Rox is building an AI-native revenue operating system that turns every sales rep into a top performer. Backed by Sequoia, GV, and General Catalyst ($50M raised), we've built a platform used by 35+ leading enterprise teams including OpenAI, Ramp, and MongoDB. Our "Agent Swarm" architecture transforms fragmented CRM data into intelligent, autonomous workflows that research accounts, personalize outreach, and advance pipelines—all while sellers focus on closing deals. We're a small team tackling one of software's most entrenched markets, and we're winning.
We’re scaling an AI product with meaningful usage-based COGS (LLM tokens, AI search/tool APIs, and cloud/GPU infrastructure). We have partial visibility today, but we need a finance-owned FinOps function to (1) build finance-grade COGS attribution in partnership with Engineering and Data, and (2) run the ongoing cadence that turns that visibility into lower COGS and defensible gross margin reporting.
This is not an Engineering role (building instrumentation/services) or a Data role (owning pipelines/dashboards). It is a Finance role that partners closely with both teams to ensure COGS is invoice-aligned, attributable, forecastable, and improving over time.
This is a founding-level AI / Cloud FinOps Lead role with end-to-end ownership of COGS visibility and optimization.
You will sit at the intersection of Finance, Engineering, and Product, responsible for making costs measurable, attributable, and actionable — without compromising latency, reliability, or customer experience. This role is both deeply analytical and highly operational: you’ll build the cost model, establish trusted metrics, and translate insight into concrete optimization initiatives that leadership acts on.
If you enjoy turning complex AI and cloud cost systems into clear decision frameworks — and want real ownership — this role is built for that.
1) Finance-grade COGS attribution model
Define and maintain the COGS cost model and taxonomy (COGS vs R&D, prod vs dev, shared-cost allocation).
Own the rate cards / effective pricing that convert meters to dollars (LLM model pricing by token type, AI search API billing rules, AWS/GCP infra rates, commitments/discounts/credits).
Produce both actual and normalized unit-cost views (so credits/promos don’t mask steady-state economics).
Partner with Engineering to define the metadata/tagging/traceability required for granular attribution (customer/workspace, feature/action/workflow run, model/token type, tool calls like AI search, retries, environment).
Partner with Data to ensure canonical datasets and dashboards exist and remain consistent with Finance definitions.
Drive closure of attribution gaps (missing tags, inconsistent definitions, leakage/unattributed spend).
Reconcile internal metering and costed-usage views to vendor bills (AWS/GCP, LLM providers, AI search providers).
Own variance explanations and close-ready documentation: what changed, why spend moved, and where it landed by customer/feature.
Run weekly/monthly COGS reviews: drivers, anomalies, forecast vs actual, margin by customer/feature/workflow.
Maintain a driver-based forecast model (volume × usage distributions × model mix × rates).
Produce decision-ready analysis and short memos (cost vs quality/latency tradeoffs) for exec decisions.
Build and manage an ROI-ranked optimization backlog (model routing/tiering, caching, context policies, retry controls, search gating/dedupe, infra tuning).
Quantify expected savings and validate realized impact post-launch (in billed dollars and gross margin).
In your first few days: You understand Rox’s AI and cloud stack well enough to map major cost drivers and visibility gaps.
Within a few weeks: Measurement requirements are defined with Engineering, and a consistent unit-economics cadence is running with trusted metrics.
Within a few months: You can reliably explain COGS by customer / feature / action / model and reconcile to invoices; gross margin reporting is defensible; there is a repeatable cadence and playbook for detecting anomalies and reducing COGS; you’re driving measurable margin improvements through prioritized optimization initiatives that leadership acts on.
Strong Finance fundamentals: COGS, gross margin, unit economics, variance analysis, forecasting.
Experience with usage-based cost models and attribution.
Experience owning cloud cost management and understanding AI cost drivers.
Token economics and model pricing (prompt vs completion; model mix) — and translating them into actionable unit economics.
AI search/tool-call billing concepts (queries, tiers, overages).
AWS/GCP billing concepts (billing exports/CUR equivalents, commitments, shared infra allocation).
Hands-on analytical capability: SQL proficiency (able to self-serve analyses and validate drivers).
Familiarity with BI/observability workflows (e.g., Looker, Datadog) is a plus.
Strategic communication and ability to work cross-functionally: translate technical cost data into clear financial narratives and decision frameworks for leadership.
Partner with departments on metrics requirements (data dictionary / metric definitions).
Strong stakeholder management with Engineering/Data/Product; crisp memos and weekly readouts.
You are not expected to be a software engineer building production services or instrumentation.
You are not expected to be a data engineer owning pipelines end-to-end.
You may do some querying/prototyping, but your primary output is finance-grade COGS truth and savings outcomes.
Cloud: AWS and/or GCP
Data: Snowflake and/or Databricks (DBX)
Observability/BI: Sigma, Datadog and/or Tableau/Looker
AI vendors/tools: LLM providers + AI search/tool APIs
As Rox scales — more models, more customers, more actions per workflow — AI and cloud COGS become both a scaling constraint and a strategic lever. This role exists to build the operating system for COGS visibility and optimization: connecting product behavior to infrastructure dollars, surfacing real tradeoffs, and driving sustained margin improvements as we grow.
If you’re excited about owning this problem end-to-end and shaping how a company scales AI responsibly and profitably, this role offers rare scope and impact.
Top Skills
What We Do
Rox helps businesses secure and grow revenue.
