Cloud Service Provider Costing Specialist

Guidehouse•Kansas City, MO

About The Position

The Cloud Service Provider Costing Specialist provides technical and financial expertise in commercial cloud pricing, cost modeling, and cloud service provider purchasing options, with a primary emphasis on Microsoft Azure. The role supports enterprise cloud migration, modernization, and hosting decisions by developing defensible cost estimates, evaluating financial alternatives, and identifying opportunities to optimize cloud expenditures. The specialist works with cloud engineers, solution architects, and other technical stakeholders to assess how architecture, infrastructure sizing, migration strategies, and modernization decisions affect costs. The role also develops financial comparisons, forecasts, and business cases that document assumptions, cost drivers, tradeoffs, risks, and projected outcomes, and presents recommendations to technical, business, and executive stakeholders.

Requirements

Six or more years of experience in cloud financial management, IT infrastructure costing, cloud pricing analysis, or related technical financial disciplines.
University degree or four years of experience in lieu of formal education.
Hands-on experience independently developing detailed Microsoft Azure pricing estimates, cloud financial models, and TCO analyses for enterprise infrastructure and application workloads.
Practical knowledge of Azure consumption pricing, Microsoft licensing, reservations, savings plans, data transfer charges, and commercial cloud purchasing models.
Ability to translate infrastructure configurations, resource utilization, workload requirements, and architectural designs into detailed cloud consumption forecasts and cost estimates.
Experience evaluating the financial implications of cloud migration, modernization, and hosting alternatives, including Azure IaaS, PaaS, and VMware-based environments.
Experience with Microsoft Enterprise Agreements, Cloud Solution Provider purchasing arrangements, negotiated pricing, and cloud licensing considerations.
Working knowledge of Azure infrastructure architecture, including compute, storage, networking, databases, and managed services, sufficient to identify and evaluate technical cost drivers.
Experience using Azure Pricing Calculator, Azure Cost Management, Azure Migrate, or comparable cloud financial management and estimation tools.
Advanced proficiency with Microsoft Excel and ability to independently develop, validate, document, and maintain complex cloud cost models.
Ability to develop financial analyses, document assumptions, and communicate cost comparisons, financial tradeoffs, and recommendations to technical and business stakeholders.

Nice To Haves

Experience developing financial business cases and cost comparisons for migrations from Azure VMware Solution to Azure-native infrastructure and platform services.
Experience supporting highly regulated or federal cloud environments, including Azure Government pricing, federal cloud procurement arrangements, and agency-specific financial requirements.
Experience evaluating pricing, licensing, and purchasing options across multiple commercial cloud service providers, particularly AWS and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure.
Experience implementing FinOps practices in large enterprise environments, including cloud cost allocation, showback or chargeback, forecasting, optimization, and financial governance.
FinOps Certified Practitioner certification.
Microsoft Azure certifications or comparable cloud financial management credentials.
Experience developing and presenting cloud financial recommendations and business cases to senior leadership and executive stakeholders.

Responsibilities

Develop Microsoft Azure cost estimates, financial models, and total cost of ownership analyses for enterprise workload migration, modernization, and hosting decisions.
Compare the financial implications of on-premises infrastructure, Azure VMware Solution, Azure-native IaaS and PaaS, and other commercial cloud platforms.
Analyze Azure pricing structures, Microsoft licensing, consumption-based charges, reservations, savings plans, data transfer costs, and commercial purchasing agreements.
Assess infrastructure configurations, resource utilization, application requirements, and workload characteristics to establish cost baselines and forecast cloud expenditures.
Evaluate cloud provider pricing, purchasing options, discounts, licensing considerations, and contractual factors, primarily for Microsoft Azure.
Collaborate with cloud engineers, solution architects, and other technical stakeholders to assess the financial implications of architecture, infrastructure sizing, migration strategies, and modernization decisions.
Develop cloud cost optimization recommendations covering resource sizing, consumption patterns, licensing, reservations, savings plans, and cloud service selection.
Use Azure Pricing Calculator, Azure Cost Management, Azure Migrate, Microsoft Excel, and related tools to develop estimates, analyze expenditures, validate assumptions, and maintain cost models.
Develop financial comparisons, forecasts, and business cases that document assumptions, cost drivers, financial tradeoffs, risks, and projected outcomes.
Present cloud cost analyses and recommendations clearly and defensibly to technical, business, and executive stakeholders.

Benefits

Medical, prescription, dental, and vision insurance
Personal and family sick time
Company-paid holidays
Parental leave
401(k) retirement plan
Group term life and travel assistance
Voluntary life and AD&D insurance
Health Savings Account
Health care and dependent care Flexible Spending Accounts
Transit and parking commuter benefits
Short-term and long-term disability
Tuition reimbursement
Personal development, certifications, and learning opportunities
Employee referral program
Corporate-sponsored events and community outreach
Care.com annual membership
Employee Assistance Program
Supplemental benefits, including critical care, hospital indemnity, accident insurance, legal assistance, and identity theft protection
Position may be eligible for a discretionary variable incentive bonus