Cloud Finance Lead — Hybrid, Cost Optimization & Forecasting

FinOps Weekly; Northern (KY); Hybrid; USD 115,000 - 195,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid work model

Discretionary bonus program

Job summary

Northern Trust seeks a Cloud Finance Lead to direct financial planning, cost governance, and forecasting for our cloud portfolio. You will partner with Technology, Cloud Engineering, Procurement, and BU CFOs to drive disciplined spending and support cloud migrations and modernization.

The role requires 10–15+ years in FP&A or tech finance, strong cloud economics knowledge, and the ability to translate technical patterns into financial outcomes.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Accounting, Economics, Engineering, or related field.
• 10-15+ years of experience in FP&A, Technology Finance, or related financial leadership roles.
• CPA, CFA, MBA, or FinOps Certification.
• Strong understanding of cloud economics (Azure, AWS, Snowflake, etc.) or a willingness to rapidly learn.
• Demonstrated ability to interpret complex technical concepts into financial outcomes.
• Advanced financial modeling, forecasting, and analytical skills.
• Experience interacting with senior leaders and influencing cross‑functional decision-making.

Responsibilities

• Lead monthly/quarterly cloud forecasting, variance analysis, and long‑range planning across multiple cloud providers.
• Maintain and enhance cloud cost models, demand forecasting methodologies, and productivity assumptions.
• Partner with Technology Finance and CIO organizations to align cloud demand with enterprise budget constraints and strategic priorities.
• Translate complex cloud usage patterns into clear financial impacts for non‑technical stakeholders.
• Build and maintain frameworks for cloud cost governance, including spend controls, tagging hygiene, and savings accountability.
• Identify cost‑optimization opportunities such as reserved instances, rightsizing, storage optimization, and platform consolidation.
• Work with FinOps, Cloud Engineering, and Infrastructure teams to operationalize optimization recommendations.
• Ensure expense governance aligns with architectural policies and funding protocols.
• Evaluate cloud migration proposals and prepare financial business cases including cost‑to‑migrate, run‑rate cloud expense versus on‑prem costs, TCO benefits, contract and licensing implications.
• Model sensitivities, risks, and capital/expense impacts associated with large‑scale cloud initiatives.
• Partner with Procurement on cloud‑related vendor negotiations and renewals.
• Create executive‑level reporting on cloud KPIs, consumption trends, efficiency metrics, and spend drivers.
• Develop and maintain dashboards to support transparency across CIO organizations and Steering Committees.
• Monitor and report progress relative to cloud productivity targets and demand reduction initiatives.
• Partner with Cloud Engineering, Architecture, Security, and Product teams to understand upcoming migrations, platform requirements, and financial implications.
• Act as the finance representative in cross‑functional cloud governance forums.
• Provide guidance to BU partners on cloud forecasting, cost drivers, and financial accountability.

Skills

Cloud economics

Financial modeling

Forecasting

Stakeholder management

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Accounting, Economics, Engineering, or related field

CPA, CFA, MBA, or FinOps Certification

Tools

Apptio/Cloudability/Flexera

Job description

Northern Trust seeks a Cloud Finance Lead to direct financial planning, cost governance, and forecasting for our cloud portfolio. You will partner with Technology, Cloud Engineering, Procurement, and BU CFOs to drive disciplined spending and support cloud migrations and modernization.

The role requires 10–15+ years in FP&A or tech finance, strong cloud economics knowledge, and the ability to translate technical patterns into financial outcomes.