FinOps Expert(Temporary Contract)

AVP; Greater London; On-site; GBP 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

Cognism is seeking a FinOps Expert to drive cloud financial management across its R&D org. You will connect AWS usage to business outcomes, ensure cost transparency and guide rightsizing and forecasting decisions.

You will build cost visibility across services and teams, track baselines and anomalies, and maintain a backlog of opportunities with quantified savings. Close collaboration with engineering and Finance is essential.

Qualifications

• 5+ years in FinOps, cloud financial management or related role.
• Strong hands-on experience optimising AWS spend in production.
• Experience with cost allocation, tagging and budgeting.

Responsibilities

• Own FinOps and AWS rightsizing across Cognism R&D.
• Build cost visibility by service, environment and owner.
• Track cost trends, deviations and translate into insight.
• Maintain a priority backlog with savings and effort.
• Provide cost impact for infrastructure changes.
• Partner with engineering and finance to optimise resources.
• Develop recurring cost reporting for leadership.

Skills

FinOps

AWS spend

Cost allocation

Data analysis

Forecasting

Cross-functional

Communication

Tools

Port.io

Terraform

Kubernetes

CloudWatch

Grafana

Python

SQL

Job description

WHO ARE WE

Cognism is the leading provider of European B2B data and sales intelligence. Ambitious businesses of every size use our platform to discover, connect, and engage with qualified decision-makers faster and close more deals. Headquartered in London with global offices, Cognism’s contact data and contextual signals are trusted by thousands of revenue teams to eliminate the guesswork from prospecting.

About the Role

As a FinOps Expert, you will establish cloud financial management as a continuous discipline across the entire Cognism R&D organisation. Working across Platform Engineering, Product Engineering, Data and R&D Operations, you will connect AWS usage, service ownership and engineering decisions to clear financial outcomes. This is a group‑wide, hands‑on role focused on cost transparency, rightsizing, forecasting and accountability - ensuring infrastructure and cloud investment decisions are based on data rather than intuition.

What You'll Do

• Own the continuous FinOps and AWS rightsizing process across Cognism R&D, covering production and non-production environments.
• Build clear cost visibility by service, engineering domain, environment, team and accountable owner across the R&D organisation.
• Track cloud cost baselines, trends, anomalies and material deviations, and translate them into actionable insight.
• Maintain a prioritised optimisation backlog with owners, expected savings, effort and delivery status.
• Provide cost assessments and projected financial impact for significant infrastructure changes and new platform initiatives.
• Partner with Platform Engineering, Product Engineering, Data Engineering and service owners to optimise resources without compromising reliability, security or delivery.
• Develop recurring infrastructure and cloud cost reporting for R&D leadership and Finance, including realised savings, cost drivers, forecasts and material variances.
• Use Port.io and cloud cost data to strengthen service ownership, cost allocation and platform governance.
• Promote cost‑conscious engineering practices across R&D so teams understand the financial impact of architectural, platform and operational decisions.

Technology Environment

• AWS and native cloud cost‑management data and tooling
• io service catalogue and engineering scorecards
• Kubernetes and cloud-native infrastructure
• Terraform / Infrastructure as Code
• Observability and utilisation data (CloudWatch, Grafana, Prometheus or equivalent)
• Data analysis and automation using SQL, Python or equivalent tooling

What Success Looks Like

• Every significant cloud cost across R&D has a visible owner, business context and reliable allocation.
• AWS cost trends, deviations and optimisation opportunities are reviewed on a recurring cadence.
• A measurable optimisation backlog continuously converts opportunities into realised savings.
• Infrastructure changes include cost impact alongside technical, reliability and security considerations.
• R&D leadership can make platform and cloud investment decisions using trusted cost, utilisation and forecast data.

Required Experience

• 5+ years in FinOps, cloud financial management, cloud infrastructure or a closely related role.
• Strong hands‑on experience analysing and optimising AWS spend in a production environment.
• Experience with cost allocation, tagging, ownership models, budgeting, forecasting and variance analysis.
• Demonstrated ability to identify rightsizing and efficiency opportunities and track them through to realised impact.
• Strong understanding of cloud architecture and the trade‑offs between cost, reliability, performance and scalability.
• Ability to work effectively across Platform Engineering, Product Engineering, Data, R&D Operations, Finance and senior leadership.
• Strong analytical skills and confidence working with large cost and utilisation datasets.
• Excellent communication skills and fluent English.

Nice to Have

• FinOps Foundation certification or equivalent practical FinOps experience.
• Experience with Kubernetes economics and shared-platform cost allocation.
• Experience with Port.io, cloud service catalogues or engineering scorecards.
• Experience building automated cost dashboards, anomaly detection or optimisation workflows.
• Experience in a high‑growth SaaS or data‑platform environment.

WHY COGNISM

At Cognism, we’re not just building a company - we’re building an inclusive community of brilliant, diverse people who support, challenge, and inspire each other every day. If you’re looking for a place where your work truly makes an impact, you’re in the right spot!

Our values aren’t just words on a page—they guide how we work, how we treat each other, and how we grow together. They shape our culture, drive our success, and ensure that everyone feels valued, heard, and empowered to do their best work.

Here’s what we stand for:

We Own the Outcome Together.
We Deeply Understand our Customers.
We Celebrate Impact Wherever It Comes From.

At Cognism, we are committed to fostering an inclusive, diverse, and supportive workplace. We welcome applications from individuals typically underrepresented in tech, so if this role excites you but you’re unsure if you meet every requirement, we encourage you to apply!