Business & Financial Operations Analyst - AIML

Apple • Cupertino, CA

13h

About The Position

The SWE Ops Infrastructure & Planning team is seeking an analytical, proactive, and collaborative Business & Financial Operations Analyst to maintain operational rigor and drive standardization across the AI team within the SWE organization. The analyst will manage requisitions, steer quarterly fiscal planning, and partner with engineering, research, finance, EPMs, and cross-functional leadership. The role supports budget forecasting and vendor procurement, providing insights and processes that help leaders optimize resource allocation and make informed decisions.

The successful candidate will bring structure to ambiguity, connect strategic priorities with operational execution, and deliver decision-ready insights to leadership. They will promote clarity, accountability, continuous improvement, and disciplined stewardship of resources through proactive forecasting and vendor management.

Requirements

• At least 5 years of business operations, financial planning and analysis, or strategy and operations experience in a high-tech or software engineering environment.
• Bachelor’s degree in an analytical or quantitative discipline, such as Business, Finance, Operations, or Supply Chain, or equivalent practical experience.
• Proven experience managing the end-to-end Purchase Requisition (PR) to Purchase Order (PO) lifecycle, including vendor onboarding, scoping alignment, and cross-functional follow-up.
• Understanding of financial treatment principles, including CapEx versus OpEx, prepaid assets, accruals, amortization schedules, and milestone-based billing.
• Experience tracking, analyzing, and reconciling budget actuals versus forecasts, identifying variances, and driving corrective actions before quarter-end.
• Exceptional executive communication skills, including the ability to distill complex procurement timelines and financial figures into clear narratives and executive summaries.
• Superior written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to present complex technical and operational information in executive-ready presentations and memos.

Nice To Haves

• CPA or MBA.
• Experience working with data licensing or technical vendor contracts.
• Direct experience partnering with or supporting Machine Learning, AI, or R&D research teams.
• Familiarity with data analysis, querying, and visualization tools such as SQL, Excel, and Tableau.
• Curiosity about AI/ML technologies and how strategic investments support model development.

Responsibilities

• Lead the purchase requisition-to-purchase order process from inception to issuance, partnering with EPMs, Procurement, Legal, and Finance to draft requisitions, clarify deliverables, resolve billing terms, and unblock bottlenecks.
• Ensure accurate financial treatment for data engagements and multi-year licenses.
• Collaborate with Finance during month-end and quarter-end close to verify accruals, track deliverables, confirm milestone completions, and review invoicing accuracy.
• Drive annual, quarterly, and ongoing strategic planning activities.
• Maintain the source of truth for AIML program spending; reconcile actuals against quarterly plans, model forward-looking spend, and alert leadership to risks and opportunities.
• Create executive-ready dashboards, memo updates, and visual summaries that communicate spend velocity, vendor commitments, and operational milestones.
• Identify friction points in procurement, invoicing, and contract renewals, and design repeatable frameworks to improve cycle times and support data partnerships.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level