FinOps Program Lead: Cloud Cost & AI/Research Governance

University of California; Los Angeles (CA); On-site; USD 109,000 - 242,000; Full time

Job summary

UCLA Health seeks a hands-on FinOps Program Manager to lead our enterprise cloud financial management program across public cloud, AI, and data platforms. You will set strategy, roadmaps, and governance, directing analytics and integrations with engineering partners to drive cost optimization and cost transparency.

This individual-contributor role collaborates across research grants, state allotments, and internal chargebacks, delivering budgeting data, recommendations, and approvals to budget

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in a related area or equivalent experience.
• Proven experience leading complex, cross-functional technology programs.
• Advanced FinOps knowledge: cost allocation, budgeting, forecasting, optimization.
• Experience with Apptio Cloudability or similar platform.
• Expert knowledge of AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud billing.
• Ability to turn large datasets into clear reporting.
• Experience communicating with executive-level management.
• Ability to build consensus without direct authority.

Responsibilities

• Direct FinOps projects with cross-functional teams from engineering, finance, and research.
• Develop FinOps strategy, policies, and standards via governance processes.
• Lead cloud cost allocation, showback, and chargeback across funding sources.
• Run budgeting and forecasting with budget owners; report variances early.
• Manage FinOps tooling (Apptio Cloudability), reporting, tagging, and anomaly detection.
• Identify optimization opportunities and provide cost analyses for cloud commitments.
• Lead cost visibility for AI consumption, Databricks, GPUs, and research computing.
• Report KPIs, progress, and risks to leadership; run a FinOps community of practice.

Skills

Cross-functional leadership

FinOps / cloud cost management

Budgeting & forecasting

Apptio Cloudability

Executive reporting

Vendor management

Python scripting (basic)

Education

Bachelor's degree or equivalent

Tools

Apptio Cloudability

Power BI

Tableau

Job description

UCLA Health seeks a hands-on FinOps Program Manager to lead our enterprise cloud financial management program across public cloud, AI, and data platforms. You will set strategy, roadmaps, and governance, directing analytics and integrations with engineering partners to drive cost optimization and cost transparency.

This individual-contributor role collaborates across research grants, state allotments, and internal chargebacks, delivering budgeting data, recommendations, and approvals to budget