Why FinOps is one of the most promising professions in tech

FinOps is one of the more mysterious corners of tech for many people. But it is worth noting that in recent years it has moved to the front as one of the key professions in the industry, creating a new wave of demand for specialists. As business moves to the cloud and data volumes grow, companies find they must not only scale their services quickly but manage the costs properly. We are living through a new FinOps era. Let's work out why it has become such a sought-after profession and what it opens up.

The role of FinOps in modern business, and what FinOps engineers do

FinOps is a methodology built around the need to manage cloud infrastructure costs. Companies using cloud platforms such as AWS, Azure or Google Cloud very often cannot calculate the financial side in advance, because unpredictable costs are a real risk. Why does that happen? Misconfigured resources or a sudden increase in load can lead to unexpected and thoroughly unwelcome spending. That is where FinOps engineers come in. These specialists help avert critical situations and calculate the risks in advance, and in return the company gets transparency about its spending and the ability to make decisions quickly to reduce it. A win for both sides.

FinOps specialists work across several fronts to get there. The most common responsibilities are:

• Managing cloud spending: analysing resource consumption using AWS Cost Explorer, Azure Cost Management, GCP Billing and other tools.
• Optimising costs: applying one or a combination of strategies — reserved instances, spot instances and autoscaling — to meet the goals set.
• Budgeting and forecasting: managing budgets and building forecasts from existing data and expected needs.
• Monitoring and automation: setting up monitoring so that spending is tracked quickly, and introducing automation to shut down unused resources.
• Working with DevOps and introducing policy: a continuous process of working with development teams, teaching them the principles of financial efficiency and introducing management standards.

The skills FinOps requires

More than 80 per cent of all tech companies use cloud technology, and not merely use it: they plan to expand their use of it in the near future. What does that mean in practice? The correlation is direct — as more companies move to the cloud, demand for FinOps specialists multiplies and controlling spending becomes a first-order priority.

FinOps is also a cross-disciplinary role: these specialists understand not only the financial side but cloud computing itself. The profession is therefore in demand across sectors, from e-commerce and healthcare to financial services and manufacturing, at companies of every size.

But becoming a sought-after specialist takes more than a passing acquaintance with the field. It requires deep knowledge of both finance and tech. As usual, the skills divide into soft and hard:

The soft skills this field requires:

• How cloud technology works: you need to know and understand the particulars of AWS, Azure and Google Cloud.
• Analytical ability: you need to analyse data and spot what does not add up in the spending.
• An understanding of financial fundamentals: one of the most important skills here is knowing how to forecast costs and build budgets.
• Communication: no less important is the ability to work effectively with DevOps teams, finance departments and company leadership.

As for tools and hard skills:

• AWS Cost Explorer, Azure Cost Management and Google Cloud Billing — tools that provide data on resource consumption and help forecast spending.
• Kubecost — a tool for optimising the cost of Kubernetes clusters.
• CloudHealth and Spot.io — multi-cloud solutions for managing spending centrally.

Why it pays off for companies, and where the career leads

Companies adopting FinOps in earnest gain substantial financial benefits. Experts estimate that managing cloud spending effectively can cut costs by 20–40 per cent, by reducing wasteful consumption, choosing pricing plans better and automating financial management.

For specialists, FinOps is currently a well-paid profession, particularly because demand exceeds supply, which makes them more valuable in a prospective employer's eyes. FinOps engineers can develop in various directions, from analysis and engineering through to leading a FinOps function. The more experience and skill, the closer roles such as Chief FinOps Officer or Cloud Financial Manager come — positions where strategic decisions about a company's budgets are taken.

It can be said with complete confidence that demand for this profession will only grow over the coming years, and the prospects of finding work and occupying your own niche will grow with it. So if you want to open new horizons and build a career where technology and finance meet, FinOps is very much for you.

You can learn the FinOps Engineer profession on our course, which gives you everything you need for a strong start in the field.