Strategic Finance Lead - Compute

About the Position

Strategic Finance Lead - Compute

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.

This position is based in San Francisco and requires in-person attendance 2-3 days per week.

Responsibilities

• 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

Requirements

• Exceptional analytical skills with an ability to synthesize data into compelling insights and develop complex financial operating models
• Extraordinary problem-solving and critical thinking abilities to develop new frameworks for assessing utilization and capital efficiency in a rapidly evolving industry
• Attention to detail and patience for getting to the source of truth on complex and interconnected contract and usage data
• 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
• Background in AI, ML, or high-performance, large-scale computing infrastructure, including data centers and cloud service providers

Preferred Qualifications

• 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
• Deep expertise in GPU vendor economics, contract structures, and pricing models
• Experience with chip architecture economics and optimization strategies
• Proficiency with financial modeling tools

Compensation

• $190K – $240K • Offers Equity

U.S. Benefits

Full-time U.S. employees enjoy a comprehensive benefits program including equity, health, dental, vision, retirement, fitness, commuter and dependent care accounts, and more.

International Benefits

Full-time employees outside the U.S. enjoy a comprehensive benefits program tailored to their region of residence.

USD salary ranges apply only to U.S.-based positions. International salaries are set based on the local market. Final offer amounts are determined by multiple factors, including experience and expertise, and may vary from the amounts listed above.

About the Company

Perplexity is a leading company in the fintech industry, dedicated to leveraging advanced technologies to drive financial innovation and efficiency.