About this role.
Motive is seeking a senior individual contributor to lead profitability analytics across its hardware and software portfolio. The role centers on COGS, gross-margin, unit-economics, and scenario modeling that informs product and investment decisions. The analyst will translate ambiguous executive questions into defensible recommendations for the CPO, CTO, and finance leadership. Success requires expert SQL, strong financial and operational modeling, data-quality rigor, and highly effective executive communication. It is a remote Canada-based role with a potential future path into team leadership.
Role DNA
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Job Complexity
5/5Pace & Pressure
5/5Autonomy Level
5/5Communication Load
5/5Salary analysis
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Core skills
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Sample interview questions
I first reconciled finance and operational data to establish a trusted baseline by product, customer segment, and cost component. I then decomposed margin movement into volume, price, mix, and unit-cost drivers, tested scenarios, and prioritized the lever with the largest feasible impact. I presented the analysis with assumptions, sensitivity ranges, and a clear recommended action.
I would clarify the decision to be made, define the profitability metric and time horizon, and identify the hypotheses that matter most. Next, I would audit the available data, document gaps and definitions, build a minimum viable model, and validate results with finance and operational owners. I would return to leadership with a point of view, quantified trade-offs, and the next decisions or data needed.
I use modular, well-documented queries with explicit grain definitions, source-of-truth logic, and reconciliation checks against finance totals. I investigate duplicates, missing values, late-arriving records, and inconsistent identifiers before relying on a dataset. For repeatable work, I create tested transformation layers and data-quality checks rather than embedding business logic in one-off analyses.
Hardware economics typically include bill of materials, manufacturing, freight, warranty, inventory, and fulfillment costs, while software economics emphasize hosting, support, and service-delivery costs. I would model each product line at its appropriate unit level, then connect them through bundle mix, attach rates, lifecycle timing, and shared cost-allocation assumptions. The resulting model would make both standalone and blended gross-margin trade-offs visible.
I lead with the decision, recommendation, and expected business impact rather than the methodology. I provide the few drivers that explain the result, make assumptions and uncertainty explicit, and use concise visuals or scenarios to show trade-offs. I keep detailed calculations available for follow-up, but tailor the main discussion to the executive’s decision context.
Who we are:
Motive empowers the people who run physical operations with tools to make their work safer, more productive, and more profitable. For the first time ever, safety, operations and finance teams can manage their drivers, vehicles, equipment, and fleet related spend in a single system. Combined with industry leading AI, the Motive platform gives you complete visibility and control, and significantly reduces manual workloads by automating and simplifying tasks.
Motive serves nearly 100,000 customers – from Fortune 500 enterprises to small businesses – across a wide range of industries, including transportation and logistics, construction, energy, field service, manufacturing, agriculture, food and beverage, retail, and the public sector.
Visit gomotive.com to learn more.
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.
What We Offer
- Direct impact on Motive’s most strategically important financial decisions
- Close partnership with the CPO and CTO — your work shapes how senior leadership thinks about the business
- A team that values independent thinking, intellectual rigor, and clear communication over process and hierarchy
- Path to team leadership as the role evolves
- Competitive compensation, benefits, and equity
- Fully remote with a collaborative, high-trust culture
Pay Transparency
Your compensation may be based on several factors, including education, work experience, and certifications. For certain roles, total compensation may include restricted stock units. Motive offers benefits including health, pharmacy, optical and dental care benefits, paid time off, sick time off, short term and long term disability coverage, life insurance as well as 401k contribution (all benefits are subject to eligibility requirements). Learn more about our benefits by visiting Motive Perks & Benefits.
The compensation range for this position will depend on where you reside. For this role, the compensation range is:
Canada
$134,000—$168,000 CAD
Creating a diverse and inclusive workplace is one of Motive’s core values. We are an equal opportunity employer and welcome people of different backgrounds, experiences, abilities and perspectives.
Please review our Candidate Privacy Notice here.
UK Candidate Privacy Notice here.
The applicant must be authorized to receive and access those commodities and technologies controlled under U.S. Export Administration Regulations. It is Motive’s policy to require that employees be authorized to receive access to Motive products and technology.
All job postings are for existing vacancies. Please note; some interviews or new-hire training sessions may be held in person at one of our global offices.
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