Director, FinOps (Cloud Financial Management)

Director, FinOps (Cloud Financial Management)

Location: Toronto, Ontario
Work Model: Hybrid – Minimum 3 Days Onsite per Week
Employment Type: Permanent, Full-Time

Position Overview

We are seeking an experienced Director, FinOps (Cloud Financial Management) to build, lead, and mature an enterprise FinOps program focused on delivering measurable and sustainable cloud cost optimization without compromising reliability, security, or engineering productivity.

This is a strategic and hands-on leadership role requiring a strong combination of FinOps, cloud financial management, Azure cost optimization, financial analysis, forecasting, governance, and cross-functional leadership.

The Director will own the FinOps strategy, operating model, cost optimization pipeline, forecasting discipline, governance cadence, and savings targets, while partnering closely with Engineering, Cloud Operations, Product, Finance, and senior leadership.

This role requires someone who can operate at the executive level while remaining hands-on with analysis, tracking, optimization, reporting, follow-up, and governance. Success will depend heavily on the ability to influence technical and business teams and establish a culture of cloud cost accountability and cost-aware decision-making.

Key Responsibilities

FinOps Strategy & Cloud Cost Optimization

• Own and evolve the enterprise FinOps strategy, operating model, and governance framework across Azure and platform services.
• Build and manage a structured cloud cost optimization pipeline covering opportunity identification, impact analysis, prioritization, execution, savings verification, and regression prevention.
• Drive quarterly and annual cloud savings targets using transparent methodologies for hard savings, unit-cost improvements, and cost avoidance.
• Identify cloud cost drivers and translate findings into practical, measurable optimization initiatives.
• Establish appropriate cost ownership and accountability across teams.

Financial Management, Forecasting & Unit Economics

• Lead cloud budgeting, forecasting, variance analysis, and scenario planning.
• Develop and mature showback/chargeback practices and cost-allocation methodologies.
• Define and track unit economics, including measures such as cost per customer, transaction, environment, or deployment.
• Improve financial discipline through tagging standards, allocation accuracy, commitment planning, anomaly detection, and benefits tracking.
• Develop business cases and evaluate ROI and financial impact for optimization initiatives.
• Establish defensible baselines and methodologies for measuring and reporting realized savings.

Azure Optimization & Engineering Partnership

• Partner with Engineering and Cloud Operations to incorporate cost considerations into architecture reviews, backlog prioritization, release planning, and operational decision-making.
• Drive optimization across areas including:
  • Azure compute and infrastructure
  • AKS/Kubernetes
  • Rightsizing and scheduling
  • Storage tiering
  • Networking
  • Reserved Instances and Savings Plans
  • Observability and monitoring costs
• Translate technical architecture and infrastructure decisions into financial impact and cost-to-serve implications.
• Establish practical cost-efficiency policies and guardrails aligned with engineering delivery.
• Support Infrastructure as Code (IaC) and GitOps practices where appropriate.

FinOps Tooling, Automation & Cost Observability

• Implement and mature cloud cost visibility, reporting, dashboards, alerts, and automation using Azure-native tooling and/or FinOps platforms.
• Develop processes for anomaly detection, automated cleanup, cost monitoring, and optimization tracking.
• Establish cost-observability practices across technologies including Azure Monitor, Log Analytics, and Application Insights.
• Improve the quality and availability of financial and operational cloud-cost data used for decision-making.

Governance & Executive Reporting

• Own the regular FinOps governance cadence, including analysis, tracking, follow-up, and optimization reviews.
• Develop executive-level reporting covering cloud cost drivers, risks, savings progress, forecasts, KPIs, and recommendations.
• Provide clear recommendations and trade-offs to senior leadership.
• Drive outcomes across Engineering and Finance primarily through influence, governance, data, and accountability rather than direct authority over technical teams.

Team & Cross-Functional Leadership

• Lead and mentor a small FinOps team/function, with the opportunity for the function to grow.
• Establish team goals, operating cadence, accountability, and continuous-improvement practices.
• Work cross-functionally with Engineering, Cloud Operations, Product, Finance, and senior leadership.
• Develop training and enablement initiatives that improve FinOps awareness and cloud cost literacy across technical and product teams.
• Build trusted relationships with both technical and business stakeholders.

Required Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience across cloud/platform technology, finance/FP&A, technology operations, FinOps, or closely related disciplines.
• 3+ years of leadership experience at the Director, Head, Lead, or comparable level.
• Demonstrated experience building, leading, or materially contributing to FinOps / Cloud Financial Management programs.
• Proven track record delivering material, measurable cloud savings across multiple quarters and improving cost-to-serve.
• Strong experience with Azure cloud economics, cost drivers, and optimization.
• Solid technical understanding of Azure architecture, including compute, AKS/Kubernetes, storage, networking, and observability.
• Strong financial expertise across budgeting, forecasting, variance analysis, scenario planning, business casing, ROI, and savings measurement.
• Experience developing cloud cost allocation, tagging, showback/chargeback, and/or unit-cost models.
• Ability to translate complex technical decisions into financial impact and actionable business recommendations.
• Strong analytical capabilities with the ability to identify true cost drivers and measure optimization outcomes.
• Demonstrated ability to influence Engineering, Finance, Product, and Cloud teams without relying solely on direct authority.
• Strong hands-on capability across analysis, tracking, reporting, optimization follow-up, and governance.
• Executive-level written and verbal communication skills, including KPI reporting, recommendations, decision support, and senior stakeholder presentations.
• Ability to operate effectively in an environment requiring structure, accountability, collaboration, and continuous improvement.

Core Competencies

• FinOps Strategy & Governance
• Azure Cloud Cost Optimization
• Cloud Financial Management
• Budgeting, Forecasting & Variance Analysis
• Cloud Cost Allocation & Unit Economics
• Showback / Chargeback
• Cost Optimization & Savings Measurement
• AKS / Kubernetes Cost Management
• Cloud Cost Observability
• Executive Reporting & KPI Management
• Cross-Functional Influence
• Financial & Technical Analysis
• Team Leadership & Mentorship
• Hands-On Operational Leadership

Nice to Have

• FinOps Foundation certification – Practitioner and/or Professional.
• Relevant Microsoft Azure certifications.
• Experience implementing showback/chargeback and unit-cost models at scale.
• Experience working in IaC/GitOps environments, including technologies such as Terraform and Argo CD.
• Experience integrating cloud cost controls and governance into engineering and delivery pipelines.

What Success Looks Like

The successful candidate will combine strategic FinOps leadership with hands-on execution. They will consistently identify meaningful savings opportunities, establish credible measurement and governance, and work across Finance and Engineering to ensure those opportunities are implemented and sustained.

This individual will bring the analytical depth to understand the organization's true cloud cost drivers, the financial discipline to measure outcomes accurately, and the influence required to build a strong culture of cloud cost ownership and accountability across the organization.