Overview:

The organisation, through a strategic modernisation programme, is undertaking a transformation of its IT, OSS, and Network applications estate. This includes migrating application workloads to public cloud environments hosted and managed by leading hyperscalers. The Enterprise Business Unit is expanding its ICT services portfolio, including cloud-based infrastructure, security, IoT, unified communications, and other cloud services.

A Cloud Centre of Excellence (CCOE) has been established to provide a standardised cloud blueprint across the organisation. The CCOE is responsible for strategic oversight, policies, standards, guidelines, and governance. The Cloud Centre of Excellence drives cloud maturity and accelerates cloud adoption by:

Driving cloud momentum across the organisation

• Developing reusable frameworks for cloud governance and architecture
• Managing cloud knowledge and learning with HR partners
• Overseeing cloud usage and migrations
• Aligning cloud offerings to the broader organisational strategy

Key Performance Areas (Core Responsibilities)

The Cloud FinOps role will have the following responsibilities:

• Establish, document, and drive adoption of cloud processes, standards, policies, and governance models across business units and stakeholders related to cloud resource utilisation
• Define cloud resource usage policies that impact cloud billing (e.g., Cloud Consumption Policy, Resource Tagging Policies)
• Provide guidance to business units as required
• Support finance teams in setting up cloud chargeback and show back processes
• Build cloud services budgets and track actual and forecasted costs
• Define value realisation frameworks; track and report key cloud spend metrics to stakeholders
• Establish a community of practice; drive roadshows to increase awareness
• Provide guidance on data-driven opportunities to optimise cloud resource utilisation and costs (consumption, resource utilisation monitoring)
• Ensure governance models and processes adopted are aligned to established CCOE reference standards; conduct reviews, identify issues, determine root causes, and improve processes to prevent recurrence
• Work cross-functionally with other business units and platform businesses to align cloud FinOps activities and deliverables
• Ensure cloud consumption metering and cost management activities for all cloud services are aligned to CCOE standards
• Make recommendations on cloud service buying strategies based on cost considerations (e.g., on-demand vs reserved instance, type of instance)
• Ensure automation of billing reports; provide dashboards and insights on billing
• Track and report data regarding cloud services (consumption, resource utilisation, exceptions)
• Conduct periodic audits to ensure resources are tagged as per standards and policies
• Interface with Finance on cloud service budgets and actual costs
• Validate cloud bills and raise concerns whenever exceptions are generated

Deliverables

• Governance framework
• Value realisation framework
• Community of practice
• Cloud adoption business case framework and support for workload migration
• Cloud cost optimisation framework
• Cloud FinOps standards, policies, guidelines
• Resource tagging policy
• Chargeback and show back policies/frameworks
• Cloud cost forecasting
• New policy definitions or updates to existing policies
• Reporting
• Cloud service catalogue and associated charging model
• Innovation initiatives supported or initiated by the Cloud COE

Job Requirements

Education:

• Minimum 4-year relevant academic degree with Honours (BEng/B.com preferred)
• MBA/master’s advantageous
• English fluent
• Relevant certification/accreditation/membership with professional body as required (e.g., Certified FinOps Practitioner, AZ-900: Azure Fundamentals, GCP Associate Cloud Engineer, AZ-104: Microsoft Azure Administrator)

Experience:

• Minimum 5-7 years’ overall experience in IT with proven experience in cloud
• Minimum 3 years’ experience in cloud FinOps or equivalent
• Minimum 3 years’ relevant sector/industry/specialisation experience (e.g., consulting or industry experience and large-scale, enterprise-class consulting or systems integration experience)
• Proficiency in Infrastructure as a Service, Platform as a Service, and related public cloud concepts
• Familiarity with Azure and GCP cloud environments
• Working knowledge/hands-on experience of financial modelling/analysis, cloud-native and third-party cloud cost management & advisory tools
• Sound knowledge of cost optimisation levers and value realisation frameworks
• Experience with cloud economics, cloud service, and pricing models
• Understanding of basic finance and accounting principles (budgeting, accruals, NPV, ROI, etc.)
• Associate or higher-level certification with public cloud providers
• Experience working across diverse cultures and geographies is advantageous

Competencies:

• Business acumen, problem-solving, information processing, influencing others
• Data interpretation, judgement, continuous improvement, reporting
• Results-oriented, communication, innovation, agility, accountability
• Ability to function across multiple business lines in a multicultural environment

Contact information

Riford Masuku