operations, or a related role. We care more about the complexity you've owned and the influence you've had than an exact number of years.
• A record of owning consequential work end to end: framing an ambiguous question, structuring the analysis, forming a point of view, and driving a recommendation to action.
• Strong data-informed modeling skills, including driver-based forecasts, investment cases, and capacity models built from incomplete or complex data, accelerated with AI.
• Hands-on experience analyzing cloud, compute, AI, or other usage-based technology costs, and experience partnering with Engineering, Product, Data, AI, or Infrastructure leaders.
• The judgment and communication skills to become a trusted partner to senior technical leaders, challenge assumptions constructively, and explain financial implications in plain language.
• Applied AI fluency: you can show how you've used AI to improve the speed or quality of modeling, research, or recurring workflows, and how you check the reliability of its output.
• Curiosity to learn technical systems quickly and translate how AI products and modern infrastructure scale into financial insight.

About the Team:

• Strategic Finance is a small, high-leverage team that works directly with TRM's leadership on planning, investment decisions, and company-wide strategy.
• Our job isn't just to explain the numbers. We collaborate with leaders to make better decisions, and we hold a high bar for rigor and trust in our work.
• You'll have substantial ownership from day one, direct exposure to the CTO and executive team, and room to shape how R&D finance operates.
• The role is built to scale with its owner. Using AI and automation, you can expand what one person owns, and as the mandate grows there may be an opportunity to build a team.

Team Operating Rhythms:

• We're distributed, not distant: written communication for clarity and context, live time for decisions and collaboration.
• Regular working sessions with the CTO and R&D leaders, plus a monthly R&D cost and forecast review.
• Quarterly planning with Talent and R&D on headcount capacity, and annual planning cycles in Pigment.
• Slack and Notion for async updates; AI tools are part of the daily workflow.

Learn about TRM Speed in this position:

• Within your first 30 days, deliver an initial AI-assisted cloud forecast, focused on GCP with AWS coverage as applicable, that gives R&D leaders their first driver-based view of where infrastructure spend is heading.
• Within your first 60 days, put a defined AI spend strategy in front of the CTO, with a clear recommendation on where to commit, consolidate, or cut.
• Within your first 90 days, have the R&D capacity model integrated into the planning process so hiring decisions and budget move together.

Life at TRM

We are building a safer world. That promise shows up in how we work every day.

TRM moves quickly. We are a high velocity, high ownership team that expects clarity, follow-through, and impact. People who thrive here are energized by hard problems, experimentation, and continuous feedback. If something takes months elsewhere, it will ship here in days.

Our work sits at the intersection of AI, national security, and fighting crime. The problems are complex, the stakes are real, and the environment evolves quickly. The pace and intensity of the work reflect the importance of the mission. As a result, the way we operate requires a high level of ownership, adaptability, collaboration, and creative problem solving.

At TRM, you should expect:

• Priorities and targets to change quickly as we experiment and iterate
• Work that often requires operating with a high degree of ambiguity
• A high level of personal ownership and accountability
• Close collaboration across teams and functions
• Frequent, high-touch communication
• Creative problem solving and out-of-the-box thinking
• A pace that rewards urgency, adaptability, and outcomes

This environment is energizing for people who enjoy building, solving hard problems, and making progress in situations that are not always fully defined. It also requires comfort navigating ambiguity, adjusting course as new information emerges, and maintaining focus and positivity in a fast-moving and intense environment.

We also recognize that this style of operating is not for everyone. If you are primarily optimizing for predictability or a consistently balanced workload, we encourage you to use the interview process to pressure test whether this environment is truly the right fit. We want teammates who thrive here, not just survive here.

At the same time, many people find this work deeply rewarding. If you are excited by meaningful problems, motivated by ambitious goals, and energized by working alongside mission-driven colleagues, there is a good chance you will find TRM to be an exceptional place to grow and contribute. Learn more about Interviewing at TRM

AI Fluency at TRM

AI fluency is a baseline expectation at TRM.

We believe AI meaningfully changes how top performers operate. We expect every team member to use AI to accelerate and reimagine their craft, not just automate surface tasks.

At TRM, AI fluency means you are among the top 10 percent of operators in your function in how you apply AI to:

• Accelerate repeatable workflows
• Structure and solve problems
• Improve output quality
• Increase speed and leverage

You will be evaluated on applied AI fluency during the interview process.

Leadership Principles

We hire and grow against three leadership principles. They’re the standards for how we operate, treat each other, and make decisions.

• Impact-Oriented Trailblazer: We put customers first and move with speed, focus, and adaptability. We treat every plan like an experiment – test, ship, measure, and iterate quickly.
• Master Craftsperson: We care deeply about our craft. We balance speed with high standards, own outcomes end-to-end, and invest in getting better everyday.
• Inspiring Colleague: We add clarity and energy, not noise. We bring humility, candor, and a one-team mindset — giving and receiving feedback to make the team stronger.

Join our Mission

At TRM, we care deeply about our craft. We are looking for individuals who want their work to matter, who experiment with speed and rigor, and who take pride in building a safer world for billions of people. If you’re excited by TRM’s mission but don’t check every box, we encourage you to apply — we hire for slope, judgment, and the will to learn fast.

TRM is a Series C company with $220M in total funding, backed by Goldman Sachs, Bessemer, Y Combinator, Thoma Bravo, and others. Headquartered in San Francisco, TRM operates as a distributed-first company with hubs in Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, Washington D.C., London, and Singapore. Learn more about building tools for defenders