Senior FinOps Analyst

Overview

This role involves serving as a Senior FinOps Analyst who advises engineering and R&D teams on cloud spending. You will investigate cost anomalies, identify actionable optimization opportunities, and support forecasting and cost education for APAC-based teams.

Responsibilities

• Act as a primary, partner-facing contact for engineering teams, providing cloud cost guidance through real-time and asynchronous support (including Slack).
• Proactively engage high-spending R&D teams by:
  • Reviewing monthly cloud spending.
  • Identifying cost optimization opportunities.
  • Understanding upcoming engineering roadmap plans and their potential cost implications.
  • Capturing meeting notes, recommendations, recurring questions, and emerging cost patterns.
• Monitor cloud and AI/LLM spending for anomalies, spikes, and inefficiencies.
• Investigate spending variances, produce written root-cause analyses, and recommend optimization opportunities to team owners.
• Document investigations in Jira and flag relevant findings for monthly reporting.
• Support monthly forecasting by:
  • Reconciling central forecasts with team-level projections.
  • Documenting discrepancies.
  • Capturing team plans and anticipated spending.
  • Contributing practitioner insights and team-sourced information (including AI/LLM cost drivers) to Showback reporting and spending reviews.
• Support cloud cost awareness and education across engineering and R&D teams.
• Audit and update technical wiki content and documentation.
• Model team cost projections and track team investments and projects.
• Respond to cost-related requests through Slack, email, and other communication channels.

Note: Advisory and analytical delivery are in scope. Central budget ownership, vendor contract modeling, and platform/tooling engineering are outside the scope of this engagement.

Requirements

Must-Have Skills

• Senior-level experience in FinOps (cloud financial operations).
• Strong expertise in cloud cost management and optimization.
• Proven ability to investigate spending anomalies and produce clear, written root-cause analyses.
• Experience advising and consulting directly with R&D or engineering teams in a partner-facing capacity.
• Experience with cloud cost forecasting, including aligning central forecasts with team-level projections.
• Familiarity with OpenAI/LLM cost drivers and monitoring LLM spending.
• Experience with cost modeling and tracking team investments or projects.
• Proficiency with Jira for documenting investigations and Slack for real-time and asynchronous support.
• Experience maintaining technical documentation or wiki spaces and contributing to recurring reporting (including Showback).
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to engage stakeholders and communicate findings effectively.

Nice-to-Have Skills

• AI/LLM governance expertise.
• AI/LLM variable cost management expertise.

Compensation & Benefits

• Remote contract engagement, 40 hours per week.

Location, Time & Engagement

• Open to candidates based in eligible LATAM locations or the United States.
• Ability to cover APAC business hours, with some overlap with Pacific Time and the afternoon in Central Time.
• Remote contract engagement, 40 hours per week.

Required Tools & Platforms

• Jira and Slack.
• Familiarity with OpenAI/LLM cost drivers and LLM spend monitoring.
• Experience working with technical documentation and wiki spaces (no specific wiki platform required).