Senior FinOps Analyst

Lifted (an Upwork Company); United States; Remote; USD 110,000 - 170,000; Full time

Job summary

Lifted (an Upwork Company) is seeking a Senior FinOps Analyst to advise engineering and R&D teams on cloud spending and cost optimization. You will act as the primary partner-facing resource for APAC and US-based teams, driving cost analysis, education, and proactive engagement to align spending with forecasts and measurable business outcomes.

You will work closely with engineering stakeholders, investigate anomalies, and contribute to monthly reporting and Showback processes with strong

Qualifications

• Senior-level FinOps experience and cloud cost optimization expertise.
• Experience advising and consulting with R&D or engineering teams in a partner-facing role.
• Experience with cloud cost forecasting and aligning forecasts to team projections.
• Familiarity with OpenAI/LLM cost drivers and monitoring.

Responsibilities

• Serve as primary contact for engineering teams seeking cloud cost guidance in real time (Slack and async channels).
• Proactively engage high-spending R&D teams to review monthly cloud spend and identify cost optimizations.
• Understand upcoming engineering roadmap plans and their cost implications.
• Capture meeting notes, recommendations, recurring questions, and emerging cost patterns.
• Monitor cloud and AI/LLM spending for anomalies, spikes, and inefficiencies.
• Investigate variances, produce root-cause analyses, and recommend optimizations to owners.
• Document investigations in Jira and flag findings for monthly reporting.
• Participate in monthly forecasting by reconciling central forecasts with team projections and capturing spending plans.

Skills

FinOps

Cloud cost mgmt

Root-cause analysis

Stakeholder communication

Forecasting

OpenAI/LLM cost drivers

Jira

Slack

Documentation

AI/LLM cost governance

Education

Bachelor's degree in a relevant field

Tools

Jira

Slack

Job description

Key Responsibilities

• Serve as a primary contact for engineering teams seeking cloud cost guidance, responding to questions in real time through Slack and other asynchronous channels.
• Proactively engage with high-spending R&D teams to:
• Review monthly cloud spending.
• Identify cost optimization opportunities.
• Understand upcoming engineering roadmap plans and their potential cost implications.
• Capture meeting notes, recommendations, recurring questions, and emerging cost patterns.
• Monitor cloud and AI/LLM spending for anomalies, spikes, and inefficiencies.
• Investigate spending variances, produce written root-cause analyses, and recommend optimization opportunities to team owners.
• Document investigations in Jira and flag relevant findings for monthly reporting.
• Participate in monthly forecasting by:
• Reconciling central forecasts with team-level projections.
• Documenting discrepancies.
• Capturing team plans and anticipated spending.
• Contribute practitioner insights and team-sourced information, including AI/LLM cost drivers, to Showback reporting and spending reviews.

Central budget ownership, vendor contract modeling, and platform/tooling engineering are outside the scope of this engagement.

Must-Have Skills

• Senior-level experience in FinOps (cloud financial operations).
• Strong expertise in cloud cost management and optimization.
• Proven ability to investigate spending anomalies and produce clear, written root-cause analyses.
• Experience advising and consulting directly with R&D or engineering teams in a partner-facing capacity.
• Experience with cloud cost forecasting, including aligning central forecasts with team-level projections.
• Familiarity with OpenAI/LLM cost drivers and monitoring LLM spending.
• Experience with cost modeling and tracking team investments or projects.
• Proficiency with Jira for documenting investigations and Slack for real-time and asynchronous support.
• Experience maintaining technical documentation or wiki spaces and contributing to recurring reporting, such as Showback.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to engage stakeholders and communicate findings effectively.

Nice-to-Have Skills

• AI/LLM governance expertise.
• AI/LLM variable cost management expertise.

Required Tools & Platforms

• Jira and Slack.
• Familiarity with OpenAI/LLM cost drivers and LLM spend monitoring.
• Experience working with technical documentation and wiki spaces; no specific wiki platform is required.

Location, Time & Engagement

• Open to candidates based in eligible LATAM locations or the United States.
• Ability to cover APAC business hours, with some overlap with Pacific Time and the afternoon in Central Time.
• Remote contract engagement, 40 hours per week.

We are seeking a Senior FinOps Analyst to advise engineering and R&D teams on cloud spending, investigate cost anomalies, and identify actionable optimization opportunities. In this role, you will serve as a primary partner-facing resource for APAC-based teams, helping align cloud spending with forecasts and measurable business outcomes through cost analysis, education, and proactive engagement. Enterprise experience is strongly preferred.