Product Finance Director, R&D Capital Allocation & Engineering Operations
Lead R&D capital allocation and engineering operations at Databricks, partnering with senior leaders to drive product-level ROI.
Posted by employer 1 day ago
First seen on Joblaze 8 hours ago
Last verified on the company career page 8 hours ago
Skills & Technologies
What you'll build
- Drive product-level ROI and R&D capital allocation
- Establish frameworks to measure product-level ROI
- Define engineering economics in the AI era
- Drive multi-year headcount planning across global engineering hubs
- Build, mentor, and scale a high-performing team of finance professionals
Must have
- 10+ years of experience in Strategic/Product Finance or R&D FP&A
- Deep experience managing large-scale R&D OpEx
- Proven track record of partnering directly with senior Engineering and Product Operations executives
- Systems-level thinker with ability to re-engineer financial processes
- Experience building, leading, and developing high-output finance teams
Nice to have
- Direct experience analyzing cloud dev/test infrastructure and AI tooling/token costs
- Experience attributing shared engineering and platform R&D costs
- Hands-on proficiency with SQL, Python, or notebook environments
AI in the day-to-day
Partner with Engineering to model how AI developer tooling and internal token spend scale alongside headcount.
Requirements
- Experience
- 10+ years
Not disclosed in this posting: work arrangement, visa sponsorship.
Joblaze summary
The Product Finance Director at Databricks is responsible for overseeing R&D capital allocation and engineering operations, focusing on product-level ROI and optimizing resource allocation. This role requires expertise in managing large-scale R&D expenditures and workforce planning, particularly in a high-growth software environment, along with strong analytical skills in financial modeling. Ideal candidates will have extensive experience collaborating with senior engineering and product teams, as well as a proven track record in building and leading finance teams. Databricks emphasizes a systems-level approach to finance operations, aiming to modernize internal processes.
Joblaze insights
- Listed today — first seen on Joblaze October 17, 2026. Last confirmed on Databricks's careers page October 17, 2026.
- Salary band is above the typical range for Management roles (median ~$171,120).
- Starts above 62% of 73 comparable director management roles in United States that list AI/ML we track (median $204,000 across 48 companies). See AI/ML salary trends
- AI/ML appears in 19.1% of 544 comparable director management roles in United States; R&D appears in 0.4% of 544 comparable director management roles in United States.
Quick facts
- What's the salary range?
- Databricks lists $223,800–$307,650 for this role.
- How much experience is required?
- At least 10 years of relevant experience for this Product Finance Director, R&D Capital Allocation & Engineering Operations role.
- What's the tech stack?
- Joblaze extracted these technologies from the posting: AI/ML, Cloud, Engineering, Finance, R&D.
- What seniority level is this role?
- Databricks targets director candidates for this position.
- Is this full-time or contract?
- Full-time for this Product Finance Director, R&D Capital Allocation & Engineering Operations role at Databricks.
From the original posting
(GAQ427R231)
About the role
As Databricks scales at unprecedented velocity, how we invest our R&D capital—both human and compute—is critical to our scale. We are looking for a Product Finance leader to own R&D capital allocation and engineering operations. You will be a key finance partner to our senior Engineering and Product Operations leaders, with a mandate that spans product-level R&D ROI, global workforce and location strategy, and the rapidly evolving economics of AI-enabled software development.
The impact you will have
- Drive product-level ROI and R&D capital allocation
- Establish frameworks to measure product-level ROI across a fast-moving platform like Databricks where engineering velocity is extremely high.
- Operationalize ROI metrics so they directly inform product investment and resource allocation decisions.
- Define engineering economics in the AI era
- Partner with Engineering to model how AI developer tooling and internal token spend scale alongside headcount, quantifying the tradeoff between human capital and compute capital.
- Measure the end-to-end cost of AI-enabled engineering, including the second-order impact on cloud spend, and partner with Engineering to optimize investments.
- Shape global workforce and location strategy
- Drive multi-year headcount planning across global engineering hubs, balancing cost per hire, talent density, and university recruiting pipelines.
- Partner closely with Workplace and Facilities leadership to synchronize R&D hiring roadmaps with global real estate strategy and multi-year CapEx planning.
- Scale R&D finance operations and build the team
- Bring systems-level thinking to R&D finance operations, building scalable, automated workflows across headcount management, PO planning, monthly accruals, and SOX audit compliance.
- Dogfood the Databricks platform to modernize internal finance tooling and deliver self-serve operational visibility to engineering leaders.
- Build, mentor, and scale a high-performing team of finance professionals capable of operating seamlessly across strategic capital allocation and rigorous operational execution.
What we look for
- Required
- 10+ years of experience in Strategic/Product Finance or R&D FP&A.
- Deep experience managing large-scale R&D OpEx, headcount capacity modeling, and multi-site workforce planning within a high-growth enterprise software or cloud company.
- A proven track record of partnering directly with senior Engineering, Product Operations, and People/Workplace executives to drive capital allocation and operational rigor.
- Systems-level thinker with a demonstrated ability to re-engineer financial processes from scratch—spanning headcount tracking, procurement, close, and SOX controls—to support rapid scale.
- Experience building, leading, and developing high-output finance teams in fast-moving environments.
- Preferred
- Direct experience analyzing cloud dev/test infrastructure and AI tooling/token costs.
- Experience attributing shared engineering and platform R&D costs across a complex, multi-product portfolio to establish product-level profitability.
- Hands-on proficiency with SQL, Python, or notebook environments (especially Databricks) to automate reporting and self-serve insights from large operational datasets.
Pay Range Transparency
Databricks is committed to fair and equitable compensation practices. The pay range(s) for this role is listed below and represents the expected salary range for non-commissionable roles or on-target earnings for commissionable roles. Actual compensation packages are based on several factors that are unique to each candidate, including but not limited to job-related skills, depth of experience, relevant certifications and training, and specific work location. Based on the factors above, Databricks anticipates utilizing the full width of the range. The total compensation package for this position may also include eligibility for annual performance bonus, equity, and the benefits listed above. For more information regarding which range your location is in visit our page here.
Pay Range Transparency
Databricks is committed to fair and equitable compensation practices. The pay range(s) for this role is listed below and represents the expected salary range for non-commissionable roles or on-target earnings for commissionable roles. Actual compensation packages are based on several factors that are unique to each candidate, including but not limited to job-related skills, depth of experience, relevant certifications and training, and specific work location. Based on the factors above, Databricks anticipates utilizing the full width of the range. The total compensation package for this position may also include eligibility for annual performance bonus, equity, and the benefits listed above. For more information regarding which range your location is in visit our page here.
About Databricks
BenefitsStandard company text repeated across Databricks's postings is omitted here.