FinOps Specialist (REMOTE)

This position may be filled prior to the posted deadline.  Interested candidates are encouraged to apply as soon as possible.

Koniag Data Solutions, LLC, a Koniag Government Services company, is seeking a FinOps Specialist to support KDS and our government customer. The position is remote. This position requires the candidate to be able to obtain a Public Trust.

Benefits include medical, dental, and vision insurance, 401(k) retirement plan, paid time off, paid parental leave, life and disability insurance, flexible spending accounts, commuter benefits and tuition reimbursement.

Koniag Data Solutions, LLC (KDS), a Koniag Government Services company, 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.

Principal responsibilities include, but are not limited to:

• 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. This role does not approve ODC expenditures.
• 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.

Education and Experience:

• Evaluate and implement state‑of‑the‑art AI frameworks and tooling, enabling automation, anomaly detection, threat modeling, decision support, and large‑scale data analysis.
• Optimize AI models for performance, reliability, and cost efficiency across on‑prem and cloud environments (Azure/AWS).
• Establish and enforce AI development best practices, including MLOps, version control, reproducibility, testing, and continuous integration/continuous deployment.
• Conduct research and prototype emerging AI techniques, transforming complex technical concepts into actionable engineering solutions.
• Support the creation and maintenance of AI governance artifacts, including model documentation, performance baselines, risk assessments, and lifecycle management.
• Mentor engineering teams and contribute to technical decision‑making, ensuring solutions align with enterprise architecture and long‑term AI strategy.

Required:

•  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.

Preferred:

• 5+ years of experience in FinOps, cloud financial operations, or IT financial management.
• Experience supporting federal government or public-sector cloud environments.

Required Skills and Competencies:

•  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.

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.

Our Equal Employment Opportunity Policy

The company is an equal opportunity employer. The company shall not discriminate against any employee or applicant because of race, color, religion, creed, ethnicity, sex, sexual orientation, gender or gender identity (except where gender is a bona fide occupational qualification), national origin or ancestry, age, disability, citizenship, military/veteran status, marital status, genetic information or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state, or local law. We are committed to equal employment opportunity in all decisions related to employment, promotion, wages, benefits, and all other privileges, terms, and conditions of employment.

The company is dedicated to seeking all qualified applicants. If you require an accommodation to navigate or apply for a position on our website, please get in touch with Heaven Wood via e-mail at [email protected] or by calling 703-488-9377 to request accommodations.

Koniag Government Services (KGS) is an Alaska Native Owned corporation supporting the values and traditions of our native communities through an agile employee and corporate culture that delivers Enterprise Solutions, Professional Services and Operational Management to Federal Government Agencies. As a wholly owned subsidiary of Koniag, we apply our proven commercial solutions to a deep knowledge of Defense and Civilian missions to provide forward leaning technical, professional, and operational solutions. KGS enables successful mission outcomes for our customers through solution-oriented business partnerships and a commitment to exceptional service delivery. We ensure long-term success with a continuous improvement approach while balancing the collective interests of our customers, employees, and native communities. For more information, please visit www.koniag-gs.com.

Equal Opportunity Employer/Veterans/Disabled. Shareholder Preference in accordance with Public Law 88-352