Advise engineering and R&D teams on cloud and AI/LLM spending, investigate anomalies, perform root-cause analysis, identify optimization opportunities, support forecasting, and contribute to Showback reporting. The role provides partner-facing cost guidance, documents findings in Jira, supports stakeholders through Slack, maintains technical documentation, and tracks team investments and projections. This is a remote contract engagement supporting APAC business hours with overlap across U.S. time zones.
Company Description
We are seeking a Senior FinOps Analyst to advise engineering and R&D teams on cloud spending, investigate cost anomalies, and identify actionable optimization opportunities.
In this role, you will serve as a primary partner-facing resource for APAC-based teams, helping align cloud spending with forecasts and measurable business outcomes through cost analysis, education, and proactive engagement.
Enterprise experience is strongly preferred.
Key Responsibilities
- Serve as a primary contact for engineering teams seeking cloud cost guidance, responding to questions in real time through Slack and other asynchronous channels.
- Proactively engage with high-spending R&D teams to:
- Review monthly cloud spending.
- Identify cost optimization opportunities.
- Understand upcoming engineering roadmap plans and their potential cost implications.
- Capture 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.
- Participate in monthly forecasting by:
- Reconciling central forecasts with team-level projections.
- Documenting discrepancies.
- Capturing team plans and anticipated spending.
- Contribute 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.
- Focus on advisory and analytical delivery. Central budget ownership, vendor contract modeling, and platform/tooling engineering are outside the scope of this engagement.
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, such as Showback.
- Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to engage stakeholders and communicate findings effectively.
Nice-to-Have Skills
- AI/LLM governance expertise.
- AI/LLM variable cost management expertise.
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 is required.
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
Lifted, an Upwork Company Chicago, Illinois, USA Office
525 W Van Buren Street, Suite 1100, Chicago, United States, 60607
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