Senior Director - AI Labs Strategic Finance

Salesforce•San Francisco, CA

22h

About The Position

Salesforce is seeking a senior strategic finance leader with startup financial-operator experience to validate and operationalize financial deal models during due diligence and to build and own operating models for AI Labs acquisitions and strategic investments. The role owns financial budgets and helps ensure post-close success by making sure models reflect how AI-native companies operate and that pre-close commitments become executable post-close plans. The position partners with AI Labs leaders, portfolio CEOs and founders, and Corporate Development and/or M&A Finance. It operationalizes approved models into budgets and operating plans, tracks actual performance against assumptions, identifies material variances, and maintains forward-looking, driver-based revenue forecasts. It also establishes consistent modeling frameworks that account for differences in company stage and business model.

Requirements

Experience as a CFO, strategic finance leader, or senior finance executive in a Series B–D or similarly high-growth technology company.
Deep understanding of startup economics, SaaS and AI business models, and growth-stage operating decisions.
Exceptional financial modeling skills and analytical judgment.
Experience partnering directly with founders and executive teams.
Comfort challenging assumptions and bringing an operator’s perspective to investment decisions.
Problem-solving mindset to help unlock growth barriers by working with AI Lab companies and Salesforce’s broader ecosystem.

Nice To Haves

Experience spanning venture-backed companies and/or scaled or public-company environments.
Meaningful startup operating experience; this is the stated hiring preference for external candidates.

Responsibilities

Own end-to-end operating models for AI Labs acquisitions.
Validate assumptions for revenue, growth, headcount, compensation, investment, margin, and cash requirements with AI Labs leadership and founding teams.
Partner with portfolio CEOs and founders and AI Labs leadership after close to align on existing budget and growth-metric assumptions before further investment decisions.
Collaborate with Corporate Development and/or M&A Finance throughout the M&A process to align with AI Labs guiding principles and maintain communication between organizations.
Operationalize approved acquisition and strategic investment models into executable post-close budgets and operating plans to drive growth and innovation.
Track actual performance against financial-model assumptions and establish processes to identify material variances early, create feedback loops, and determine resolution paths.
Own a forward-looking, driver-based revenue forecast to assess whether deal-model assumptions can be achieved.
Establish a consistent modeling framework across AI Labs acquisitions that accounts for differences in company stage and business model.