FinOps Analyst

About Ellucian

Ellucian powers innovation for higher education, partnering with approximately 3,000 customers across 50 countries, serving more than 21 million students. Ellucian's AI-powered platform, trained on the richest dataset available in higher education, drives efficiency, personalized experiences, and strengthened engagement for all students, faculty and staff. Fueled by decades of experience with a singular focus on the unique needs of learning institutions, the Ellucian platform features best-in-class SaaS capabilities and delivers insights needed now and into the future. These solutions and services span the entire student lifecycle, including data-rich tools for student recruitment, enrollment, and retention to workforce analytics, fundraising, and alumni engagement. Ellucian's innovative solutions, vast ecosystem of partners and user community of more than 45,000 provides best practices leading to greater institutional success and achieving better student outcomes.

About the Opportunity

At Ellucian, we believe in the transformative power of education, and our cloud solutions are central to powering that transformation for colleges and universities around the world. The FinOps team supports the development, scalability, and financial sustainability of Ellucian's cloud solutions through effective governance, financial transparency, and cross-functional collaboration.

The team helps establish organizational accountability for technology consumption and costs while maximizing the business value of cloud and other consumption-based technology investments. Success is measured through predictable and scalable costs, effective governance, improved financial visibility, and measurable optimization outcomes.

As a FinOps Analyst, you will help drive financial accountability, governance, and optimization across Ellucian's cloud and technology investments. You will independently own assigned FinOps initiatives, analyze technology consumption and spending, identify opportunities for improvement, and partner with technical and business stakeholders to translate financial and operational data into actionable decisions.

Where You Will Make an Impact

• Own and drive FinOps initiatives within assigned areas of responsibility, improving visibility, accountability, governance, and optimization across cloud and technology consumption and spend.
• Analyze cloud and third-party technology usage, cost, and operational data to identify trends, anomalies, cost drivers, financial risks, and opportunities for optimization.
• Identify, quantify, prioritize, and track cost optimization opportunities, partnering with technology owners and stakeholders to implement improvements and measure realized savings, cost avoidance, and business value.
• Support and improve FinOps governance practices, including resource tagging, metadata standards, cost allocation, ownership, policy compliance, and controls that enable accurate financial accountability.
• Monitor consumption-based technology platforms and services, including Datadog, to understand usage patterns, evaluate cost drivers, forecast financial impact, and identify opportunities to improve efficiency and value.
• Develop and maintain dashboards, reports, forecasts, and key performance indicators that provide visibility into technology consumption, optimization progress, governance compliance, and financial performance.
• Support budgeting and forecasting activities by analyzing historical consumption, growth trends, business drivers, and planned technology changes to improve financial predictability.
• Utilize cloud financial management, observability, analytics, and FinOps tools to support operational requirements, financial analysis, and technology optimization initiatives.
• Partner with stakeholders across Cloud Engineering/Operations, R&D, Product, Finance, Procurement, and other business functions to integrate FinOps practices into day-to-day technology planning and decision-making.
• Investigate unexpected consumption or cost changes, collaborating with technical teams to identify contributing factors, assess financial impact, and recommend appropriate corrective actions.
• Help evaluate and establish financial governance for emerging technologies and consumption models, including SaaS, observability, data platforms, and AI services as organizational needs evolve.
• Identify opportunities to improve FinOps processes, controls, reporting, and operational effectiveness through automation, improved analytics, and standardized practices.
• Support improvements in automated reporting, consumption monitoring, and cost anomaly detection to increase efficiency, data accuracy, and visibility into optimization opportunities.
• Contribute to the continued maturity of FinOps practices by improving cost allocation, forecasting, governance, and financial accountability across technology investments.

What You Will Bring

• 2+ years of experience in FinOps, cloud financial management, cloud operations, observability/platform operations, technology governance, technical program/project management, financial/business analysis, or a related discipline.
• Hands-on experience with Datadog, including the ability to analyze usage, consumption trends, and cost drivers across one or more Datadog capabilities.
• Experience analyzing technology usage and cost data to identify trends, anomalies, optimization opportunities, and financial impact.
• Experience supporting or implementing technology governance practices such as resource tagging, metadata management, cost allocation, policy compliance, or ownership and accountability controls.
• Working knowledge of public cloud infrastructure and services, with AWS experience particularly relevant.
• Experience developing dashboards, reports, and analytical views used to communicate financial or operational performance, including consumption trends, forecasting, and optimization opportunities.
• Strong Microsoft Excel and data analysis skills, with the ability to work with complex datasets and translate findings into actionable recommendations.
• Familiarity with cloud financial management and analytics tools such as Cloudability, AWS Cost Explorer, Cost and Usage Reports (CUR), CUDOS, or similar platforms.
• Understanding of consumption-based technology cost models, including cloud infrastructure, SaaS, observability platforms, or other variable-consumption services.
• Strong analytical, critical-thinking, and problem-solving skills, with the ability to investigate cost drivers, evaluate opportunities, and recommend practical solutions.
• Ability to communicate effectively with technical and non-technical stakeholders and influence action without direct authority.
• Ability to independently manage assigned initiatives and priorities while collaborating effectively across technical and business teams.
• Detail-oriented, with strong documentation, organizational, and financial reporting skills.
• Familiarity with FinOps principles, technology cost optimization, and opportunities to improve reporting or governance through automation and analytics.
• Experience using AI-powered productivity tools, such as ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, or similar solutions, to support data analysis, research, reporting, documentation, and workflow efficiency, with appropriate validation of AI-generated outputs.

What makes #Ellucianlife

• Comprehensive health coverage: medical, dental, and vision
• Flexible time off
• Thrive Flex Lifestyle Account (LSA) that allows you to contribute towards your health, financial or learning interests
• 401k w/ match & BrightPlan - to help you save for the future
• Parental Leave
• 5 charitable days to support the community that supports us
• Telemedicine
• Wellness
  • Headspace Care (mental health)
  • Wellbeats (virtual fitness classes)
• RethinkCare & Wellthy– caregiver support
• Diversity and inclusion programs which provide access to internal employee resource groups
• Employee referral bonuses to encourage the addition of great new people to the team
• We Foster a learning culture with:
  • Education Assistance Program
  • Professional development opportunities

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