Director, FinOps (35690)

FinOps Weekly; Toronto; Hybrid; CAD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

FinOps Weekly in Toronto is seeking a Director of FinOps to build and mature an enterprise FinOps program with a primary focus on Azure and platform services. You will own the FinOps strategy, operating model, governance cadence, optimization pipeline, forecasting discipline, and savings targets while partnering with Engineering, Cloud Operations, Product, Finance and senior leadership.

You will lead budgeting, forecasting, variance analysis, and scenario planning, develop cost allocation

Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience in cloud/platform technology, finance/FP&A, technology operations, FinOps, or a related area.
• 3+ years of leadership experience at Director/Head/Lead level.
• Experience building or contributing to FinOps/Cloud Financial Management programs.
• Proven ability to deliver measurable cloud savings over multiple quarters and improve cost-to-serve.
• Strong knowledge of Azure cloud economics and optimization.
• Strong financial expertise in budgeting, forecasting, variance analysis, scenario planning, ROI and savings measurement.

Responsibilities

• Deliver cloud cost optimization across Azure and platform services.
• Manage budgeting, forecasting, variance analysis, and scenario planning.
• Build showback/chargeback and cost-allocation practices.
• Define and track unit economics and cloud savings.
• Improve tagging standards, allocation accuracy, commitment planning, anomaly detection, and benefits tracking.
• Maintain governance reviews, tracking, follow-up, and executive reporting.

Skills

Leadership

Azure cost optimization

Stakeholder management

Financial forecasting

Cost allocation/showback

Executive communication

Analytical thinking

Governance

GitOps collaboration

Education

FinOps Foundation certification

Tools

Azure Monitor

Log Analytics

Application Insights

Terraform

Argo CD

AKS

Job description

Director, FinOps (Cloud Financial Management) Location: Toronto, Ontario Work Model: Hybrid — minimum 3 days onsite per week Employment Type: Permanent, Full-Time

About the Role

This role is responsible for building and maturing an enterprise FinOps program that delivers measurable, sustainable cloud cost optimization without compromising reliability, security, or engineering productivity. It combines strategic leadership with hands-on execution. The Director will own the FinOps strategy, operating model, governance cadence, optimization pipeline, forecasting discipline, and savings targets, with a primary focus on Azure and platform services. The position partners closely with Engineering, Cloud Operations, Product, Finance, and senior leadership. Success depends on the ability to influence technical and business stakeholders, strengthen cost accountability, and support cost-aware decision-making across the organization.

Key Responsibilities

• FinOps strategy and governance: Own the enterprise FinOps strategy, operating model, and governance framework across Azure and platform services, and establish cost ownership and accountability across teams.
• Cloud cost optimization: Build and manage the end-to-end optimization pipeline, including opportunity identification, impact analysis, prioritization, execution, savings verification, and regression prevention.
• Financial management: Lead cloud budgeting, forecasting, variance analysis, and scenario planning.
• Allocation and economics: Develop showback/chargeback practices, cost-allocation methods, unit economics measures, and supporting disciplines such as tagging standards, allocation accuracy, commitment planning, anomaly detection, and benefits tracking.
• Savings and business cases: Set quarterly and annual savings targets, define measurement baselines, and build business cases with ROI analysis.
• Engineering partnership: Work with Engineering and Cloud Operations to embed cost considerations into architecture reviews, backlog planning, release planning, and operational decisions, while translating technical choices into financial impact and cost-to-serve implications.
• Azure optimization: Drive improvements across compute, AKS/Kubernetes, rightsizing, scheduling, storage tiering, networking, Reserved Instances, Savings Plans, and observability costs.
• Cost observability and automation: Implement cost visibility, reporting, dashboards, alerts, automation, anomaly detection, and cleanup processes using Azure-native tooling and/or FinOps platforms, including Azure Monitor, Log Analytics, and Application Insights.
• Policy and guardrails: Establish practical cost-efficiency policies and guardrails aligned with engineering delivery.
• Leadership and enablement: Lead and mentor a small FinOps team, set goals and operating cadence, and support FinOps training and cloud cost literacy across technical and product teams.
• Executive reporting: Provide senior leadership with clear reporting on cost drivers, risks, savings progress, forecasts, KPIs, and recommendations.
• Cross-functional influence: Drive outcomes through data, governance, follow-up, and accountability rather than direct authority over technical teams.
• IaC and GitOps: Support Infrastructure as Code and GitOps practices where appropriate.

Required Skills

• 10+ years of experience in cloud/platform technology, finance/FP&A, technology operations, FinOps, or a closely related area.
• 3+ years of leadership experience at Director, Head, Lead, or an equivalent level.
• Experience building, leading, or materially contributing to FinOps / Cloud Financial Management programs.
• Proven ability to deliver measurable cloud savings over multiple quarters and improve cost-to-serve.
• Strong knowledge of Azure cloud economics, cost drivers, and optimization.
• Technical understanding of Azure architecture, including compute, AKS/Kubernetes, storage, networking, and observability.
• Strong financial expertise in budgeting, forecasting, variance analysis, scenario planning, business cases, ROI, and savings measurement.
• Experience with cost allocation, tagging, showback/chargeback, and/or unit-cost models.
• Ability to translate technical decisions into financial impact and practical business recommendations.
• Strong analytical skills, including identifying true cost drivers and measuring optimization outcomes.
• Ability to influence Engineering, Finance, Product, and Cloud teams without relying solely on direct authority.
• Strong hands-on experience with analysis, tracking, reporting, optimization follow-up, and governance.
• Executive-level written and verbal communication skills, including KPI reporting, recommendations, decision support, and senior stakeholder presentations.
• Ability to work in a structured, accountable, collaborative, and continuously improving environment.

Preferred Skills

• FinOps Foundation certification (Practitioner and/or Professional).
• Microsoft Azure certifications.
• Experience implementing showback/chargeback and unit-cost models at scale.
• Experience working in IaC/GitOps environments, including Terraform and Argo CD.
• Experience integrating cloud cost controls and governance into engineering and delivery pipelines.

Cloud Platforms & Technologies

• Cloud Providers: Azure
• FinOps Platforms / Tooling: Azure-native tooling, FinOps platforms
• Containers & Kubernetes: AKS, Kubernetes
• Infrastructure as Code / GitOps: IaC, Terraform, Argo CD, GitOps
• Monitoring & Observability: Azure Monitor, Log Analytics, Application Insights
• Cost Management Concepts: Reserved Instances, Savings Plans

FinOps Responsibilities

• Deliver cloud cost optimization across Azure and platform services.
• Manage budgeting, forecasting, variance analysis, and scenario planning.
• Build showback/chargeback and cost-allocation practices.
• Define and track unit economics and cloud savings.
• Improve tagging standards, allocation accuracy, commitment planning, anomaly detection, and benefits tracking.
• Maintain governance reviews, tracking, follow-up, and executive reporting.
• Measure and communicate realized savings with defensible baselines and methodologies.

Why You Might Be Interested

This opportunity offers a blend of strategic influence and hands-on FinOps execution. You would help shape an enterprise program, work across Finance and Engineering, and drive measurable cloud savings and cost accountability. The role also provides exposure to executive-level reporting and the chance to lead and develop a growing FinOps function. With a strong Azure focus and clear ownership of governance and optimization, it is well suited to someone who wants visible business impact.