Director, AI Financial Management

Scotiabank•Toronto, ON

1d•Onsite

About The Position

The Director, AI Financial Management is responsible for establishing and leading the financial operations (FinOps) strategy and governance for Artificial Intelligence (AI) across the enterprise. This role provides executive-level oversight of AI-related spend, including infrastructure, models, data, and platforms, ensuring transparency, cost optimization, and value realization aligned to enterprise priorities. The incumbent will define and operationalize AI FinOps frameworks, enable data-driven decision-making for AI investments, and drive accountability across Technology, Finance, and Business stakeholders. This role plays a critical part in scaling AI responsibly by balancing innovation, cost efficiency, and financial discipline.

Requirements

University degree (preferably MBA, or finance/business)
Minimum of 10 years of experience in financial planning, analysis, and reporting or a related field within a large, complex organization with at least 5 years in a leadership role
Strong understanding of AI/ML cost structures, including cloud computing (GPU/CPU), data pipelines, model training, and inference economics.
Experience implementing or operating FinOps practices, preferably in cloud and/or AI-driven environments.
Proven track record in financial modeling, cost optimization, and investment governance for emerging technologies.
Exceptional analytical, problem-solving, and decision-making capabilities with ability to translate complex technical cost drivers into financial insights.
Strong executive communication skills with experience advising CFOs, CIOs, and senior technology leaders.
Ability to operate in a fast-paced, evolving environment with high ambiguity and innovation focus.
Strong stakeholder management and influencing skills across Finance, Technology, and Business teams.

Nice To Haves

Familiarity with FinOps and technology tooling (e.g., Apptio, Cloud cost tools, Databricks, Azure/AWS/GCP cost management platforms) is an asset.

Responsibilities

Defines and leads the enterprise-wide FinOps framework for AI, including governance, policies, and standards for managing AI-related spend (e.g., cloud, GPU/compute, model usage, data pipelines).
Establishes financial transparency across AI initiatives by developing cost attribution models, unit economics, and consumption-based reporting structures.
Leads a team delivering advanced financial analytics and insights on AI cost drivers (e.g., training vs. inference, model selection, usage patterns), identifying optimization opportunities.
Partners with Technology, Data, and AI leadership to align AI investment strategy with business value, ensuring clear ROI frameworks and prioritization discipline.
Oversees budgeting, forecasting, and scenario planning for AI-related investments, incorporating demand signals, capacity planning, and cost volatility factors.
Drives optimization strategies including model efficiency, compute utilization, workload scheduling, vendor management, and architecture choices to reduce cost per outcome.
Collaborates with Finance and Technology teams to implement real-time FinOps dashboards and KPIs tracking AI spend, performance, and value delivery.
Establishes governance processes ensuring appropriate controls, financial oversight, and risk management for AI spend, including compliance with internal policies and external regulations.
Leads vendor and partner engagement related to AI platforms and cloud providers, supporting commercial negotiations and cost benchmarking.
Acts as a key advisor to the VP & CFO, Global Technology and senior leadership on AI investment trade-offs, financial risks, and optimization opportunities.
Drives change management and adoption of FinOps best practices across the organization, fostering a culture of cost accountability and value realization in AI usage.
Understand how the Bank’s risk appetite and risk culture should be considered in day-to-day activities and decisions.
Creates an environment in which their team pursues effective and efficient operations of their respective areas in accordance with Scotiabank’s Values, its Code of Conduct and the Global Sales Principles, while ensuring the adequacy, adherence to and effectiveness of day-to-day business controls to meet obligations with respect to operational, compliance, AML/ATF/sanctions and conduct risk.
Builds a high-performance environment and implements a people strategy that attracts, retains, develops and motivates their team by fostering an inclusive work environment and using a coaching mindset and behaviours; communicating vison/values/business strategy; and managing succession and development planning for the team.