Corporate Finance & Strategy, R&d Opex

Anthropic Anthropic · AI Frontier · San Francisco, CA · Finance

This role is a Strategic Finance partner for the Engineering organization, focusing on operating expenses (OpEx). The individual will manage headcount, vendor spend, and tooling investments, building driver-based financial models that link spend to technical inputs. The role requires engaging with engineering leaders, challenging assumptions, and making informed decisions about resource allocation to support research and product development in a fast-growing AI company.

What you'd actually do

  1. Serve as the primary finance partner to Engineering leaders, providing guidance and recommendations on vendor and tooling spend, and resource allocation decisions.
  2. Build and maintain driver-based financial models for engineering OpEx — tying vendor and tooling spend to the underlying technical drivers (usage, seats, throughput, capacity, utilization) rather than top-down growth assumptions
  3. Develop a deep understanding of the engineering tooling and vendor stack so you can engage substantively with technical leaders on what's driving spend and where it's headed
  4. Lead budgeting, forecasting, and long-range planning for the engineering organization, partnering with leaders to translate roadmaps into resource plans
  5. Push back constructively on assumptions, proposals, and forecasts — bringing data, sharp questions, and clear reasoning to help engineering leaders land on better decisions

Skills

Required

  • FP&A, OpEx or G&A finance experience
  • high-growth technology companies experience
  • building driver-based financial models
  • comfortable with technical concepts
  • genuine interest in understanding systems, tools, and infrastructure
  • pushing back constructively on senior stakeholders
  • excellent communication and storytelling abilities
  • presenting to C-suite executives and board members
  • bias toward action
  • strong work ethic
  • driving operational outcomes under tight timelines
  • thrive in fast-paced, dynamic environments
  • navigate ambiguity with confidence
  • strong collaboration skills
  • build effective partnerships across functions and levels

Nice to have

  • experience at a high-growth technology company or startup
  • expertise with modern financial planning tools (e.g., Anaplan, Pigment)
  • direct experience partnering with Engineering, R&D, or other technical organizations
  • hands-on experience modeling vendor spend with technical drivers
  • technical background or coursework (CS, engineering, quantitative field) or comparable self-taught fluency
  • experience leading headcount planning and workforce modeling at scale

What the JD emphasized

  • push back with conviction when the numbers don't add up
  • ask sharp questions, challenge assumptions
  • push back constructively on assumptions, proposals, and forecasts
  • push back constructively on senior stakeholders