Senior Analyst, Strategic Analytics

About the Role

Motive's Strategic Analytics (SA) team drives data-informed decision-making for the Product organization. We turn business metrics and product usage data into insight that directly shapes strategy across Growth, Churn, and Profitability.

This Senior Analyst role sits at the center of Profitability — a high-visibility domain in SA right now. You will own complex COGS and gross margin analysis across Motive's hardware and software product lines, work directly with our CPO, CTO, and senior leadership, and turn ambiguous executive questions into clear, defensible analytical POVs. This is not a reporting role. This is a problem-solving role.

You will start as a pure individual contributor and own your work end-to-end. Over time, there is a real path to taking on team leadership responsibilities.

What You’ll Do

• Own end-to-end COGS and gross margin analysis for Motive’s hardware and software product lines — including vehicle gateways, dashcams, and a growing suite of software products
• Model cost-saving opportunities, build scenario analyses, and deliver recommendations on profitability levers directly to the CPO, CTO, and finance leadership
• Take ambiguous, high-stakes business questions from senior stakeholders — structure them, build the analysis, and walk into executive conversations with a clear point of view
• Partner closely with data engineering, finance, and product teams to understand cost drivers, surface insights, and influence roadmap and investment decisions
• Navigate messy, complex data environments — establish ground truth, build reliable datasets, and create durable analytical frameworks the broader team can build on
• Contribute to the operational rigor of the SA team: documentation, version control practices, and analytical best practices
• Operate with minimal supervision — you own your domain, manage your own priorities, and push work forward without waiting to be told what to do next

Must Haves

• 7+ years of experience in analytics, strategic finance, or a closely related field — with demonstrated depth in financial/operational modeling
• Expert-level SQL — you write complex queries independently and fluently
• Deep understanding of unit economics: gross margin, contribution margin, COGS structures, cost drivers, and scenario modeling
• Proven ability to independently frame and decompose ambiguous business problems — you structure the question before you answer it
• Strong executive communication skills — you have presented analytical findings and a clear POV directly to VP or C-suite stakeholders
• High autonomy and self-sufficiency — you thrive in fast-moving environments where context is incomplete and priorities shift
• Experience working in messy data environments where you have had to establish definitions, validate data quality, and build from the ground up

Strong Nice-to-Haves

• Experience with hardware + software combination products (IoT, fleet technology, consumer electronics, or similar) and how COGS behaves differently from pure SaaS
• Python for analysis and automation
• Hands-on experience with a modern analytics stack — dbt, Airflow, or equivalent — and opinions about how analytics teams should operate
• Background in strategic finance, FP&A, or management consulting with a strong technical layer

Who Thrives in This Role

You are the kind of analyst who treats a vague exec question as a starting point, not a blocker. You break problems down structurally, get into the data, and come back with something actionable and defensible. You are comfortable being wrong and updating your view. You do not need someone to hand you a well-defined problem — you build the definition. You care about the quality of your work and take pride in the clarity of your communication.

This role is not a good fit if you primarily want to build dashboards, manage a team, or work in a highly structured environment with clean data and well-defined scope.