Director, Strategic Finance - Corporate FP&A
Cerebras · Sunnyvale, United States · 4mo ago
Cerebras Systems builds the world's largest AI chip, 56 times larger than GPUs. This architecture allows Cerebras to deliver industry-leading training and inference speeds; over 10 times faster than GPU-based hyperscale cloud inference services.
This order of magnitude increase in speed is transforming the user experience of AI applications, unlocking real-time iteration and increasing intelligence via additional agentic computation.
Cerebras works with the leading model labs, global enterprises, and cutting-edge AI-native startups. OpenAI recently announced a multi-year partnership with Cerebras, to deploy 750 megawatts of scale, transforming key workloads with ultra high-speed inference.
About The Role
This role is a front-row seat in a company at the leading edge of AI compute. You will create the corporate FP&A operating system for the company: long-range planning, annual planning, forecasting, executive reporting, guidance support, and SG&A business partnering that keeps decision-ready insight flowing as the company scales. The scope can stretch for a proven FP&A leader seeking a sharper public-company platform or a high-potential leader ready to pull the function forward from day one. You will work across leadership teams and be accountable for outcomes, not outputs. You will report to the Head of FP&A.
Why now
Cerebras is newly public and scaling at pace. This commercial traction demands exceptional financial operations. This role will be a driver of this capability.
Responsibilities
Ownership: Company-wide corporate FP&A, including owning the company model, leading long-range and annual planning, monthly forecasting, revenue forecasting, G&A budgeting, headcount, spend management, Board reporting, and public-company reporting support.
Operating model: Player-coach on a flat, high-standards team. You bring a track record of building talent-dense teams, use technology to multiply output, and set the bar by staying close to the work.
Success definition: FP&Ais the center of context for the organization.The team will deliver investor-grade information to the right partners at the right time.
What you will build
Corporate FP&A infrastructure for a newly public company: planning, forecasting, reporting, guidance support, and G&A spend visibility.
A decision-quality KPI and reporting architecture: scorecards, dashboards, recurring reviews, and crisp narratives that leadership and investors trust.
Financial models leaders can use: clean inputs, stress-tested assumptions, clear outputs, and documented logic across planning, budgeting, forecasts, and guidance support.
A world-class business partnership motion: business leaders rely on the FP&A team for insight. We deliver true partnership, not spreadsheet help
Make order out of chaos. Build mechanisms that turn messy business inputs into repeatable processes including forecasting cadences, metric definitions, reconciliation paths, and accountability loops.
Automation and tooling that compounds output for a small, talent-dense team, including structured data pulls, workflow automation, and pragmatic AI use.
Public-company-ready operating rhythms: clean close-to-insight timelines, clear ownership, guidance support, and durable definitions that scale with scrutiny.
What you will own
G&A business partnering: Serve as the primary finance partner to G&A leadership. Bring structure, speed, and judgment to budgeting, headcount planning, spend management, and strategic investment decisions.
Corporate planning: Own and continuously improve forecasting, budgeting, annual planning, long-range planning, scenario planning, and performance reporting across the company.
Revenue forecasting: Own the company revenue forecast and partner closely with Sales and Product to build accurate, data-driven projections, variance insights, and guidance support.
Executive, Board, and investor reporting: Prepare and deliver financial reporting, insights, and commentary for executive leadership, the Board, investors, and public-market processes.
KPIs and dashboards: Develop and refine KPIs, scorecards, dashboards, and analytical frameworks that highlight trends, track operating leverage, and guide leadership decisions.
Capital allocation and systems: Conduct analysis to support investment decisions and long-term planning, and drive improvements in financial systems, AI-enabled workflows, tools, and data quality.
What success looks like in the first 6 to 12 months
You earn the trust of leadership by delivering the right insights at the right time in the right way.
G&A leaders and executives proactively pull you into decisions because your work improves outcomes, not just visibility.
Durable insight assets are live (dashboards, forecast packs, KPI definitions, Board-ready and investor-ready reporting) with a clear cadence and single-source-of-truth inputs.
The long-range plan, annual operating plan, and monthly forecast process run smoothly, with scenario levers leadership uses for decisions, guidance support, and operating tradeoffs.
G&A spend and headcount visibility improve through better planning discipline, reducing surprises and improving decision quality.
The revenue forecast and variance process are credible, timely, and actionable, with clear ownership and repeatable guidance-support inputs.
You have improved the system: fewer manual consolidations, fewer one-off analyses, and more AI-enabled mechanisms that keep the business informed as scale increases.
What we are looking for
We are hiring for judgment, agency, systems thinking, and player-coach leadership. You know what great FP&A looks like, build what the business needs next, and bring others along.
15+ years of total experience (rough guide), ideally across corporate FP&A, strategic finance, or adjacent roles. We are open to proven Directors and VP-level leaders seeking a high-slope public-company platform.
Corporate FP&A leadership experience, ideally in a public-company or newly public environment, or training from a comparably rigorous analytical setting. You have seen excellent FP&A up close and can raise the bar quickly.
Strong financial modeling skills. You can build from scratch, pressure-test assumptions, and defend outputs with clarity.
Proven G&A and executive-facing partnership. You earn trust by being fast, right, and useful, then scale that trust through repeatable mechanisms.
Player-coach systems thinker. You have built or raised the bar for small, talent-dense teams and can build infrastructure that works as pace increases and data gets messy.
High agency. You operate in ambiguity, move without perfect inputs or direction, close loops, and bring pattern recognition rather than a rigid playbook.
Clear executive communication. You distill complexity into concise narratives, perform grounded root-cause analysis, and influence decisions.
Technical fluency beyond spreadsheets (preferred). Comfortable with Excel, PowerPoint, SQL, Python, AI tools, and planning or BI tooling.
Ways to stand out
Experience in hardware, semiconductor, infrastructure, or other complex businesses with sophisticated revenue and spend planning.
Time at a public, newly public, or high-growth company navigating rapid scale, guidance support, and public-company planning rhythms.
Experience with performance management, scorecards, dashboarding, and operating leverage analysis.
Fluency with planning, ERP, and BI systems (for example NetSuite, Oracle, or Looker) and the practical reality of integrating finance processes across functions.
Strong AI affinity: you apply modern tools to automate work, accelerate analysis, raise quality, and extend small-team output.
Location
In-person at Cerebras headquarters in Sunnyvale, California.
Why Join Cerebras
People who are serious about software make their own hardware. At Cerebras, we have built a breakthrough architecture that is unlocking new opportunities for the AI industry. With dozens of model releases and rapid growth, we’ve reached an inflection point in our business. Members of our team tell us there are five main reasons they joined Cerebras:
Build a breakthrough AI platform beyond the constraints of the GPU.
Publish and open source their cutting-edge AI research.
Work on one of the fastest AI supercomputers in the world.
Enjoy job stability with startup vitality.
Our simple, non-corporate work culture that respects individual beliefs.
Find out more about what it's like to work at Cerebras here!
Apply today and become part of the forefront of groundbreaking advancements in AI!
Cerebras Systems is committed to creating an equal and diverse environment and is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate different backgrounds, perspectives, and skills. We believe inclusive teams build better products and companies. We try every day to build a work environment that empowers people to do their best work through continuous learning, growth and support of those around them.
This website or its third-party tools process personal data. For more details, click here to review our CCPA disclosure notice.