Director, SOX Infrastructure

Anthropic•San Francisco, CA

1d•Hybrid

About The Position

Anthropic is seeking a SOX Director - Compute and Infrastructure to join its Internal Audit team. This role will lead financial risk assessment and internal control design for compute and infrastructure, which represents Anthropic's largest cost and a complex area of financial reporting. The focus will be on cloud spend, usage-based costs, vendor commitments, accruals, and cost allocation as the company scales towards an IPO. This is a unique opportunity to build SOX controls at an AI-first company in a domain with few established playbooks. The role involves owning scoping, control design, testing, remediation, and reporting for compute and infrastructure processes, collaborating with various finance and engineering teams. The position reports to the Head of Business Controls and is crucial for enhancing internal control maturity pre- and post-IPO.

Requirements

Designed controls over cloud, compute, or infrastructure cost, or over a comparable high-volume, usage-based process, and understand control objectives, IPE, and sufficiency of audit evidence.
Proven ability to establish or scale SOX controls at newly public or pre-IPO companies.
Deep understanding of compute accruals, vendor commitments, cost allocation, financial close, and US GAAP requirements.
Experience evaluating service organization reports (SOC 1 and SOC 2) and complementary user entity controls.
Comfortable working with large datasets and data pipelines, and partnering with data science and engineering teams.
Ability to structure ambiguous control problems and influence across stakeholders without direct authority.
Strong project management, analytical, and communication skills.
Bachelor's degree in Accounting, Finance, Business Administration, IT/Engineering.
Passionate about building scalable processes that support organizational growth and Anthropic's mission to create safe AI.

Nice To Haves

12+ years of hands-on SOX, internal audit, or internal controls experience, preferably in both Big 4 and in-house roles at a fast-paced technology company.
CPA (or similar certification) and/or CISA.
Familiarity with cloud provider billing and commitment structures (AWS, GCP, Azure).
SQL and comfort working directly with usage, telemetry, and cost data to validate what the systems are telling you.
Experience with controls over cost of revenue, gross margin reporting, and allocation methodologies.
Interest in or experience applying AI/ML technologies to audit, compliance, or risk management processes.
Understanding of lease accounting (ASC 842) and other accounting standards relevant to infrastructure and capacity arrangements.
Experience working at a high-growth AI or technology company.
Familiarity with financial data governance, internal controls over financial reporting (ICFR), and SEC disclosure requirements.

Responsibilities

Lead financial risk and internal control design for compute and infrastructure accounting, including cloud spend, usage-based costs, vendor commitments, credits, refunds, accruals, cost allocation, budgeting, and asset lifecycle management.
Develop and execute the SOX control plan and roadmap for compute and infrastructure, making defensible prioritization calls on what must be controlled now and what can follow.
Own scoping, risk assessment, walkthroughs, testing, remediation, and reporting activities for compute and infrastructure processes.
Build scalable, automated, and sustainable controls to support growth through pre-IPO and post-IPO readiness.
Pioneer the use of AI and automation to enhance control effectiveness, including full-population matching of usage to invoices, continuous monitoring, and anomaly detection.
Design, implement, and monitor controls over the completeness, accuracy, and cutoff of compute cost, including monthly accruals built from internal workload telemetry and the true-up to provider invoices.
Establish controls over multi-year provider agreements, including reserved capacity, minimum spend commitments, usage-based charges, signing credits, service-level credits, refunds, and billing corrections.
Design and test controls over the allocation of compute cost between cost of revenue and research and development, including workload tagging, shared clusters, and changes to tagging logic or allocation models.
Establish the investigation threshold and variance criteria used in the control design to ensure the precision needed to detect a material misstatement.
Design and test controls over infrastructure related control inclusive of development of an asset lifecycle management system.
Oversee control documentation and ensure audit-ready evidence is maintained for all compute and infrastructure processes, in compliance with US GAAP and SEC reporting requirements.
Own control requirements across high-volume financial data pipelines, partnering with Finance Analytics &BI, Finance & Strategy, and Accounting to validate completeness, accuracy, classification, general-ledger mapping, key reports, and monthly close governance.
Own the identification and control treatment of key reports and Information Produced by the Entity (IPE) used in compute accruals, allocation, and the close.
Partner with IT SOX and engineering teams on the IT general controls and automated controls that support compute data, including interface, ITAC’s, and change management over pipelines and models.
Embed control requirements into new systems, pipelines, and process changes at design time.
Lead the assessment of reliance on cloud providers that meter and bill compute, including review of SOC 1 reports, scope and period coverage, bridge letters, and exceptions or qualified opinions.
Define and monitor complementary user entity controls, and design alternative procedures where a provider report is missing, does not cover the relevant system or period, or includes exceptions.
Assess how the use of AI in Finance and in the close changes what controls need to cover, and update the control environment accordingly.
Partner with Compute Accounting, Finance Analytics & BI, Infrastructure Engineering, Procurement, and Finance & Strategy to implement scalable controls over compute and infrastructure.
Work with the Compute Controller and Chief Accounting Officer organizations to align control priorities with business objectives.
Train and enable process owners and control performers, many of whom are new to SOX, on control execution, evidence retention, and what audit-ready means.
Support management's assessment of internal controls over financial reporting (ICFR) and related disclosures.
Serve as the primary point of contact for external auditors on compute and infrastructure SOX matters.
Prepare the Company's formal positions on control design, provider reliance, and deficiency evaluation for compute and infrastructure.
Manage audit requests, coordinate testing schedules, and facilitate walkthroughs across compute and infrastructure processes.
Track and report on control status, testing results, and remediation to leadership.
Drive alignment with external auditors on testing approaches, reliance strategies, and deficiency evaluation and aggregation assessment.