Lifted, an Upwork Company™

Senior FinOps Analyst

Chicago, Illinois · Remote · Posted today

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Salary
Not listed
Job type
Contract
Work mode
Remote
Source
SmartRecruiters (employer's hiring system)

Skills mentioned

LLM, Jira

About the role

Job Description

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.

    Qualifications

    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

    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.

      Job ID sr-liftedanupworkcompany-3743990015946224 · Original posting ↗