Upwork Inc.’s (Nasdaq: UPWK) family of companies connects businesses with global, AI-enabled talent across every contingent work type including freelance, fractional, and payrolled. This portfolio includes the Upwork Marketplace, which connects businesses with on-demand access to highly skilled talent across the globe, and Lifted, which provides a purpose-built solution for enterprise organizations to source, contract, manage, and pay talent across the full spectrum of contingent work. From Fortune 100 enterprises to entrepreneurs, businesses rely on Upwork Inc. to find and hire expert talent, leverage AI-powered work solutions, and drive business transformation. With access to professionals spanning more than 10,000 skills across AI & machine learning, software development, sales & marketing, customer support, finance & accounting, and more, the

Upwork family of companies enables businesses of all sizes to scale, innovate, and transform their workforces for the age of AI and beyond. Join us in revolutionizing work and building agile teams.

Since its founding, Upwork Inc. has facilitated more than $30 billion in total transactions and services as it fulfills its purpose to create opportunity in every era of work. Learn more about the Upwork Marketplace at Upwork.com and follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and X; and learn more about Lifted at Go-Lifted and follow on LinkedIn.

About the Role

We’re looking for an experienced FP&A Manager to serve as the strategic finance business partner for our AI/ML and Platform Infrastructure (Central Engineering) organizations. In this high-impact role, you will move beyond traditional budgeting to act as a trusted advisor to the CTO and VP of Engineering. You will own the end-to-end forecasting for our cloud infrastructure and GPU spend, while leading the R&D Capitalization (Internal-developed Software) forecast and analysis. You will help enforce financial guardrails in high-volatility areas, advance vendor transparency and savings, and provide the analytical rigor needed to navigate complex trade-offs and decisions that shape our future marketplace.

Responsibilities

• Serve as the day-to-day finance partner to AI/ML, Central/Platform Engineering, DPS, and IT leaders; provide proactive guidance on budget, investments, and trade-offs
• Lead end-to-end monthly variance analysis, re-forecasting, and management reporting; synthesize drivers, risks, and opportunities with clear executive narratives
• Own the forecast for cloud/hosting expenses; partner with Infrastructure to identify efficiency opportunities and deliver measurable savings.
• Collaborate with Product and Engineering to align Gen AI program needs (e.g., model training and inference usage) with financial plans, enforce budgeting guardrails, ensuring spend profiles match roadmap priorities
• Lead forecasting and close activities for capitalized labor (IDSW capitalization); align with Accounting on capitalization criteria and partner with BizOps on initiative alignment and project-level tracking
• Partner with the business to develop business cases for new initiatives; provide ROI, payback, and unit-economics analyses to support prioritization and leadership decisions
• Produce vendor showback reporting to increase visibility into utilization; partner with Strategic Sourcing on opportunity identification, contract optimization, and tool rationalization tracking
• Prepare executive-ready materials for monthly forecast review and ELT/Board updates; translate complex financials into clear recommendations and decision options.

What would make you an excellent fit:

• 5-7 years in FP&A or Strategic Finance, with 3-5 years supporting Product or Engineering in a SaaS or AI-first company
• Functional understanding of cloud economics and infrastructure spend drivers
• Experience partnering with Produce and FinOps to translate GenAI demand and model-training roadmaps into actionable financial plans
• Advanced analytical skills with a mastery of large datasets; ability to extract meaningful financial insights and synthesize them into high-stakes executive summaries
• Excellent business partnering and executive storytelling; comfort translating engineering concepts into simple financial narratives
• A "bias to action" with an ownership mindset. You have a history of implementing process rigor and delivering high-quality, audit-ready outputs with minimal oversight
• Prior experience with Planful and Oracle EPM is strongly preferred

Come change how the world works.

Upwork is establishing an operational hub in Toronto, Canada. The new office is expected to be fully operational by Q4 2026. This role will require 3 days in office once we have an office open.

This position will initially be employed through a partner to ensure a seamless hiring process while we establish the hub. Once the hub is established, there may be opportunities to transition to employment with Upwork, depending on business needs and other requirements. While employed by the partner, you’ll work as part of Upwork’s team, with access to our resources, culture, and growth opportunities.

Our partner will offer competitive benefits. When Upwork’s hub is established, we will be excited to offer employment and benefits directly as business needs require.

Upwork is committed to building a diverse, inclusive, and equitable workforce. Employment decisions are made without regard to race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or any other status protected by applicable law.

We use BrightHire, an AI-enabled tool, to record interviews and summarize interview transcripts. The tool allows the interviewer to focus on the discussion and does not score or evaluate candidates or make recommendations. The interview transcripts are reviewed, and decisions are only made by humans. Candidates who prefer not to have their interview recorded through BrightHire can opt out when the interview is scheduled.