FinOps Operational Cost Control, Director

FinOps Weekly; City of Rochester (NY); On-site; USD 198,000 - 247,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Extra days off

401(k) with 3% match

Maternity and parental leave

Mental health support

Full health benefits

Job summary

Sysdig is seeking a Director of FinOps Operational Cost Control to lead cloud spend governance across multi-cloud, AI compute, and large-scale telemetry pipelines. The role focuses on visibility, cost transparency, and driving savings in a senior leadership capacity.

You will build dashboards, drive cost optimization initiatives, and partner with engineering, finance, product, and leadership to translate infrastructure spend into business metrics that influence pricing and margins.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of FinOps, cloud cost optimization, or operational cost management.
• Experience leading enterprise-wide cost initiatives with cross-functional leadership.
• Proven success reducing cloud or hosting spend at scale in AWS, GCP, or Azure.
• Strong ability to translate infrastructure costs into business-facing unit economics.
• Experience building governance processes and cross-functional accountability structures.

Responsibilities

• Build reporting and dashboards showing hosting and cloud cost transparency by product, team, and workload.
• Partner with engineering to identify and implement cost-saving opportunities (rightsizing, reserved capacity, architecture improvements).
• Develop governance for AI/GPU compute and security telemetry pipeline costs, incl. retention and lifecycle decisions.
• Manage cost and pricing tradeoffs across multi-cloud, multi-region infrastructure, including data transfer, residency, and compliance costs.
• Translate infrastructure costs into cost-to-serve and gross margin metrics for pricing and strategy.
• Drive cost initiatives to completion and report savings achieved.
• Embed with engineering teams to establish cost-aware architecture patterns, tagging hygiene, and regular cost review cadences.
• Build cross-functional governance and accountability across Finance, Product, and Engineering.

Skills

FinOps

Cloud cost optimization

Operational cost management

Enterprise-wide cost initiatives

AWS/GCP/Azure cost reduction

Unit economics

Governance processes

Autonomy in high-visibility role

Cross-functional leadership

Tools

FOCUS

Job description

FinOps Operational Cost Control, Director

# FinOps Operational Cost Control, Director

**Location:** San Francisco, CA
**Company:** Sysdig
**Salary Range:** USD 198,000–247,000 per year

About the Role

This role is focused on increasing visibility and control over cloud and hosting costs across the business. It exists to improve cost transparency, identify savings opportunities, and help translate infrastructure spend into business metrics that support pricing and margin decisions.

You will work closely with engineering, finance, product, and leadership to build governance, reporting, and accountability around cloud spend. The position is especially centered on unit economics, cost drivers, and operational efficiency across a multi-cloud environment.

A major part of the role is to support cost management for AI/GPU compute and large-scale telemetry pipelines as these areas grow. You will also help establish cost-aware engineering practices and regular review cadences to keep savings initiatives progressing.

Key Responsibilities

• Build reporting and dashboards that show hosting and cloud cost transparency by product, team, and workload.
• Partner with engineering to identify and implement cost-saving opportunities, including rightsizing, reserved capacity, architecture improvements, and more efficient non-production environments.
• Develop governance for AI/GPU compute and security telemetry pipeline costs, including retention and lifecycle decisions in collaboration with Security and Compliance.
• Manage cost and pricing tradeoffs across multi‑cloud, multi‑region infrastructure, including data transfer, residency, and compliance costs.
• Translate infrastructure costs into cost‑to‑serve and gross margin metrics that support pricing and competitive strategy.
• Work with engineering leadership on a recurring cadence to drive cost initiatives to completion and report savings achieved.
• Embed with engineering teams to establish cost‑aware architecture patterns, tagging hygiene, and regular cost review cadences.
• Build cross‑functional governance and accountability across Finance, Product, and Engineering.

Required Skills

• 8+ years of experience in FinOps, cloud cost optimization, or operational cost management.
• Experience leading enterprise-wide cost initiatives and influencing cross-functional leaders.
• Proven success reducing cloud or hosting spend at scale in AWS, GCP, or Azure.
• Strong understanding of unit economics and the ability to translate technical infrastructure costs into business-facing metrics.
• Experience building governance processes and cross-functional accountability structures.
• Comfort operating with a high level of autonomy in a visible role.
• Experience establishing governance across Finance, Product, and Engineering leadership.
• Experience with GPU/AI compute cost optimization and/or high-volume data pipeline cost management.
• Deep familiarity with multi‑cloud architectures and large-scale data ingestion or telemetry pipelines.

Preferred Skills

• FinOps Certified Practitioner (FOCP).
• Equivalent hands‑on FinOps experience with familiarity in the FOCUS framework.

FinOps Platforms

• FOCUS (FinOps Open Cost and Usage Specification)

Workload / Infrastructure Areas

• GPU/AI compute
• Security telemetry pipelines
• High‑volume data ingestion pipelines
• Multi‑cloud architectures
• Multi‑region infrastructure

FinOps Responsibilities

• Improve cloud and hosting cost transparency through reporting and dashboards.
• Identify and deliver cloud cost optimization opportunities.
• Optimize spend related to rightsizing, reserved capacity, and architecture changes.
• Improve cost efficiency in non-production environments.
• Establish governance for AI/GPU compute and telemetry pipeline costs.
• Support decisions on data retention and lifecycle management from a cost perspective.
• Manage tradeoffs involving data transfer, residency, and compliance costs.
• Translate infrastructure spend into cost‑to‑serve and gross margin metrics.
• Report savings delivered and track progress on cost initiatives.
• Build tagging hygiene and recurring cost review practices.
• Create cross‑functional accountability around cloud spend.

Benefits

• Extra days off to support well‑being.
• 401(k) retirement savings plan with a 3% company match.
• Maternity and parental leave.
• Mental health support for employees and their families through the Modern Health app.
• Full health benefits for employees and their families.

Useful Links

• LinkedIn Job Posting: https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/4485609813
• Application Link: https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/4485609813
• Privacy Notice: https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/681a1c8e5b6ebfc0f8529533/683d7a57fc05b32bae08c0f9_sysdig-global-employee-privacy-notice.pdf

Why You Might Be Interested

This is a senior, highly visible FinOps leadership role with direct influence on cloud spend, unit economics, and business decision‑making. The position spans multi‑cloud infrastructure, AI/GPU cost control, and large‑scale telemetry pipelines, offering substantial scope for impact. It also includes close partnership with engineering leadership and cross‑functional stakeholders, with clear responsibility for driving savings and governance. The stated compensation range and benefits package add further appeal for candidates seeking a strategic operational finance role.