FinOps Engineer

Location: Austin, United States of America

Thales people architect identity management and data protection solutions at the heart of digital security. Business and governments rely on us to bring trust to the billons of digital interactions they have with people. Our technologies and services help banks exchange funds, people cross borders, energy become smarter and much more. More than 30,000 organizations already rely on us to verify the identities of people and things, grant access to digital services, analyze vast quantities of information and encrypt data to make the connected world more secure.

Austin, TX - Hybrid (3 days a week)

Position Summary

Thales CSP is seeking a highly skilled FinOps Engineer to lead and optimize cloud financial management across the organization.
This role bridges Finance, Engineering, and Operations to ensure cloud spending is transparent, predictable, and aligned with business value. The FinOps Engineer will drive cost visibility, budgeting accuracy, forecasting reliability, optimization initiatives, and governance across multi-cloud environments, while enabling engineering teams to make cost-efficient architectural decisions.
Key responsibilities include analyzing cloud infrastructure to identify cost-saving opportunities, implementing optimization strategies, improving financial accountability, and enhancing forecasting accuracy. The FinOps Engineer will collaborate closely with Finance, Engineering, and Operations teams to foster a culture of cost-conscious cloud usage and maximize the value derived from cloud investments.

Key areas of responsibility

Cloud cost management and governance

• Monitor, analyze, and optimize cloud spend across AWS/Azure/GCP environments, identifying cost-saving opportunities such as rightsizing, Reserved Instances/Savings Plans management, storage lifecycle optimization, and idle resource remediation.
• Design and implement automated cost control mechanisms and guardrails to ensure financial discipline without compromising performance or security.
• Identify and assess financial risks related to cloud consumption, implementing proactive mitigation strategies to protect budget and forecast accuracy.
• Establish and maintain governance frameworks to ensure accountability for cloud spend, including tagging standards, cost allocation policies, and tracking of key financial metrics.

Budgeting & Forecasting

• Develop cloud cost forecasts and variance analysis
• Support financial planning cycles (Budget / Forecast / Actuals)
• Provide cost allocation and chargeback/showback models

 Reporting & Financial Transparency

• Build and maintain dashboards for cloud spend and utilization
• Partner with Finance to reconcile cloud billing and ensure accuracy
• Delivering insights to leadership and stakeholders on financial health.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Partner with engineering, finance, and operations teams to implement FinOps best practices, promote cost awareness, and collaboratively address cost-related challenges.
• Partner with Finance, Procurement, and Leadership on cost strategy

Vendor Management

• Oversee relationships with cloud vendors, optimizing pricing agreements, discounts, and usage patterns.

FinOps Engineering development & Automation

• Design and implement Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) solutions using tools such as CloudFormation or Terraform.
• Develop automation scripts using tools such as Python, Bash, or cloud-native CLI automation.
• Build internal cost optimization tooling, including:
  • Automated cleanup scripts (idle resources, unattached volumes, orphaned IPs, etc.)
  • Rightsizing recommendation engines
  • Savings Plan / RI tracking automation
  • Cost anomaly detection workflows
• Integrate cost governance into CI/CD pipelines (FinOps-as-Code approach)
• Implement tagging enforcement policies and automated compliance checks
• Create reusable modules/templates to embed cost efficiency into infrastructure deployment
• Develop APIs or data pipelines to extract, transform, and analyze billing data
• Leverage serverless architectures (Lambda/Functions) for cost automation tasks
• Contribute to internal FinOps platforms, dashboards, and data models

Key Relationships

• Work with financial controllers for forecasting, budgeting and cost allocation to various departments
• Engage with procurement team for negotiations with vendors with regards to pricing, licensing and other terms. Work collaboratively with administrators raising the purchase requisitions.
• With guidance from the Cloud Operations and Engineering Director, collaborate with engineering managers to evangelize, implement cost saving development practices and realize cost savings
• Leadership and Stakeholders: Provides insights on financial health, cloud spend, and utilization trends through dashboards and reports, supporting data-driven decision-making and strategic cost management.
• Maintain close relationships with Technical Account Managers for the various Cloud Services (e.g. AWS, Google Cloud, Datadog) in order to learn, leverage and implement the tools offered natively by these vendors for optimizing cloud consumption costs.
• Interact with the other Thales transversal and group unit FinOps teams to share and collaborate on FinOps best practices.

Skills

• Strong analytical and financial modeling skills
• Ability to translate technical cloud usage into financial impact
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills
• Problem-solving mindset with attention to detail
• ability to manage multiple tasks in fast-paced environments and meet tight deadlines.

