FinOps Senior Specialist - Group Technology

Alexforbes; Sandton; On-site; ZAR 1,200,000 - 1,800,000; Full time

Job summary

Alexforbes is seeking a seasoned Senior FinOps Specialist to establish and mature the enterprise FinOps capability across cloud, SaaS, and technology cost management. You will partner with Technology, Finance, Procurement, and other stakeholders to ensure spend is transparent, governed, forecastable, and aligned to business value.

In this strategic role, you will drive FinOps governance, reporting, forecasting, and cost optimisation initiatives, embedding best practices into budgeting and

Qualifications

• Degree or Diploma in Finance, Information Systems, Technology, Commerce or Business Management.
• Cloud certification such as Azure Solutions Architect is advantageous.
• Experience in FinOps, IT governance, and cost transparency across cloud/SaaS environments.

Responsibilities

• Lead FinOps capability across cloud, SaaS and enterprise technology cost management.
• Define and implement FinOps operating model, governance and maturity roadmap.
• Partner with Finance, Technology, Procurement and Architecture to establish long-term FinOps capabilities.
• Develop and execute annual and quarterly FinOps planning cycles.
• Drive governance, reporting, and optimisation initiatives and ensure knowledge transfer.

Skills

FinOps

IT Governance

Cost optimisation

Budgeting & forecasting

Cloud cost management

Education

Finance

Information Systems

Technology

Commerce

Cloud certification (Azure Solutions Architect)

Tools

Azure Cloud

Cost management tools

Job description

"

We’re seeking a seasoned Senior FinOps Specialist to lead the establishment, implementation, and ongoing maturity of Alexforbes’ enterprise FinOps capability across cloud, SaaS, and technology cost management environments. This role serves as the internal FinOps capability owner, partnering across Technology, Finance, Procurement, Enterprise Architecture, Cloud Operations, Business Units, and external service providers to ensure technology spend is transparent, governed, forecastable, optimised, and aligned to business value.

The successful candidate will drive FinOps governance, cost transparency, reporting, forecasting, optimisation initiatives, stakeholder enablement, and FinOps adoption across the organisation. This is a strategic capability-building role focused on embedding sustainable FinOps practices into budgeting, forecasting, cloud governance, procurement, architecture, and operational decision-making.

Key Responsibilities

FinOps Strategy & Capability Leadership

• Lead and drive the FinOps capability across cloud, SaaS, and enterprise technology cost management.
• Define and implement the FinOps operating model, governance structures, and maturity roadmap.
• Partner with Finance, Technology, Procurement, Architecture, and Business stakeholders to establish long-term FinOps capabilities.
• Develop and execute annual and quarterly FinOps planning cycles.
• Ensure alignment with recognised FinOps Foundation practices and industry standards.
• Drive expansion of FinOps principles across both cloud and on-premise technology environments.

Partner & Managed Service Oversight

• Act as the primary business owner of the outsourced FinOps partner relationship.
• Manage delivery against agreed scope, milestones, service levels, and value realisation objectives.
• Review and challenge partner recommendations while ensuring implementation through appropriate governance forums.
• Maintain a prioritised FinOps delivery backlog covering governance, reporting, optimisation, automation, training, and process improvements.
• Ensure effective knowledge transfer and capability development within the organisation.

Governance, Policy & Framework Implementation

• Establish and maintain FinOps governance structures, accountability models, and management reporting frameworks.
• Develop standards for tagging, cost allocation, budgeting, forecasting, compliance, and audit readiness.
• Integrate FinOps requirements into cloud governance, procurement, architecture reviews, budgeting, and operational reporting processes.
• Support internal audit and governance teams through robust FinOps control frameworks and evidence management.
• Drive FinOps policy adoption and operational discipline across stakeholder groups.

Cost Transparency, Allocation & Reporting

• Drive accurate visibility and reporting across cloud, SaaS, and technology spend.
• Own chargeback/showback methodologies, tagging compliance, cost allocation rules, and business ownership models.
• Support executive, finance, technology, and business-unit reporting requirements.
• Ensure timely and meaningful reporting on spend, budget variance, allocation accuracy, utilisation, and optimisation opportunities.
• Improve data quality, reporting automation, and decision-making visibility.

Budgeting, Forecasting & Financial Control

• Support technology budgeting, forecasting, and financial planning activities.
• Improve forecast accuracy and reduce unplanned cost volatility.
• Monitor actual spend, forecasts, anomalies, commitments, and optimisation opportunities.
• Track run‑rate trends, budget consumption, cost avoidance, and realised savings.
• Ensure technology investment decisions are informed by sound financial and business value analysis.
• Lead identification, prioritisation, and execution of optimisation opportunities.
• Drive initiatives such as rightsizing, decommissioning, licensing optimisation, SaaS rationalisation, reserved capacity management, and demand-control measures.
• Track realised savings, avoided costs, utilisation improvements, and business value outcomes.
• Ensure optimisation efforts are governed, measurable, and aligned to business objectives.
• Deliver ongoing value realisation reporting and recommendations.

Stakeholder Engagement & Change Management

• Build strong relationships across Technology, Finance, Procurement, Architecture, Cloud Operations, and Business stakeholders.
• Drive awareness, training, and adoption of FinOps principles and practices.
• Promote a culture of cost ownership, transparency, and financial accountability.
• Translate technical cloud and SaaS cost information into meaningful business insights.
• Support behavioural and process changes to embed FinOps into everyday decision‑making.

Tooling, Data & Automation

• Support implementation and enhancement of FinOps tooling, dashboards, workflows, and reporting capabilities.
• Ensure tooling supports tagging, allocation, forecasting, anomaly detection, optimisation, and performance measurement.
• Drive integration across cloud, procurement, finance, CMDB, ITSM, and reporting platforms.
• Ensure FinOps reporting outputs are accurate, trusted, and fit for executive decision‑making.
• Improve automation and reporting maturity across the FinOps capability.

Risk, Compliance & Audit Readiness

• Ensure FinOps governance supports compliance, audit readiness, and management accountability.
• Maintain documentation of policies, allocation methodologies, optimisation decisions, standards, and governance outcomes.
• Identify and escalate risks related to spend visibility, unmanaged costs, poor tagging, data quality, governance weaknesses, and partner performance.
• Support regulatory, governance, and audit requirements through robust control frameworks and evidence repositories.

Qualifications

• Degree or Diploma in:
• Finance
• Information Systems
• Technology
• Commerce
• Business Management
• Or a related discipline
• Cloud certification such as:
• Azure Solutions Architect

Advantageous

• ITIL Certification
• COBIT Certification
• TBM Certification
• Agile Certification
• Project Management Certification
• Change Management Certification

Experience

• Minimum 7 years’ experience in:
• FinOps
• IT Governance
• Proven experience implementing or materially contributing to:
• FinOps capabilities
• ITFM initiatives
• Technology cost transparency frameworks
• Strong understanding of:
• Cloud and SaaS cost drivers
• Budgeting and forecasting
• Cost allocation and tagging
• Cost optimisation practices
• Experience operating across Technology, Finance, Procurement, Architecture, and Business teams.
• Experience managing outsourced providers, partners, and vendors.
• Strong change management and stakeholder adoption experience.
• Experience with cloud governance, reserved capacity optimisation, anomaly management, and cost control initiatives.

Advantageous

• Experience within Financial Services, Banking, Insurance, Asset Management, or other regulated industries.
• FinOps Frameworks & Governance
• Technology Business Management (TBM)

"