Lead, AI FinOps & Consumption Governance

Role Description

New American Funding is scaling AI across software development, borrower- and loan-officer-facing products, and embedded vendor platforms. AI cost grows non-linearly with usage and is driven far more by model selection and usage patterns than by headcount. We are hiring a Lead, AI FinOps & Consumption Governance to own the financial discipline behind every dollar of NAF's AI spend — making it transparent, governed, and tied to measurable value. This is a single-threaded ownership role with real decision authority — not an advisory or reporting seat.

You will set budgets at the platform source, allocate cost to the teams that incur it, and partner with Engineering, Finance, and Analytics to keep spend aligned with ROI.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in a quantitative or technical field, or equivalent experience.
• 5+ years in FinOps, cloud or SaaS cost management, or technical finance — including direct ownership of variable, usage-based spend.
• Hands-on experience in cloud and SaaS cost and admin consoles (e.g., Google Cloud billing, Anthropic Console, Cursor Organizations, or analogous platforms).
• Strong working knowledge of LLM pricing mechanics: token billing, context windows, caching and batching, model price-performance trade-offs, and commitment and discount structures.
• Proven forecasting and financial modeling for variable-usage systems.
• Strong analytical toolkit: SQL, Python, BI tools, and advanced spreadsheet skills.
• Track record embedding cost discipline within engineering and product teams (showback/chargeback, tagging, guardrails).
• Excellent communication — able to translate complex cost structures for both technical and executive audiences.

Requirements

• Experience in regulated financial services or mortgage.
• Familiarity with the economics of AI-assisted developer tooling.
• Experience working with cloud billing platforms (Azure, GCP, AWS).
• FinOps Foundation certification.
• Experience building cost governance frameworks for emerging technologies like AI.

Benefits

• Every AI platform has source-level budgets, alerts, and a clear owner; the central reserve operates within a defined utilization band with no overruns.
• The monthly AI-spend close lands on time with variance explanations — Finance and leadership are never surprised.
• Spend is fully attributable to team, business unit, model, and workflow; showback is live and trusted.
• A model-selection and routing policy is in force and has measurably bent the cost curve versus an uncontrolled baseline.
• Idle-seat reclamation runs as a standing process, not a quarterly cleanup.
• Leadership can get accurate AI usage and trend answers on demand, same day.

Other Duties

This job may require frequent sitting or standing for long periods of time. This job profile is not intended to be an all-inclusive list of job duties and responsibilities, as one may perform additional related duties as assigned in order to meet the needs of the organization.

Work Authorization

Must be able to verify identity and employment eligibility to work in the U.S.

Physical Demands

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. Must be able to lift up to ten pounds. Primary functions require sufficient physical ability and mobility to work in an office setting; to stand or sit for prolonged periods of time; to occasionally stoop, bend, kneel, crouch, reach, and twist; to lift, carry, push, and/or pull light to moderate amounts of weight; to operate office equipment requiring repetitive hand movement and fine coordination including use of a keyboard; and to verbally communicate to exchange information.

VISION: See in the normal visual range with or without correction.

HEARING: Hear in the normal audio range with or without correction.