FinOps Lead, Cloud Services

Kinaxis Inc.

21h • Hybrid

About The Position

Elevate your career journey by embracing a new challenge with Kinaxis. We are experts in tech, but it’s really our people who give us passion to always seek ways to do things better. As such, we’re serious about your career growth and professional development, because People matter at Kinaxis.
In 1984, we started out as a team of three engineers. Today, we have grown to become a global organization with over 2000 employees around the world, with a brand-new HQ based in Kanata North in Ottawa. As one of Canada’s Top Employers, we are proud to work with our customers and employees towards solving some of the biggest challenges facing supply chains today.
At Kinaxis, we power the world’s supply chains to help preserve the planet’s resources and enrich the human experience. As a global leader in end-to-end supply chain management, we enable supply chain excellence for all industries, with more than 40,000 users in over 100 countries. We are expanding our team as we continue to innovate and revolutionize how we support our customers.
The Data & Analytics team drives Kinaxis’ transformation into a data-driven organization by building and governing scalable, modern data ecosystems. We deliver high-quality, reliable, and accessible data that empowers decision-making, improves operational efficiency, and enables new business opportunities. Our expertise spans data integration, engineering, governance, business intelligence, and cloud financial optimization.
We are seeking a highly skilled Cloud FinOps Lead to design, implement, and operate the financial governance, tooling, and processes that ensure Kinaxis’ cloud and AI spend is transparent, optimized, and aligned to business outcomes. You’ll partner closely with Data & Analytics, Cloud Operations, Cloud Engineering, Product Development, and Finance to drive cost efficiency, reduce waste, and enable scalable growth across our cloud infrastructure.
Success in this role relies on the ability to engage stakeholders, craft compelling data-driven narratives, and influence leadership to foster a culture of accountability and continuous improvement.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Accounting, Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related field.
• 7+ years of relevant experience in financial operations, analytics, or related roles with a strong focus on cloud cost management / FinOps.
• Familiarity with observability platforms (e.g., Datadog) and the ability to interpret infrastructure, application, and usage metrics to influence cloud cost optimization decisions.
• Ability to correlate telemetry data (metrics, logs, traces) with consumption-based billing models to drive measurable cost efficiency outcomes.
• Strong understanding of cloud infrastructure, consumption-based pricing, and FinOps principles (allocation, showback/chargeback, commitment management, unit economics).
• Strong understanding of application and infrastructure metrics and how they influence cloud cost optimization decisions.
• Hands-on experience with cloud cost management platforms and native tooling (e.g., Cloudability, CloudHealth, AWS Cost Explorer, Azure Cost Management, GCP Cost Management, Looker CCM, etc.).
• Experience with data analysis, financial modeling, and communicating insights through dashboards and narratives.
• Excellent stakeholder management skills: ability to influence across Engineering, Finance, and Leadership.
• Proven track record delivering process improvements and measurable outcomes (savings, efficiency gains, governance maturity).
• Demonstrated ability to work independently in a complex, fast-paced environment, set strategic priorities, and manage multiple concurrent initiatives with strong ownership and accountability.

Nice To Haves

• Master’s degree in Finance, Accounting, or related field.
• FinOps Foundation certifications (or willingness to obtain).
• CPA/CMA certification.
• Experience in a SaaS company and/or customer-facing infrastructure optimization.
• Experience with self-serve BI tools and analytics engineering practices.
• Familiarity with AI/ML cost drivers (GPU usage, inference pricing, managed AI services) and governance patterns.

Responsibilities

• Build and operate FinOps capabilities: design, implement, and manage financial systems and processes for cloud cost management across the organization.
• Vendor funding & incentives optimization: proactively identify, track, and secure cloud vendor funding, incentives, credits, and subsidization opportunities; partner with relevant stakeholders to ensure programs are applied, realized, and measured.
• AI cost management: establish visibility and governance for AI/ML-related spend (e.g., model training/inference, GPU/accelerator usage, managed AI services), define cost controls, and drive optimization strategies.
• Cloud financial governance: define and evolve cost allocation, ownership, and governance models that align spend to products, teams, and environments.
• Tagging and allocation standards: own the cloud spend tagging policy framework, including standards, compliance monitoring, and continuous improvement.
• Commitment management: own and manage Kinaxis’ global committed use and reservations portfolio, balancing burn-down efficiency with budget constraints and operational needs.
• Licensing optimization & compliance: manage Windows Licensing footprint (SPLA, MPSA), optimize for cost savings while ensuring compliance; participate in audits as needed.
• Cross-functional optimization: collaborate with Cloud and Product teams to optimize customer-facing infrastructure spend and enable informed decision-making on cost/performance trade-offs.
• Reporting & insights: monitor and report on cloud and AI usage/cost trends; identify optimization opportunities; recommend, socialize, and present solutions to management.
• Stakeholder leadership: deliver impactful presentations and chair a monthly Steering Committee focused on cloud and AI spend, risks, and optimization outcomes.
• Product ownership mindset: act as a Product Owner within Data & Analytics to help build world-class visibility into cloud and AI spending (dashboards, metrics, alerts, and self-serve insights).
• Financial analysis & modeling: provide modeling support for cloud infrastructure investments, pricing/packaging implications, program initiatives, and capacity planning.
• Budgeting & forecasting: contribute to budgeting and forecasting processes for cloud and AI costs, including variance analysis and corrective action plans.
• Enablement & training: provide training, documentation, and support to teams on FinOps practices, tools, and decision frameworks.
• AI-enabled productivity: leverage AI tools to accelerate analysis, automate repetitive tasks, improve documentation quality, and increase day-to-day productivity (while ensuring responsible use of data and compliance with internal policies).
• Continuous improvement: stay current on FinOps and cloud/AI cost management best practices, vendor tooling, and emerging standards.
• Observability-driven optimization: leverage observability tooling (e.g., Datadog), including metrics, traces, and log data, to identify cost drivers, inefficiencies, over-provisioning, performance bottlenecks, and waste. Translate telemetry insights into actionable cost optimization recommendations.

Benefits

• Flexible vacation and Kinaxis Days (company-wide day off on the third Friday of every month)
• Flexible work options
• Physical and mental well-being programs
• Regularly scheduled virtual fitness classes
• Mentorship programs, training, and career development
• Recognition programs and referral rewards
• Hackathons

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level