Director of Finance - Budget and Cost Management

The Role

We're looking for a sharp, operationally-minded finance leader to own the company's budgeting and cost management function. Sitting within a lean, high-impact finance team at a fast-growing global AI and Agentic Tools company, this Director will serve as the key finance leader driving operating rigor, resource allocation, and scalable planning processes across the company. Your team will manage, track, and improve our cost structure - partnering deeply with functional leaders to drive accountability and strategic resource allocation.

Reports to VP of FPA (or CFO).  Leads a team of 4-6 globally located Associates.

Location: San Francisco Bay Area (with 60% time in Mountain View office)

What You'll Do:

Budgeting & Planning

• Lead the annual operating budget process across all cost centers globally, coordinating with functional heads (R&D, GTM, Core, and Operations)

• Own the budget calendar, templates, tooling, and consolidated outputs under the CFO area

• Own company-wide headcount planning processes including hiring tracking, capacity planning, and workforce investment analysis.

• Own cloud cost analysis and forecasting including customer contribution margin, cloud capacity planning, and LLM/token investment analysis.

• Update the consolidated rolling forecast in close partnership with the Forecasting & Revenue Planning side of our team
   

Cost Center Management & Business Partnering

• Serve as the primary finance business partner to cost-center owners across the organization

• Drive monthly BVA process for each operational stakeholder to provide visibility and drive accountability to investment plans and operating targets. 

• Build and maintain cost center reporting frameworks that give functional leaders real-time visibility into spend vs. budget

• Challenge and advise department heads on headcount, vendor spend, and project investments

Financial Analysis & Reporting

• Produce monthly analysis (actuals vs. budget/forecast) with clear narratives and business insights

• Run scenario modeling and re-forecast analysis to show outcomes under different scenarios

• Identify and drive operational efficiency and investment optimization opportunities across the business.

• Support board reporting in partnership with the CFO
   

Process & Systems

• Own and continuously improve budgeting systems and processes (Abacum, ThoughtSpot Reporting)

• Establish scalable cost management practices to support global growth across offices
   

What You Bring:

• 8 years of progressive finance experience; 2+ years in a Director or Senior Manager FP&A role or deep, multi-department finance business partner experience

• Planning background honed in a technology company, a recurring revenue B2B business, and in headcount driven cost centers.

• Deep expertise in budgeting, cost management, and opex analysis

• Practical experience working with global teams and managing staff across time-zones 

• Strong business partnering instincts with the ability to influence operating leaders, drive accountability, and improve business processes 

• Comfortable with Finance tool stack: Abacum, Adaptive, NetSuite, Coupa, Salesforce and some analytics or dashboard tooling.

• Demonstrated ability to apply AI and Agents to improve business processes in most recent role

• Bachelor's in Finance, Accounting, Economics or STEM areas; MBA a plus

• Comfortable operating in a lean, fast-moving environment

In California, the estimated annual salary range for this role is $200k - $230k per year. Actual compensation may vary and will be determined based on permissible, non-discriminatory factors such as skills, qualifications, experience, and location of the selected candidate. 

Additional benefits for this role may include: equity, company bonus or sales commissions/bonuses; 401(k) plan; medical, dental, and vision benefits. 

Mandatory and Required Skills for All ThoughtSpot Roles

Spotters are expected to demonstrate AI literacy and workflow integration to include to ability to:

• Comfortably and confidently integrate artificial intelligence into their daily workflow to increase productivity and quality.

• Hands-on experience to leverage AI tools (industry-leading LLMs) to increase productivity, automate routine tasks, and improve work quality.

• Speak to the experience of using AI for research, content creation, and document summarization while maintaining ownership of judgment and final decisions.

• Write effective prompts to get the most accurate and creative results from AI tools.

Spotters are expected to exemplify these key traits and AI Mindset:

• Curiosity in exploring new AI tools

• Adaptability to quickly learn and implement new, emerging AI technologies

• Critical thinking to know when to identify when AI should be used versus when human judgement is necessary

This combination of curiosity, adaptability, and discernment defines the AI mindset, and it’s required for every role at ThoughtSpot.

AI Mindset for All Spotters

At ThoughtSpot, we believe AI is a necessary and essential part of how we work. Every role, across every team, is expected to be fluent and comfortable with using AI to do their best work.

All Spotters are expected to experiment with ThoughtSpot’s AI tools (like Spotter and SpotterViz) and leading industry LLMs to streamline workflows, enhance output, and uncover new insights. Whether drafting content, analyzing data, or summarizing documents, AI is a daily partner. We value curiosity, openness to learning, and thoughtful application of AI to create real value. Training and resources are provided so every Spotter can confidently create with AI.

Hybrid Work at ThoughtSpot

Spotters assigned to an office are encouraged to experience the energy of their local office with an in-office expectation of 2-3 days per week. This approach balances the benefits of in-person collaboration and peer learning with the flexibility needed by individuals and teams.

ThoughtSpot for All

At ThoughtSpot, diverse teams build better products. Complex data problems need many perspectives, not just one. We welcome different backgrounds, identities, and experiences, and we work to create a place where everyone can be themselves and do their best work. If this role excites you and you believe you’re a strong match, we encourage you to apply.

What Makes ThoughtSpot a Great Place to Work?

ThoughtSpot is the Agentic Analytics Platform that empowers every enterprise to transform insights into action, on a mission to make the world more fact driven. We hire people with unique identities, backgrounds, and perspectives - this balance-for-the-better philosophy is key to our success. When paired with our culture of Trust, Customer Obsession, Innovation and Intensity, ThoughtSpot cultivates a respectful culture that pushes norms to create world-class products. If you’re excited by the opportunity to work with some of the brightest minds in the business and make your mark on a truly innovative company, we invite you to read more about our mission, and apply to the role that’s right for you.

About ThoughtSpot

The world’s most innovative companies turn to ThoughtSpot’s AI-Powered Analytics to put data in the hands of everyone, from the C-suite to the frontline. With simple, natural language search and AI, anyone can ask questions, discover insights, and act with confidence. Unlike legacy tools that sacrifice performance for complexity, ThoughtSpot is intuitively designed for every business user while being built to handle the most complex, large-scale data, wherever it resides. This unique combination of speed and simplicity is why enterprise leaders trust ThoughtSpot to transform decision-making into a truly data-driven culture.

At ThoughtSpot, we’re a curious, data-driven bunch. We believe the world works better when everyone has access to facts. That’s why we build products that make asking and answering data questions as natural as having a conversation.