Lifted, an Upwork Company

Senior FinOps Analyst

Lifted, an Upwork Company · Chicago, IL
Chicago, IL Contract Posted 2026-10-07
Type
Contract
Experience
5+ yr

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.
  • Support cloud cost awareness and education across engineering and R&D teams.
  • Audit and update technical wiki content and documentation.
  • Model team cost projections and track team investments and projects.
  • Respond to cost-related requests through Slack, email, and other communication channels.
  • Focus on advisory and analytical delivery. 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.

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