FinOps Specialist

Role Description

Koniag Data Solutions, LLC (KDS) is seeking an experienced FinOps Specialist to support cloud-financial management operations for the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services component. The ideal candidate is a detail-oriented financial and technical professional with strong analytical skills, a practical understanding of cloud pricing models, and a commitment to financial accountability, transparency, and cost optimization.

The FinOps Specialist will perform a key technical role supporting ACF cloud modernization, cybersecurity, operational resilience, and mission delivery.

• Perform ongoing cloud-cost analysis across one or more cloud service providers, including AWS, Azure, and GCP, to identify spending trends, anomalies, optimization opportunities, and risks.
• Develop, maintain, and execute chargeback and showback models that accurately allocate cloud costs to appropriate business units, programs, systems, or cost centers.
• Build, maintain, and deliver biweekly dashboards and reports reflecting cloud-spend trends, budget variances, utilization, forecast changes, material issues, and risks.
• Monitor cloud budgets, forecast future spend, and provide timely reporting and actionable variance analysis to leadership, program management, and finance stakeholders.
• Collaborate with engineering, cloud architecture, and DevOps teams to identify and implement cost-saving recommendations, including right-sizing, savings plans, reserved instances, resource scheduling, storage optimization, and tagging improvements.
• Support the development and enforcement of cloud cost-governance policies, tagging standards, allocation rules, budget controls, and financial-management best practices.
• Partner with procurement and vendor-management teams to evaluate cloud pricing agreements, enterprise discount programs, consumption commitments, and contract terms.
• Support project budget adherence by identifying emerging cost pressures, reporting risks and variances, and coordinating recommended corrective actions with program stakeholders.
• Support documentation, tracking, and validation of Other Direct Cost (ODC) expenditures by maintaining accurate cost records, confirming that required supporting documentation is available, and tracking written Contracting Officer Representative (COR) pre-approval status before costs are incurred.
• Assess and document whether proposed ODC expenditures appear fair and reasonable based on available pricing, estimates, or comparable cost information; elevate findings to the appropriate program, contracts, procurement, or COR authority for review and disposition.
• Participate in Agile or program-management ceremonies, including sprint planning and backlog refinement, as they relate to FinOps priorities and cost-optimization activities.
• Maintain current documentation of chargeback methodologies, cost-allocation models, dashboard logic, forecasts, optimization findings, ODC support records, and governance decisions.
• Serve as a subject matter resource on FinOps principles, helping technical, financial, and program stakeholders understand cloud-financial-management practices and decision tradeoffs.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Finance, Accounting, Computer Science, Information Systems, Business Administration, or a related field from an accredited college or university.
• 3+ years of experience in cloud financial management, FinOps, IT finance, or a related discipline.
• Demonstrated experience with cloud-cost-management tools, such as AWS Cost Explorer, Azure Cost Management, GCP Billing, CloudHealth, Apptio Cloudability, or similar platforms.
• Demonstrated experience developing and managing chargeback or showback models in a multi-team or enterprise environment.

Requirements

• Strong understanding of cloud-pricing models, billing structures, and cost-optimization strategies across one or more major cloud providers.
• Proficiency in developing and managing chargeback and showback frameworks for accurate cost allocation across business units, systems, programs, or cost centers.
• Experience building financial reports, dashboards, and visualizations that communicate cloud spend, trends, variances, risks, and forecasts to technical and non-technical audiences.
• Ability to perform cloud-cost forecasting and variance analysis, identify deviations from budget, and recommend corrective actions.
• Experience delivering regular recurring reporting, including biweekly financial and operational dashboards.
• Familiarity with cloud resource-tagging strategies and governance policies that support cost attribution, accountability, and data quality.
• Experience documenting, tracking, or validating costs, approvals, and supporting records in a program, contract, procurement, or financial-control environment.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with high attention to detail.
• Exceptional written and oral communication skills in English, with the ability to present financial data clearly to executive, finance, program, and technical audiences.
• Ability to work collaboratively in a cross-functional team environment with engineering, finance, procurement, contracts, and program-management stakeholders.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets for financial modeling, data analysis, and reconciliation.

Benefits

• Competitive compensation.
• Extraordinary benefits package including health, dental and vision insurance.
• 401K with company matching.
• Flexible spending accounts.
• Paid holidays.
• Three weeks paid time off.
• And more.

Security Requirement

• Ability to obtain a Public Trust Clearance.

Desired Skills and Competencies

• FinOps Certified Practitioner (FinOps Foundation) or equivalent certification.
• Experience with cloud-management platforms such as CloudHealth, Apptio Cloudability, Spot.io, or similar tools.
• Knowledge of IaC concepts and how cloud resources are provisioned and managed, such as Terraform or CloudFormation.
• Experience working in a federal government IT or cloud environment.
• Familiarity with Agile development methodologies, especially Scrum.
• Experience with data-visualization tools such as Power BI, Tableau, or Looker.
• AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner, Microsoft Azure Fundamentals (AZ-900), or equivalent cloud-provider certification.
• Understanding of ITIL or IT Service Management (ITSM) frameworks as they relate to cloud-financial operations.
• Experience supporting ODC documentation, COR pre-approval tracking, or federal contract cost-control processes.