Senior Principal - Cloud FinOps Manager

Job description

Business Introduction GSK remains committed to achieving bold commercial ambitions for the future. By 2031, we aim to deliver £40 billion in annual sales, leveraging our existing strong performance momentum to significantly increase our positive impact on the health of billions of patients globally. Our Ahead Together strategy is centred on early intervention to prevent and alter the course of disease, thereby protecting people and supporting healthcare systems. Our diverse portfolio consists of vaccines, specialty medicines, and general medicines. Through continuous innovation and a dedicated focus on scientific and technical excellence, we strive to develop and launch new, groundbreaking treatments that address critical health challenges. Job Purpose Accountable for enterprise cloud rate optimization across Azure and GCP and for the FinOps service that gives GSK a single, trusted view of cloud cost - directly influencing multi-million-pound savings, commitment strategy and cloud financial decisions. The role leads savings plans, reservations, commitments and discount strategies, monitors utilization and realized savings, and ensures negotiated commercial benefits are reflected in billing. It also owns the FinOps platform direction and roadmap, prioritizing the cost, allocation and consumption capabilities that underpin forecasting, chargeback, optimization and commercial decisions across the enterprise. Key Responsibilities Rate Optimization and Commitments Lead savings plans, reservations, commitments and discount strategies across cloud providers (Azure & GCP), using consumption, growth and forecast information. Track commitment coverage and utilization, prepayments, cost avoidance, realized savings and contracted benefits through KPIs and leadership reporting. Assess provider pricing changes and define actions to address the financial impact. Confirm negotiated rates, discounts and commitments are correctly reflected in billing and reporting. Inform supplier negotiations, renewals and commercial decisions with rate and consumption analysis. FinOps Platform Ownership Define and maintain the platform vision, strategy and roadmap, prioritizing data, allocation, reporting and automation improvements based on customer requirements, business value and operational need. Translate priorities into platform capabilities and coordinate feasibility, delivery, dependencies, release readiness and rollout with the FinOps platform vendor. Oversee platform access, permissions, vendor support, operational issues, availability and data quality. Maintain billing and usage data ingestion, integrations, data pipelines and automations. Lead vendor evaluations, RFPs, contract renewals and service cost allocation. Govern access controls, approved enterprise integrations and ingestion of billing data from cloud providers. Establish target users, value messaging, onboarding, training and communications for new capabilities. Use adoption, usage, success measures and stakeholder feedback to improve the platform and refine priorities. Cost Allocation, Reporting and Data Quality Maintain the enterprise tagging standard, allocation rules, account structures, business mappings and cost ownership and chargeback logic, including organizational changes. Produce allocated cloud cost data for reporting, forecasting, chargeback and cost recovery. Maintain platform views, account groups, dashboards, reports, custom metrics and API extracts, including configured reporting for AI, Databricks, containers and shared services. Monitor and investigate anomalies, unexpected increases, allocation issues, incomplete data and processing delays. Governance and Enablement Maintain policies, controls, standards, procedures, management monitoring and evidence for rate optimization, allocation, reporting and platform activities. Maintain onboarding, communications, training and guidance covering allocation, tagging, reporting, anomalies, rate optimization and cloud marketplace processes. Operate the Cloud FinOps Forum, including rate optimization KPI reviews and follow-up actions. Provide cost modelling, estimation and guidance to platform teams and cloud consumers. Provide FinOps analysis and expertise to Business Operations, DPTF Finance Managers, Business Unit FinOps Leads, and cloud consumers. Education & Professional Qualifications BS or MS degree in a relevant field (e.g., Computer Science, Information Technology, or Engineering), or equivalent practical experience. Azure, GCP and FinOps certifications (desirable) Experience Required Overall 15 years and 8–10 years in cloud finance, FinOps or technology cost management Proven delivery of enterprise cloud rate optimisation covering savings plans, reservations, commitments, discounts, consumption analysis and savings realisation. Hands on experience managing a cloud cost management platform, including roadmap prioritisation, allocation, reporting, APIs, integrations, automation, access and vendor support. Demonstrated use of cloud billing, usage, pricing and forecast data to inform commitment decisions, cost allocation, chargeback and financial reporting. Experienced in identification and resolution of spend anomalies, data-quality issues, allocation problems, processing delays and cost-optimisation opportunities. Performed vendor evaluations, RFPs, contract renewals, service performance and commercial discussions. Translated stakeholder requirements into platform improvements, rollout, adoption, training and continuous improvement. Collaborated across cloud engineering, architecture, Finance, Procurement, Technology Finance, Technology Business Operations, cloud providers and senior leadership. Skills/Background Strong analytical judgement across cloud pricing, commitments, utilisation and savings outcomes. Ability to translate complex cloud consumption and commercial data into clear recommendations for technical, financial and leadership stakeholders. Strong stakeholder management and influencing skills across Platform teams, Finance, Procurement, business teams and cloud providers. Commercial judgement when evaluating rate options, contractual commitments and vendor proposals. High attention to data quality, financial accuracy, controls and supporting evidence. Clear written and verbal communication, including executive reporting, training and stakeholder guidance. Ability to balance rate optimisation, platform improvement, operational priorities and stakeholder requirements. #AGTech Skills API Management, Automation Technology, Bill Analysis, Cloud Architectures, Cloud DevOps, Cloud Financial Operations, Containerization, Cost Optimization, Database Management, DevOps, Disaster Recovery (DR), Edge Computing, Financial Services Operations, Infrastructure As Code (IaC), Networking Concepts, Performance Optimizations, Rate Management, Serverless Computing, System Monitors, Virtualization Why GSK? Uniting science, technology and talent to get ahead of disease together. GSK is a global biopharma company with a purpose to unite science, technology and talent to get ahead of disease together. We aim to positively impact the health of 2.5 billion people by the end of the decade, as a successful, growing company where people can thrive. We get ahead of disease by preventing and treating it with innovation in specialty medicines and vaccines. We focus on four therapeutic areas: respiratory, immunology and inflammation; oncology; HIV; and infectious diseases – to impact health at scale. People and patients around the world count on the medicines and vaccines we make, so we’re committed to creating an environment where our people can thrive and focus on what matters most. Our culture of being ambitious for patients, accountable for impact and doing the right thing is the foundation for how, together, we deliver for patients, shareholders and our people. Inclusion at GSK: As an employer committed to Inclusion, we encourage you to r