#133408 - Senior FinOps Analyst

Lifted, an Upwork Company; Oregon; Hybrid; USD 83,000 - 124,000; Full time

Job summary

Lifted, an Upwork Company, seeks a Senior FinOps Analyst to guide engineering and R&D on cloud spending, identify optimization opportunities, and partner with APAC-based teams to align costs with forecasts and measurable outcomes.

You will monitor monthly spend, analyze AI/LLM cost drivers, document findings, and support forecasting and Showback reporting across teams in a remote engagement.

Qualifications

• Senior-level FinOps experience in cloud financial operations.
• Expertise in cloud cost management and optimization.
• Ability to investigate spending anomalies and produce written root-cause analyses.
• Experience advising R&D or engineering teams in a partner-facing capacity.
• Experience with cost forecasting and aligning forecasts with team projections.
• Familiarity with OpenAI/LLM cost drivers and monitoring.
• Experience with cost modeling and tracking investments or projects.
• Proficiency with Jira for documenting investigations and Slack for real-time support.
• Experience maintaining technical documentation and recurring reporting (Showback).
• Strong written and verbal communication skills for stakeholder engagement.

Responsibilities

• Serve as primary contact for engineering teams seeking cloud cost guidance.
• Review monthly cloud spending and identify cost optimization opportunities.
• Capture meeting notes and recurring questions for monthly reporting.
• Monitor cloud and AI/LLM spending for anomalies.
• Document investigations in Jira and flag findings.
• Participate in monthly forecasting by reconciling forecasts with team plans.

Skills

Senior FinOps

Cloud cost management

Forecasting cost

Root-cause analysis

Jira documentation

Slack support

LLM cost drivers

Cost modeling

Stakeholder comms

Documentation wiki

Tools

Jira

Slack

OpenAI/LLM cost drivers

Job description

Company DescriptionWe 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 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.