Experience

• 3+ years of experience in FinOps with a proven track record in managing cloud costs and financial optimization.
• Experience managing cloud spend in AWS, Azure, or GCP environments
• Proven experience in budgeting, forecasting, and variance analysis

Education

• Bachelor’s degree in engineering, Computer Science, Information Systems, or related field

Technical / Specialized Knowledge

• Hands-on experience with Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC):
  • CloudFormation (templating, parameterization, etc)
  • Terraform (modules, state management, workspaces, remote backends)
• Hands-on experience in scripting and automation:
  • Python (data processing, API integration, automation frameworks)
  • Bash / Shell scripting
  • Experience building automation pipelines and cron/serverless jobs
• Experience integrating FinOps controls into CI/CD pipelines
  • Git-based workflows
  • Pipeline automation (GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, Azure DevOps, etc.)
  • Policy-as-Code (e.g., Open Policy Agent, SCPs, Azure Policies)
• Strong understanding of cloud billing mechanics:
  • AWS Cost & Usage Reports (CUR)
  • Savings Plans / Reserved Instances lifecycle management
  • Commitment planning and coverage optimization
  • Enterprise Discount Programs / Private Pricing Agreements
• Ability to build and maintain data pipelines:
  • Extracting and transforming billing datasets
  • SQL (advanced querying, aggregations, performance tuning)
  • Experience with data warehouses (Snowflake, BigQuery, Redshift, etc.)
• Experience with cloud-native automation services:
  • AWS Lambda / Azure Functions / Cloud Functions
  • Event-driven architectures
  • CloudWatch / Azure Monitor / Logging systems
• Knowledge of cloud governance and security controls:
  • IAM best practices
  • Service Control Policies (SCPs)
  • Tagging enforcement mechanisms
  • Cost anomaly detection frameworks
• Strong data visualization and reporting capabilities:
  • Power BI, Tableau, Looker (data modeling preferred)
  • Advanced Excel / financial modeling
• Solid understanding of cloud architecture principles:
  • Compute, storage, networking, and containerization
  • Kubernetes cost considerations (EKS/AKS/GKE)
  • Multi-account / multi-subscription environments
• Familiarity with FinOps tooling:
  • Native cloud cost tools
  • Apptio Cloudability, CloudHealth, or similar platforms
  • Custom-built cost observability solutions

Certifications (Preferred)

• AWS/GCP Certified Cloud Practitioner or AWS/GCP Solutions Architect
• FinOps Certified Practitioner (FOCP)
• Azure or GCP equivalent certifications

Language

• Fluent in English (written and verbal)
• Additional languages are a plus

• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Data Analytics, Cloud Computing, Computer Science, Information Systems, or a related field. A Master’s degree is a plus.

Schedule: Core business hours, Monday–Friday.

Occasional flexibility may be required to support business needs across time zones.

#LI-Hybrid

#LI-MG1

This position will require successfully completing a post-offer background check. Qualified candidates with [a] criminal history will be considered and are not automatically disqualified, consistent with federal law, state law, and local ordinances.

We are an equal opportunity employer, including disability and veteran status. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to sex, race, color, religion, national origin, disability, protected Veteran status, age, or any other characteristic protected by law.

If you need an accommodation or assistance in order to apply for a position with Thales, please contact us at talentacquisition@us.thalesgroup.com.

The reference Total Target Compensation (TTC) market range for this position, inclusive of annual base salary and the variable compensation target, is between

Total Target Cash (TTC) 99,000.00 - 172,581.00 USD Annual

This reflects how companies in a similar industry and geographic region generally pay for similar jobs. This range helps the Company make pay decisions as one data point among many. Where a position falls within this range is also dependent on other factors including – but not limited to – the employee’s career path history, competencies, skills and performance, as well as the company’s annual salary budget, the customer’s program requirements, and the company’s internal equity. Thales may offer additional benefits and other compensation, depending on circumstances not related to an applicant’s status protected by local, state, or federal law.

(For Internal candidate, if you need more information, please reach out to your HR Shared Service, 1st Point) 

Thales provides an extensive benefits program for all full-time employees working 30 or more hours per week and their eligible dependents, including the following:

•Elective Health, Dental, Vision, FSA/HSA, Voluntary Life and AD&D, Whole Group Life w/LTC, Critical Illness, Hospital Indemnity, Accident Insurance, Legal Plan, Identity Theft, and Pet Insurance

•Retirement Savings Plan after 30 days of employment with a company contribution and a match, and with no vesting period

•Company paid holidays and Paid Time Off

•Company provided Life Insurance, AD&D, Disability, Employee Assistance Plan, and Well-being Program