Cloud Strategist - Intermediate

We are seeking an intermediate Cloud Strategist to play a pivotal role in shaping and driving cloud financial strategies. In this role, you will lead the forecasting and financial planning of cloud spend specifically across Azure platforms. Acting as a bridge between Finance, Engineering, and Cloud Operations, you will analyze trends, forecast consumption, and provide the strategic insights necessary to drive cost efficiency, governance, and accountability across the organization.

Location: Toronto, ON (Hybrid: 2 days onsite / 3 days remote)

Duration: 3-month contract

Rate: $76.04 - $82.43/hr

Advantages
- Hybrid Flexibility: Enjoy a balanced work-life schedule with 2 days onsite and 3 days remote.

- Strategic Impact: Influence high-level financial decisions for large-scale Azure environments.

- Cutting-Edge Tech: Gain hands-on experience with industry-leading FinOps tools like Apptio Cloudability.

- Collaborative Culture: Work in a cross-functional environment spanning Finance, Engineering, and Operations.

Responsibilities
Optimization & Strategic Insight

- Identify over-provisioned or underutilized resources to drive cloud cost optimization strategies.

- Partner with engineering and product teams to integrate financial perspectives into architectural design decisions.

- Collaborate with vendors and procurement teams to evaluate pricing structures and savings opportunities.

- Translate FinOps tool data into actionable insights that reduce spend and improve forecast accuracy.

Tagging Strategy & Governance

- Design and implement comprehensive cloud tagging strategies to ensure visibility across departments and projects.

- Enforce tagging compliance through automation, tooling, and policy frameworks in collaboration with DevOps teams.

- Lead remediation efforts for tagging inconsistencies to improve cost attribution and chargeback processes.

- Maintain documentation and training to promote organization-wide adoption of tagging best practices.

Forecasting & Planning

- Build multi-year cloud cost forecasts aligned with technology and business roadmaps.

- Analyze historical usage trends to project accurate future spend across cloud providers.

- Drive re-baselining exercises and year-over-year forecasting improvements to align budgets with actual consumption.

Cost Governance & Reporting

- Utilize Azure Cost Management and FinOps platforms (e.g., Apptio Cloudability) to provide visibility and trend analysis.

- Create executive dashboards, variance analysis, and forecast accuracy metrics.

- Develop models for cost attribution, showback/chargeback, and unit cost analysis.

Tooling & Enablement

- Leverage Power BI and native cloud cost platforms for advanced reporting.

- Implement resource management policies to ensure data collection accuracy.

- Oversee the onboarding of FinOps tools, ensuring data integrity and alignment with organizational goals.

Qualifications
Education & Experience

- Diploma or Degree in Computer Science, or a related discipline (or equivalent experience).

- Must Have: 3+ years of experience driving cloud cost optimization and FinOps outcomes.

- Must Have: 3+ years of experience working with engineering teams on financial architecture.

- Minimum 4 years’ experience with FinOps-related tools, specifically Apptio.

- Proven experience developing roadmaps and transformation plans for cloud clients.

Technical Skills

- Deep knowledge of Azure billing structures and optimization levers.

- Proficiency in cloud tagging implementation, governance, and remediation.

- Advanced skills in Excel and Power BI.

- Familiarity with Infrastructure as Code (IaC), Azure Policy, and CI/CD pipelines.

Certifications

- FinOps Certified Practitioner (or equivalent certification) is preferred.

Summary
If you're interested in the Cloud Strategist - Intermediate role based in Toronto, we encourage you to apply online at www.randstad.ca.

Only qualified candidates will be contacted for the next steps. We look forward to hearing from you!

Randstad Canada is committed to fostering a workforce reflective of all peoples of Canada. As a result, we are committed to developing and implementing strategies to increase the equity, diversity and inclusion within the workplace by examining our internal policies, practices, and systems throughout the entire lifecycle of our workforce, including its recruitment, retention and advancement for all employees. In addition to our deep commitment to respecting human rights, we are dedicated to positive actions to affect change to ensure everyone has full participation in the workforce free from any barriers, systemic or otherwise, especially equity-seeking groups who are usually underrepresented in Canada's workforce, including those who identify as women or non-binary/gender non-conforming; Indigenous or Aboriginal Peoples; persons with disabilities (visible or invisible) and; members of visible minorities, racialized groups and the LGBTQ2+ community.

Randstad Canada is committed to creating and maintaining an inclusive and accessible workplace for all its candidates and employees by supporting their accessibility and accommodation needs throughout the employment lifecycle. We ask that all job applications please identify any accommodation requirements by sending an email to accessibility@randstad.ca to ensure their ability to fully participate in the interview process.