Senior Systems Engineer - FinOps

Marriott•Bethesda, MD

5d•$100,400 - $172,000•Hybrid

About The Position

The Senior Systems Engineer – FinOps is a senior technical specialist responsible for driving cloud cost optimization, financial accountability, and engineering-led efficiency across large-scale data platforms. This role focuses on FinOps optimization across Snowflake, AWS EMR, and core AWS services (EC2, S3, Lambda, Redshift, Glue, DynamoDB, EKS). The engineer designs and implements automation for tagging compliance, budget guardrails, workload efficiency, and anomaly detection to ensure cost-effective, scalable data solutions. Partnering with Cloud Platform, Data Engineering, DevOps, Security, and Finance teams, the role enables cost transparency, enforces governance through policy-as-code, and reduces spending without impacting performance or reliability. Leveraging FinOps best practices, cost observability, and automated controls, this role ensures efficient operation of Snowflake, EMR, and AWS data pipelines while shaping scalable optimization strategies across a multi-cloud environment.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in computer science, Engineering, or equivalent experience.
7+ years of IT experience, including:
5+ years in cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, or Ali Cloud).
3+ years of Snowflake cost optimization experience.
3+ years of AWS EMR optimization (Spark tuning, cluster right-sizing, Spot strategies).
Strong scripting and automation experience (Python, Bash, or similar).
Experience with cloud cost management tools (CloudHealth, Cloudability, AWS Cost Explorer, Snowflake tools).
Experience in implementing FinOps strategies across AWS services.
Proven experience managing large-scale cloud budgets and driving cost savings.
Deep understanding of cloud pricing models, cost drivers, and optimization techniques.
Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
Excellent communication and cross-functional collaboration abilities.

Nice To Haves

Experience with Infrastructure as Code (Terraform, CloudFormation, Ansible).
Hands-on experience with containers and orchestration (Docker, Kubernetes, ECS, EKS).
Experience with distributed data platforms (Spark, Presto, Iceberg, Snowflake).
Knowledge of emerging cloud capabilities (e.g., EMR Serverless, Snowflake Iceberg tables).
Familiarity with Linux/Windows operating systems and database platforms.
Understanding cloud security, compliance, and data protection practices.
Experience in large-scale, enterprise environments.

Responsibilities

Lead FinOps engineering by analyzing and optimizing cost, usage, and performance across Snowflake, AWS EMR, and AWS data services (EC2, EKS, S3, Redshift, Glue, DynamoDB, Lambda).
Design and implement automation for cost governance, including anomaly detection, budget controls, tagging compliance, and reservation planning, supported by unified cost dashboards.
Partner with Finance to enable cost transparency through forecasting, budgeting, and chargeback/show back models while delivering actionable cost insights to leadership.
Provide technical leadership and architectural guidance for cost-efficient cloud solutions, driving platform optimization, standardization, and best practices.
Build, deliver, and maintain scalable cloud data platforms, ensuring high availability, performance, and observability through effective monitoring and alerting.
Establish operational standards, automation frameworks, and continuous improvement processes to enhance system reliability, efficiency, and engineering productivity.
Ensure compliance with IT governance and security standards while managing vendor relationships, monitoring SLAs/KPIs, and driving continuous service improvement.