Sr. Director Analyst, Finance AI Agent Architecture & Strategy (Remote - US)

About the role:
Gartner Analysts are industry thought leaders who create must-have insights, market predictions and best practices for a broad range of world-leading organizations. They serve as leaders within Gartner’s Business and Technology Insights (BTI) group, establishing oneself as a credible voice within their designated market at local, regional and global levels. Utilizing exceptional research and analytical skills, they play a significant role in producing pragmatic and provocative insights which Gartner clients consume and apply to propel their business toward key objectives. They are a trusted source of advice for clients, reinforcing Gartner’s value every day by engaging them via in-person meetings, virtual meetings, sales support visits and Gartner conferences to discuss complex client challenges and offer appropriate recommendations. A Gartner Analyst possesses a keen eye for identifying gaps, problems and solutions within the market they serve. They use their knowledge to help clients make better decisions, solve complex issues and execute new practices that propel clients’ businesses toward key objectives and publish these pragmatic and/or provocative insights. Additionally, they reinforce Gartner’s value every day by engaging clients via in-person and virtual meetings, sales support visits, Gartner conferences and industry events.
We’re looking for a forward-thinking Finance AI Expert to join the Gartner Finance Practice. As a Finance AI Expert, you will regularly produce published insights and meet with Finance leaders including CFOs, FP&A leaders, Controllers, Finance Transformation leaders and their teams to advise on their Artificial Intelligence-related questions and challenges. If you’ve spent a good part of your career working in or alongside corporate finance teams and have exposure to how those teams are getting value from AI investments in key finance processes, then this expert role could be for you. Career experience with the development and deployment of AI projects within the finance function will be essential. In particular, experience with a wide range of AI techniques beyond GenAI will be valuable. As will deep familiarity with specific finance processes – including forecasting, planning, budgeting, record to report, and transactional finance (such as accounts payable or accounts receivable) – and collaboration with leaders in other corporate functions such as IT, Data, Legal, HR, etc.
The successful candidate will be comfortable discussing and researching topics including:
Finance’s AI vision, strategy, maturity and roadmap
Finance AI use case selection and implementation from pilot to production and scale
Finance AI technology landscape and developments, including vendors and emerging capabilities (e.g., the rise of agentic AI opportunities for finance)
Finance AI oversight and governance strategies
AI agent design and architecture
What you will do:
Create unique, defensible and highly consumable business and technology insights that directly address the AI priorities and opportunities of finance leaders.
Serve as a leading authority on finance AI topics, such as:
How AI technologies and approaches will impact the finance function;
Setting up AI pilots and scaling initiatives;
Ensuring proper governance of finance AI tools;
Navigating the Finance AI vendor landscape;
Finance AI use cases that draw on a range of traditional, generative and agentic AI techniques;
Connecting AI to finance process automation and wholesale finance transformation.
Stay abreast of external trends in artificial intelligence relevant to finance audiences. Create innovative, thought provoking, and highly leveraged “must-have” insights.
Develop new insights and ideas through thought leadership and offer compelling, actionable approaches to client's needs and requests that accelerate the client's ability to act
Develop in-depth analysis to identify the root cause of a client’s challenges or overall needs and reframe thinking to drive strategy forward
Demonstrate thought leadership in establishing insights positions across a team of analysts
Bring provocative, independent insights to Gartner leaders that can evolve the course of a research agenda
Research, analyze and predict market trends and shifts to provide clients and vendors with actionable insights
Provide clients and prospects with actionable advice aligned to their designated content area via virtual or face-to-face interactions
Create and deliver high value presentation materials on and off stage for Gartner events, industry and professional association conferences, and client briefings
Support BTI and Sales: Provide sales support serving as voice of the market to help Insights teams create content and to drive engagement with clients to make progress against their critical priorities to grow their business
Provide high quality and timely content peer review
Build credibility as an industry expert to represent Gartner insights, methodology and strategy
Actively participate in innovation, ideation, and research discussions and collaborate effectively with peers in the Insights community
Identify research process improvements or develop new processes that help the team and BTI provide excellent service delivery
Be a mentor and a coach by supporting more junior team members
Be client-centric while actively seeking to help clients engage regularly and often with Gartner insights and interactions
What you will need:
Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience.
10-12+ years of relevant field or industry experience working on relevant finance function and technology topics, with 2+ years of AI for finance, with increasing scope and responsibility.
Career exposure to major finance processes and workflows, data sources and technologies.
Experience with both the deployment of AI functionality in embedded tools and the development of homegrown or company-specific AI solutions.
Exposure to data science, quantitative analytics, statistics, probabilistic decision-making and coding languages (preferably Python) via on-the-job experience or formalized education (backgrounds in math, statistics and physics a plus).
Demonstrate executive presence; can immediately establish credibility with executives and additional stakeholders
Strong organizational skills; ability to work under tight deadlines and produce high quality deliverables
Demonstrate excellence in research and writing ability
Strong written and verbal proficiency, analytical and presentation skills; ability to engage clients and respond effectively to questions
Proficient in analyzing and synthesizing data; can effectively apply patterns and frameworks while drawing and defending conclusions to client challenges
Strong communicator who is able to explain complex concepts concisely and simply
Subject matter expert comfortable presenting at large and small-scale speaking engagements
Strong business and financial acumen
Deep knowledge of the global and competitive landscape within subject area as well as the interplay in that market
Ability to work independently, while also being intrinsically motivated to collaborate across teams and support the workflow of others, in a multicultural global team
Learning agile and adept with navigating highly matrixed environments
Ability to represent Gartner's research methodology and strategies effectively at all levels
Willingness and ability to travel up to 10% (where applicable)
#LI-TR3 #LI-Remote
Who are we?
At Gartner, Inc. (NYSE:IT), we guide the leaders who shape the world.
Our mission relies on expert analysis and bold ideas to deliver actionable, objective business and technology insights, helping enterprise leaders and their teams succeed with their mission-critical priorities.
Since our founding in 1979, we’ve grown to 20,000 associates globally who support over 13,000 client enterprises in ~90 countries and territories. We do important, interesting and substantive work that matters. That’s why we hire associates with the intellectual curiosity, energy and drive to want to make a difference. The bar is unapologetically high. So is the impact you can have here.
What makes Gartner a great place to work?
Our vast, virtually untapped market potential offers limitless opportunities – opportunities that may not even exist right now – f