Cloud FinOps Specialist

Job Summary

The Cloud FinOps Specialist will support the VA (Veterans Affairs) Cloud Operations and Migration Services (COMS) and have the capability to provide operational input and support for the operations, maintenance, and refinement of VA’s Enterprise Cloud (VAEC) environment, execution support for migrating new and legacy VA applications and services to cloud computing and continuous improvement of VA’s IT infrastructure. The candidate will support our VA clients in their cloud operations to enhance, optimize, and maintain their computing capabilities across their technical landscape. This includes working with our VA system admins when supporting application teams, working with project teams to operate & maintain (O&M) VA applications on their cloud platform. The Cloud FinOps Specialist will be focused on, and must have expertise with, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) components, resources, services, and tools.

The Cloud FinOps Specialist to provide critical financial governance for multi-cloud environment. The candidate implements cost-tracking dashboards, spending alerts, enforce tagging policies, manage budgets across Google Cloud Platform (GCP) and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI), and proactively identify optimization opportunities to ensure our agency gets the best value from its cloud investments, all while operating within a highly regulated federal landscape.

Requirements

Financial Governance & Oversight

• Establish and maintain financial governance frameworks for GCP and OCI, ensuring compliance with federal standards like FedRamp HIGH and NIST 800-53.
• Partner with program leadership and engineering teams to ensure complete financial transparency and accountability for all cloud expenditures.
• Maintain continuous awareness of cloud spend trends, contract impacts, and budget burn-down.

Tracking Cost & Reporting

• Implement and manage cost-tracking dashboards that provide real-time visibility into spending.
• Generate actionable reports for leadership, highlighting key trends, deviations, and optimization areas.
• Manage cloud budgets across GCP and OCI, ensuring consumption remains aligned with forecasted spending.
• Configure, monitor, and refine cost-related alerts to detect anomalies early and prevent overspend.

Cost Optimization

• Proactively identify cost-reduction opportunities through rightsizing, committed-use evaluations, and architectural refinements.
• Recommend strategic actions that maximize return on investment and reduce financial waste across both cloud platforms while adhering to federal compliance requirements.

Tagging and Policy Enforcement

• Define and enforce robust tagging standards necessary for accurate cost allocation, forecasting, and reporting within the federal system.
• Work closely with engineering and operations teams to drive compliance and continuously improve tagging accuracy.

• FinOps Certified Practitioner or similar cloud credentials in GCP, OCI, AWS and Azure.
• Prior experience in government or regulated enterprise environments.
• Familiarity with cross-cloud security and governance frameworks.
• Active clearance for a Public Trust (High-Risk) position.
• Experience creating, testing, and maintaining virtual machine images.
• Skilled in creating technical documentation and how-to guides.
• FinOps Certified Practitioner or similar credential.
• Relevant cloud certifications (OCI, GCP, AWS, Azure).
• Recommend and implement technology strategies.
• Provide technical directions to ensure standards compliance.
• Track, budget, and forecast multi-cloud spending.
• Develop unit economics and cost efficiency KPIs.
• Bridge the gap between engineering, finance, and procurement.
• Build real-time alerts to detect cost anomalies.
• Excellent collaboration and cross-team communication skills.
• Query GCP billing schemas and build Looker dashboards.
• Manage cost allocation using GCP resource hierarchy.
• Architect and manage GCP Committed Use Discounts (CUDs).
• Optimize GCP costs for BigQuery, Storage, and Compute.
• Enforce cost boundaries using OCI Compartments and Tags.
• Optimize OCI Universal Credits and Annual Commitments.
• Utilize Oracle's Bring Your Own License (BYOL) program.
• Manage costs for Exadata and Autonomous Database services.
• Navigate OCI Cost Analysis dashboards and billing APIs.
• VAEC Operational Tools (VAECOT)
• GCP tools: BigQuery, Looker Studio.
• OCI tools: Cost Analysis, Budgets.
• Proficient with third-party tools like Cloudability or Apptio.
• Experience with Kubecost for Kubernetes environments.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, engineering, accounting/finance, information systems, or technical discipline (10 years additional work experience might be considered in lieu of a degree).
• Five to Seven years of experience in cloud financial management, FinOps, or cloud operations.
• Minimum of three (3) years of experience leading technical teams to achieve objectives.
• Experience developing and implementing technical standards for cloud environments.
• Proven ability to recommend technology strategies and provide technical direction.
• Hands‑on experience with GCP and OCI cost‑management tools and billing structures.
• Experience implementing cost dashboards using native (GCP, OCI) or third‑party tools.
• Strong data analysis skills to interpret cloud cost trends and recommend actions.
• Deep familiarity with cloud tagging, consumption‑based billing, and multi‑cloud governance.
• Understanding of multi‑cloud architectures and workload‑level cost implications.
• Direct experience with regulated environments like FedRamp HIGH and NIST 800‑53.
• Excellent collaboration and communication skills for effective cross‑team coordination.