Cloud FinOps Support Specialist

H & R COMPUTER CONSULTING SERVICES; Silver Spring (MD); Hybrid; USD 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

401(k)

Competitive salary

Dental insurance

Health insurance

Paid time off

Flexible work from home

Job summary

H & R COMPUTER CONSULTING SERVICES in Silver Spring, MD seeks a Cloud FinOps Support Specialist to manage financial operations across AWS, Azure, GCP, and AI/SaaS providers for NOAA. You will reconcile invoices, optimize costs, and maintain audit trails to ensure cost transparency and accountability across a multi-cloud portfolio.

Responsibilities include monthly invoice reconciliation, data organization in centralized trackers, cost attribution and shared services allocation, evaluating Savings

Qualifications

• Experience with cloud financial management and multi-cloud environments.
• Strong understanding of cost optimization and billing processes.
• Ability to maintain audit trails and extensive documentation.

Responsibilities

• Monthly invoice reconciliation for cloud and labor.
• Organize records by Provider/Month/Lab or Program.
• Allocate costs across labs and programs; back-billing where needed.
• Evaluate savings instruments (Compute Savings Plans, RIs).
• Develop dashboards and reports for a multi-cloud spend view.
• Provide data-driven cost insights to management.

Skills

Apptio Cloudability

Cost management

FinOps principles

Documentation management

Audit trails

Education

FinOps Certification (Preferred)

Tools

Apptio Cloudability

AWS Billing Console

Google Cloud Console

Azure Cost Management

Job description

Benefits

• 401(k)
• Competitive salary
• Dental insurance
• Health insurance
• Paid time off

Title - Cloud FinOps Support Specialist

Client - NOAA

Location - Silver Spring, MD

5+ year contract

1. Position Title & Role Summary

Position Title: Cloud Financial Operations (FinOps) Support Specialist

Role Summary: The Cloud FinOps Support Specialist is a critical technical-financial function dedicated to supporting the OAR IT Office and the OAR Cloud Program. This role is responsible for the professional execution of financial operations across a multi-cloud ecosystem, including Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), and modern Commercial AI/SaaS providers. The Specialist ensures financial accountability and cost transparency through rigorous invoice reconciliation, proactive cost optimization, and the maintenance of a comprehensive audit trail for the OAR Cloud portfolio.

2. Primary Responsibilities: Monthly Invoice Reconciliation & COR Support

The Specialist manages the end-to-end multi-cloud invoice reconciliation process to ensure technical consumption aligns with financial disbursements. The workflow requirements include:

1. Intake & Tracking: Receive monthly invoices for cloud consumption and labor. Log all data into centralized tracking systems, including Google Drive repositories and specialized spreadsheet trackers.
2. Data Organization: Maintain a rigorous documentation hierarchy. All records must be categorized systematically by Service Provider, then by Month, and finally by Lab/Program. This includes the management of "Lab-Specific Invoice Folders" to ensure reports are partitioned for correct stakeholder delivery.
3. Metadata Validation & Verification: Execute detailed metadata validation by cross-referencing PDF invoice data—specifically the Task Order number and Billing Period—against the centralized tracker. Verify invoiced consumption totals against technical usage reports, including Excel-based consumption breakdown files.

3. Cost Attribution & Shared Services Allocation

The Specialist implements technical methodologies to ensure precise cost management and back-billing accuracy. This includes:

• Cost-Allocation Methodology: Utilizing cloud-native tagging and attribution methods to manage back-billing for individual labs and programs.
• Best-Effort Allocation Logic: Executing shared services cost allocation across multi-cloud environments. In instances where labs provide insufficient accounting information or delayed feedback, the Specialist applies "best-effort" allocation using fund-aging logic. This involves identifying and utilizing the oldest available funds via alphabetical project code sequencing (e.g., prioritizing "T" funds over "U" or "V" funds).
• Balance Management: Maintenance of a "Balance" tracking system to monitor real-time expenditures against available funds per line of accounting, ensuring that expenditures never exceed authorized limits.

4. Cost Optimization, Savings Management, & ROI

Proactive financial management is a core function of the OAR Cloud Program. The Specialist is required to:

• Instrument Evaluation: Continuously evaluate cloud discount instruments, specifically Compute Savings Plans and Reserved Instances (RIs), to minimize unblended costs.
• Execution Support: Provide data-driven recommendations and technical assistance to OAR management in the procurement and renewal of these savings instruments.
• Performance Metrics & Value Reporting: Establish a tracking system for documented cloud cost savings. This ROI narrative is supported by "Value Added Reports" (e.g., MTD Net Bill, Average Net Bill, and Highest Service Net Bill) to demonstrate the position's fiscal impact.

5. Reporting, Analytics, & Resource Usage

The Specialist provides deep visibility into cloud spend through multi-dimensional analytical reporting.

• Cloud SLA Management Serve as primary point of contact for cloud SLA management
• Custom Dashboarding Generate and update customized dashboards and value-added reports tailored to specific Lab/Program requests. The Specialist ensures these products evolve based on stakeholder feedback to provide actionable financial insights.
• Multi-Cloud Drill-Down Analytics Utilize enterprise tools such as Apptio Cloudability or CloudCheckr to provide granular, "drill-down" visibility into consumption. This includes analyzing spend patterns and anomalies across all providers to ensure cost-efficient resource utilization.
• Modern Resource Tracking Apply specific focus to tracking usage metrics for Commercial AI platforms and modern SaaS cloud resources. This ensures that emerging technology expenditures are integrated into the core infrastructure financial management framework.

6. Qualifications & Core Competencies

Requirements

• Cloud Management Tools,"Expertise in Apptio Cloudability. Advanced proficiency in native cost management consoles (AWS Billing Console, Google Cloud Console, and Azure Cost Management)."
• FinOps Knowledge,"Comprehensive understanding of FinOps principles, cost optimization techniques, and the lifecycle management of Compute Savings Plans and Reserved Instances (RIs)."
• Documentation,Proficiency in managing complex documentation hierarchies and maintaining comprehensive audit trails within cloud-based storage environments (Google Drive).
• Certifications,FinOps Certified Practitioner (Preferred).

Flexible work from home options available.