Remote Principal IT Strategy & Operations Leader

Lumen; Augusta (ME); Remote; USD 152,000 - 167,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health benefits

Life insurance

Voluntary lifestyle benefits

Job summary

Lumen is seeking a Principal, IT Strategy & Operations Manager to shape IT strategy and oversee cloud program financial operations, budgeting, forecasting, governance, and executive reporting. This senior role partners with Technology VPs, Finance, and external partners to translate technology investments into business value.

Based remotely in the U.S., the role combines strategic planning with hands-on ownership of cloud program finances, dashboards, and governance, enabling AI-driven

Qualifications

• 12+ years of progressive experience in IT strategy, technology finance, business operations, consulting, transformation, or related disciplines.
• Bachelor's degree in Business, Finance, Technology, Engineering; advanced degree preferred.
• Strong financial acumen, budgeting, forecasting, accruals, variance analysis, business cases, capital and expense management, accounting, and investment governance.
• Strong knowledge of cloud economics, FinOps, cloud-provider billing, professional-services spend, procurement, invoicing, and commitment management.
• Ability to connect technology strategy to business outcomes, operational efficiency, customer value, and revenue impact.
• Experience influencing senior leaders and coordinating work across Technology, Finance, Procurement, Accounts Payable, vendors, and business teams.
• Strong analytical, communication, executive-presentation, and problem-solving skills; experience with dashboards, reporting, AI, and automation.

Responsibilities

• IT strategy and business value: Partner with VPs to define transformation priorities, future‑state capabilities, roadmaps, and investment choices. Translate recommendations into clear business cases and measurable outcomes.
• AI and operational efficiency: Identify and advance practical AI, automation, analytics, and process-improvement opportunities that reduce manual effort, improve decision quality, and increase productivity across the organization.
• Financial planning and governance: Manage cloud-program budgets, forecasts, milestones, funding requests, business cases, and actuals. Maintain alignment with Lumen Transformation Office, Finance, corporate planning, and Long‑Term Outlook requirements, and provide clear variance explanations and decision support.
• Professional services and forecasting: Coordinate professional‑services funding requests and governance reviews, guide teams through procurement, maintain contract‑level capital and expense forecasts, post monthly actuals, and prepare reporting for Cloud Program leadership.
• Executive & Organizational Operations: Maintain dashboards, scorecards, leadership decks, and portfolio reporting.
• Lead cross‑functional follow‑through on priorities, risks, dependencies, and actions while continuously improving financial controls and operating processes.
• Cloud budget management as needed by providing support on monthly accruals; reconcile cloud‑management data, provider invoices, actuals, and minimum commitments; maintain commitment‑attainment reporting; validate dashboards; and provide detailed cloud‑spend analysis across AWS, Microsoft, and Google.

Skills

IT strategy

Finance & budgeting

Executive communication

Cloud economics

Automation & AI

Education

Bachelor's degree in Business, Finance, Technology, Engineering

Advanced degree preferred

Tools

AWS

Microsoft Azure

Google Cloud

Job description

Lumen is seeking a Principal, IT Strategy & Operations Manager to shape IT strategy and oversee cloud program financial operations, budgeting, forecasting, governance, and executive reporting. This senior role partners with Technology VPs, Finance, and external partners to translate technology investments into business value.

Based remotely in the U.S., the role combines strategic planning with hands-on ownership of cloud program finances, dashboards, and governance, enabling AI-driven