Principal Analyst, Revenue Strategy

Role Overview 

CarGurus is looking for a Principal Analyst to own analyses that shape Revenue leadership decisions about how we grow, monetize, and operate the business. Reporting directly to the Revenue Strategy leader, you’ll work at the intersection of strategy, analytics, and business partnership. You’ll advise leaders across Revenue, Product, Finance, and Operations, bringing structure, evidence, and a clear point of view to complex business questions.

The work will vary over time, from rapid-turnaround analysis supporting a board deck or leadership discussion to deeper dives into a new strategic question. The expectation is consistent: independently determine the right approach, apply rigorous quantitative analysis, and deliver a recommendation leaders can act on. You’ll own work end-to-end with minimal oversight, from framing the problem through communicating the analysis and driving toward a decision.

This is a high-visibility opportunity to work with senior and executive stakeholders on a wide variety of important business problems. It’s a strong fit for someone who enjoys tackling ambitious questions, advising leaders on broader business impact, and combining analytical depth with strong business judgment.

What you’ll do

• Frame and prioritize strategic questions across Revenue, identifying the data, assumptions, and analytical approach needed to reach a well-supported answer about topics such as marketplace balance, lead economics, retention, or the Revenue operating model.
• Serve as a strategic advisor to Revenue leadership by translating complex analysis into clear implications, trade-offs, and recommendations.
• Perform rigorous quantitative analysis and build financial models that inform decisions about growth, lead economics, monetization, product portfolio changes, product swaps and potential cannibalization, customer retention, and the Revenue operating model.
• Independently own ambiguous, high-impact analyses from problem definition through recommendation, presentation, and decision support.
• Partner with Product, Finance, Operations, and Revenue leaders to shape priorities and evaluate questions such as lead quality and volume, product adoption and cannibalization, customer churn, marketplace performance, sales process effectiveness, and organizational design.
• Pull, join, validate, and interpret data from multiple sources, while improving the reliability and consistency of the metrics used in strategic discussions.
• Create executive- and board-ready narratives, analyses, and presentation materials, including the supporting metrics and business context.
• Build reusable analytical frameworks, models, and measurement approaches that raise the quality and consistency of decision-making across Revenue.
• Help establish a stronger analytical foundation for questions that require more than anecdotal feedback, including customer and market insights derived from sources such as Gong. You’ll help turn conversation and customer feedback into reliable, quantifiable insights that leaders can use with confidence.
• Develop clear points of view, influence cross-functional partners without formal authority, and pressure-test assumptions to support productive decisions.
• Manage several short- and longer-term projects at once, making thoughtful decisions about where to focus as priorities evolve.

What you’ll bring

• 5–7 years of post-graduate experience in a data-intensive role such as strategy and operations, management or economics consulting, corporate strategy, FP&A, business analytics, or a related field. Experience combining quantitatively oriented consulting with hands-on analytics is especially relevant.
• Advanced SQL skills, with the ability to independently pull, join, validate, and investigate data from a warehouse or other large data sources.
• Strong Python skills for analysis, repeatable workflows, and work that goes beyond spreadsheets.
• Strong quantitative instincts and the ability to connect detailed analysis to business and financial impact through modeling, clear assumptions, and thoughtful interpretation of results.
• Demonstrated ability to independently own ambiguous, high-impact analyses from problem definition through recommendation and decision, with minimal oversight.
• Strategic self-direction, sound judgment, and the confidence to determine the best approach for complex or loosely defined work.
• Executive-level written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to create polished, concise slide decks and other materials for senior and board-level audiences.
• The ability to advise senior leaders on broader business implications, shape priorities across functions, and influence decisions without formal authority.
• The ability to build trust with cross-functional partners and establish analytical frameworks that others can use to make better decisions.

Nice to have:

• Experience with dbt or similar tools for building and maintaining analytical data models.
• Experience with Looker, Tableau, or another business intelligence platform, as well as version control or notebooks.
• Exposure to marketplace, subscription, two-sided-business, revenue, go-to-market, pricing, or product strategy questions.