Principal, Strategic Finance & Analytics

Overview

This role partners with Technology, Finance, and technical infrastructure teams to plan, forecast, and manage total cloud and AI platform costs. It sits at the intersection of finance and technical infrastructure—translating usage trends (cloud compute, storage, and AI spend) into forecasts and cost narratives that support company-wide investment decisions. Key cross-functional partners include Engineering, Procurement, and FP&A.

Responsibilities

• Own the understanding, forecasting, and influencing of total cloud and AI spend, including traditional cloud infrastructure and AI.
• Build and maintain monthly/weekly cloud and AI cost forecasts, reconciling actuals against plan and explaining variance drivers to leadership.
• Track AI spend by category and by model/provider mix; flag shifts in usage or pricing that affect the forecast.
• Partner with Infrastructure and AI Platform engineering teams to size, validate, and prioritize efficiency initiatives (e.g., model routing, token optimization, provider migration).
• Own migration-tracking reporting (e.g., provider mix shifts, cost impact of model changes) and ensure underlying data is traceable back to source systems.
• Prepare and present cost updates to a broad, senior audience, translating technical usage data into clear financial narratives.
• Identify and quantify new cloud and AI cost efficiency opportunities with technical stakeholders and track them through to landed savings.
• Run monthly and ad hoc reviews with Finance and Tech leadership.
• Lead planning cycles (including FY26 close-out and FY27 guidance) and drive month-over-month rigor in cost variance analysis.

Requirements

• 10 years of finance, FP&A, or cost management experience, ideally including direct exposure to cloud infrastructure costs.
• Prior experience with AI/ML infrastructure costs strongly preferred.
• Demonstrated ability to build and maintain complex financial models and forecasts in ambiguous, fast-changing environments.
• Strong track record partnering with engineering/technical teams to translate usage data.

Compensation & Benefits

• Pay Range: $168,000—$206,000 USD
• This role may also be eligible for bonus, equity, benefits, and Employee Travel Credits.
• Job titles may span more than one career level; base pay depends on factors such as training, transferable skills, work experience, business needs, and market demands. The base pay range is subject to change.

Location

US - Remote Eligible. The role may include occasional work at an office or attendance at offsites, as agreed to with your manager. While Remote Eligible, you must live in a state where Airbnb, Inc. has a registered entity. You must live in a state that is not on the excluded states list. The list is continuously evolving, so please check back with the organization if your state is on the exclusion list. If your position is employed by another Airbnb entity, your recruiter will inform you what states you are eligible to work from.