What are the responsibilities and job description for the Lead FinOps Analyst position at PowerPlan, Inc?
Overview
This role sits at the intersection of Finance, Technology, and Product and plays a critical role in shaping how our company governs, forecasts, and optimizes cloud infrastructure spend. The FinOps Analyst will help bring financial discipline, transparency, and strategic insight to a rapidly scaling cloud environment. This position offers high visibility with senior leadership, including the CFO and CTO, and provides an opportunity to influence enterprise-level decisions while building deep expertise in cloud economics and FP&A.
Company
PowerPlan helps customers optimize the financial performance of their assets by solving complex, data-driven problems through innovative technology solutions. We operate in a highly analytical, collaborative environment where finance is a strategic partner to the business. We value curiosity, ownership, and cross-functional collaboration, and we invest in people who want to grow their skills while making a measurable impact.
Responsibilities
Key Performance Objectives
OBJECTIVE 1: Establish Cloud Financial Controls & Guardrails (First 90 Days)
Outcome:Within 90 days, AWS and Azure cost controls, policies, and guardrails are documented, implemented, and actively monitored, with clear ownership and escalation paths. Monthly cloud spend variance to forecast is explained within ±5%.
Impact:Creates financial discipline and predictability for cloud spend while reducing surprise overruns and increasing leadership confidence in cost governance.
How:Partner with Cloud Ops and Engineering to define tagging standards, budgets, alerts, and usage thresholds. Implement governance frameworks using AWS Cost Explorer, Azure Cost Management, and reporting in Excel and Power BI.
OBJECTIVE 2: Integrate Cloud Economics into Enterprise Forecasting & KPIs (First 6 Months)
Outcome:Within six months, AWS and Azure cost forecasts are fully integrated into enterprise FP&A models with documented assumptions and demand drivers, achieving monthly forecast variance within ±5–7%. Cloud KPIs are defined and reviewed monthly with Finance and Technology leadership.
Impact:Improves investment decision-making, reduces budget surprises, and ensures cloud spend aligns with organizational goals, customer commitments, and margin targets.
How:Partner with FP&A, Cloud Ops, Product, and Engineering to understand usage drivers and roadmaps. Build scalable forecasting models, embed KPIs into finance reviews, and continuously refine assumptions.
OBJECTIVE 3: Build Scalable Cloud Chargeback & Showback Reporting (First 6–9 Months)
Outcome:Within 6–9 months, a repeatable and scalable chargeback/showback model for AWS and Azure is implemented, providing clear monthly visibility into cloud costs by team, product, environment, and/or customer.
Impact:Drives accountability, enables accurate margin analysis, and empowers teams to make cost-aware decisions.
How:Design allocation logic with Finance and Accounting, enforce tagging standards with Cloud Ops, reconcile billing data, and deliver reporting through Excel and Power BI.
OBJECTIVE 4: Drive Cloud Cost Optimization & Waste Reduction (First 12 Months)
Outcome:Within 12 months, recurring optimization initiatives result in measurable cost savings or avoided spend while maintaining performance and reliability standards.
Impact:Improves margins and ensures cloud investments scale efficiently as usage grows.
How:Analyze utilization and usage trends, partner cross-functionally to prioritize initiatives, track savings, and communicate results to leadership.
OBJECTIVE 5: Act as a Strategic Finance Partner to Technology & Product (Ongoing)
Outcome:The FinOps Analyst is recognized as a trusted finance partner, influencing cost-aware decisions across Cloud Ops, IT, Product, and Development.
Impact:Embeds financial thinking into technology and product planning and strengthens cross-functional alignment.
How:Lead cross-organizational discussions, proactively surface insights, and translate financial implications into actionable guidance for stakeholders.
Qualifications
WHAT YOU BRING
- Experience in financial analysis, cost accounting, forecasting, or cloud operations
- Working knowledge of AWS and/or Azure billing, metering, and cost management tools
- Ability to translate technical usage into financial insights
- Experience building executive-ready dashboards and reports in Excel and Power BI
- Strong understanding of FP&A processes, KPIs, and financial controls
- Proven ability to partner cross-functionally and influence without authority
- Curiosity, ownership, and a continuous improvement mindset
PowerPlan is an EOE”
Applicant and Candidate Privacy Notice
Please note that this is a hybrid role that involves a combination of onsite work from our corporate office as well as work from home. While we strive to accommodate flexible working arrangements when sensible, there will be times when onsite work is required. This could include scheduled office days, team meetings, client meetings, or special events.