Business & Financial Operations Analyst - AIML

The SWE Ops Infrastructure & Planning team is seeking an analytical, proactive, and collaborative Business & Financial Operations Analyst to maintain operational rigor and drive standardization across the AI team within the SWE organization.

In this role, you will drive requisition management, steer quarterly fiscal planning activities, and partner closely with engineering, research, finance, EPMs, and cross-functional leadership. You will serve as a key operational partner in budget forecasting, and vendor procurement, delivering the insights, processes, and frameworks that empower leaders to optimize resource allocation, make informed decisions, and execute seamlessly against our highest priorities.

Description

The SWE Ops Infrastructure & Planning team is committed to fostering a culture of technical excellence and operational discipline. As our research and engineering initiatives grow in scale and complexity, we are looking for an analyst who thrives in bringing structure to ambiguity, connecting the bigger picture to operational execution, and bringing decision-ready insights to various levels of leadership.

The ideal candidate pairs strong project management acumen and deep analytical capability with exceptional interpersonal skills. You will drive alignment across machine learning scientists, engineering DRIs, finance, and cross-functional partners—championing clarity, accountability, and continuous improvement while ensuring disciplined stewardship of our resources through proactive forecasting and vendor management.

You embody a passion to fight for excellence (striving for exceptional outcomes without settling) and the foresight to see around corners (anticipating long-term organizational, technological, and strategic trajectories).

Responsibilities

• End-to-End Requisition Management: Lead the PR-to-PO process from inception to issuance. Partner closely with EPMs, Procurement, Legal and Finance to draft requisitions, clarify deliverables, resolve billing terms, and actively unblock bottlenecks.
• Financial Integrity & Lifecycle Tracking: Ensure accurate financial treatment for data engagements and multi-year licenses. Collaborate with Finance during month-end / quarter-end close to verify accruals, track receipt of deliverables, confirm milestone completions, and review invoicing accuracy.
• Budget Orchestration & Forecasting: Drive annual, quarterly, and ongoing strategic planning exercises. Maintain the source of truth for AIML program spend. Continuously reconcile actuals against quarterly plans, model forward-looking spend, and alert leadership early to risks and opportunities.
• Strategic Storytelling & Reporting: Go beyond the spreadsheet. Synthesize spend velocity, vendor commitments, and operational milestones into executive-ready dashboards, memo updates, and visual summaries for engineering and operations leadership.
• Process Optimization: Identify friction points across procurement, invoicing, and contract renewals. Design lightweight, repeatable frameworks that improve cycle times and streamline how our fast-growing team scales its data partnerships.

Minimum Qualifications

• 5+ years of business operations, financial planning & analysis, strategy & operations experience within a high-tech or software engineering environment.
• Bachelor’s degree in an analytical or quantitative discipline (such as Business, Finance, Operations, Supply Chain), or equivalent practical experience.
• Proven track record managing the end-to-end Purchase Requisition (PR) to Purchase Order (PO) lifecycle—including vendor onboarding, scoping alignment, and proactive cross-functional chasing.
• Solid grasp of core financial treatment principles: CapEx vs. OpEx, prepaid assets, accruals, amortization schedules, and milestone-based billing.
• Demonstrated ability to track, analyze, and reconcile budget actuals vs. forecasts, identifying variances and driving corrective actions before quarter-end.
• Exceptional executive communication skills: ability to distill complex procurement timelines and financial figures into crisp, high-level narratives and executive summaries.
• Superior written and verbal communication skills, with proven ability to distill complex technical/operational information into clear, executive-ready presentations and memos.

Preferred Qualifications

• CPA or MBA
• Experience working with data licensing, or technical vendor contracts.
• Direct experience partnering with or supporting Machine Learning, AI, or R&D research teams.
• Familiarity with data analysis, querying, and visualization tools (e.g., SQL, Excel, Tableau) to evaluate organizational metrics and build automated reporting.
• A natural curiosity for AI/ML technologies and how strategic investments fuel model development.
• Pay & Benefits

At Apple, base pay is one part of our total compensation package and is determined within a range. This provides the opportunity to progress as you grow and develop within a role. The base pay range for this role is between $92,706 and $172,700 annualized, and your base pay will depend on your skills, qualifications, experience, and location.

Apple employees also have the opportunity to become an Apple shareholder through participation in Apple’s discretionary employee stock programs. Apple employees are eligible for discretionary restricted stock unit awards, and can purchase Apple stock at a discount if voluntarily participating in Apple’s Employee Stock Purchase Plan.

You’ll also receive benefits including: Comprehensive medical and dental coverage, retirement benefits, a range of discounted products and free services, and for formal education related to advancing your career at Apple, reimbursement for certain educational expenses — including tuition. Additionally, this role might be eligible for discretionary bonuses or commission payments as well as relocation.

Learn more about Apple Benefits

Note: Apple benefit, compensation and employee stock programs are subject to eligibility requirements and other terms of the applicable plan or program.