Role: Cloud Cost Optimization SME (FinOps + Platform Governance)

- Enterprise-scale Data Platforms

- Databricks (Dev / QA / Prod)

- Snowflake (Warehouses, workloads, cost attribution)

- Azure / AWS Cloud ecosystem

- Strong focus on cost governance, security, and operational efficiency

Why We Are Hiring (Business Need) :

- We are executing a large-scale cloud cost optimization and governance initiative across Databricks and Snowflake platforms

Key challenges we are solving :

- Rapidly increasing cloud spends without clear ownership

- Over-provisioned compute (clusters, warehouses)

- Inefficient workload patterns and lack of guardrails

- Limited cost visibility and accountability

- Security and governance gaps due to uncontrolled access

- We need a Cloud Cost Optimization SME who can own the problem end-to-end from defining strategy to driving execution and measurable savings

Role Summary :

The Cloud Cost Optimization SME will :

- Define and own the cost optimization strategy

- Establish clear cost reduction goals and KPIs

- Lead execution across Databricks & Snowflake

- Implement FinOps best practices

- Partner with Engineering, Ops, Security, and Leadership

- Build governance frameworks (cost + security)

- This is a hands-on leadership role, not just advisory

Key Responsibilities :

Cost Optimization Strategy & Ownership :

- Define cost optimization vision, roadmap, and scope

- Identify high-impact optimization opportunities

- Translate business goals into measurable savings targets

- Drive cost optimization as a continuous program, not one-time effort

Databricks Cost Optimization (Mandatory) :

Optimize :

- All-purpose clusters

- Job clusters

- Autoscaling & instance selection

Implement :

- Cluster policies

- Photon strategy

- Auto-termination

- Right-sizing based on usage patterns

Analyze :

- Compute utilization

- Memory/CPU usage

- Job runtime inefficiencies

- Build Databricks cost dashboards (DBU, cluster, job-level)

Snowflake Cost Optimization (Mandatory) :

- Warehouse right-sizing and consolidation

- Auto-suspend / auto-resume optimization

- Query performance tuning (credits optimization)

- Eliminate idle / under-utilized warehouses

- Role-based cost attribution

- Usage and consumption analytics

FinOps & Cost Governance :

- Establish FinOps operating model

- Define :

- Cost ownership

- Budget controls

- Cost accountability

Create :

- Cost attribution models

- Monthly cost review cadence

- Savings tracking mechanisms

- Partner with Finance for forecast vs actuals

Cloud Security & Policy Definition :

- Define governance policies across:

- Access control (RBAC)

- Resource usage

- Admin privileges

Implement :

- Platform guardrails

- Security policies aligned with cost controls

- Work closely with Security teams to ensure cost ? security risk

Leadership & Stakeholder Management :

- Lead a cross-functional optimization team

Work with :

- Platform teams

- Data engineers

- Ops & SRE

- Security

- Finance

- Communicate progress to leadership using metrics and dashboards

- Drive adoption and behavior change across teams

Must-Have :

- 8 to 12+ years overall experience

- Strong hands-on experience with:

- Databricks cost optimization

- Snowflake cost optimization

- Proven experience in FinOps / cloud cost governance

- Experience defining and enforcing cloud security & governance policies

- Ability to lead and influence without authority

- Strong data-driven mindset

- Azure cloud financial management

- FinOps certification

- Experience working with enterprise clients

- Exposure to large-scale production environments