Lead Cloud Economics Specialist
Celonis · Munich, Germany · 2mo ago
Celonis is the trusted platform to industrialize Enterprise AI. At our core is the Celonis Context Model — which combines process data, business knowledge, and intelligence into a living digital twin of the enterprise that AI can actually understand, turning AI's operational blind spots into operational clarity. World's leading companies trust Celonis and its global ecosystem of partners to make their AI agents, people, systems, and processes work together, achieving transformational outcomes. We believe there's a massive opportunity to unlock global productivity and sustainability by giving AI the context to understand how every business process really works. Join our mission to make processes work for people, companies, and the planet.
The Role:
The Lead Cloud Economics Specialist will own analytics, automation, and operating processes for cloud cost management, cost attribution, optimization tracking, strategic vendor economics, and product-margin support. The role will partner with Finance, Product & Engineering, IT, Procurement, Legal/Trust, and Data teams to turn complex usage and cost data into clear financial insights, scalable reporting, and executive-ready recommendations.
This is a senior, hands-on finance business partnering role at the intersection of Finance, cloud economics, data automation, vendor economics, and Product & Engineering decision support. You will work with complex usage and cost data, build scalable reporting and automation, and translate technical cost drivers into clear financial insights and recommendations. You will lead through ownership and influence rather than direct management, and you'll have room to define structure where mature processes don't yet exist.
The work you’ll do:
- Cloud cost visibility and attribution
- Build and maintain reporting across AWS, Azure, GCP, and related hosting environments.
- Improve attribution of cloud and infrastructure costs to services, teams, products, customers, projects, and cost centers.
- Automation, data pipelines, and analytics
- Use Python or equivalent scripting, SQL, APIs, BI tools, and workflow automation to reduce manual reporting.
- Build and maintain data pipelines connecting cloud billing, vendor usage, employee/project mapping, product usage, and financial data.
- Optimization, forecasting, and vendor economics
- Maintain an optimization pipeline with opportunity size, owner, expected savings, realized savings, and implementation status.
- Support cloud commitment, reservation, savings-plan, and renewal decisions with usage baselines, forecast scenarios, and risk analysis.
- Track strategic vendor spend and usage for major platforms such as Datadog, Cloudflare, Databricks, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, LiteLLM-related usage, OpenAI-related usage, and other tools.
- Business partnering and decision support
- Act as a finance partner to Product & Engineering teams on cloud, infrastructure, software, and AI-related technology spend.
- Translate cost and usage trends into practical recommendations for budget owners, Finance, Procurement, and leadership.
- Support selected product, customer, or unit-cost analyses where data is available and the business decision requires it.
- Help connect technology spend insights to planning, prioritization, and margin discussions without creating a separate product P&L ownership model.
- R&D investment and executive reporting support
- Support Product & Engineering planning cycles with analysis of major technology spend drivers.
- Contribute to lightweight R&D investment analysis where employee, project, usage, and financial data is available.
- Create recurring executive-ready materials covering savings, risks, forecasts, margin impact, open decisions, and recommended actions.
First-Year Success Measures
Success in the first 12 months will include:
- Automated recurring reporting for core cloud and strategic technology spend.
- Improved attribution coverage for cloud and software costs.
- A maintained optimization pipeline with expected and realized savings.
- Faster detection and investigation of cost anomalies.
- Clearer renewal and commitment recommendations for major vendors.
- Established finance business partnering cadence with Product & Engineering stakeholders.
- Targeted product, customer, or unit-cost analysis for selected decisions where data is available.
- Regular executive visibility into technology spend, risks, savings opportunities, and business impact.
The qualifications you need:
- 6–10+ years of experience in Finance, Cloud Economics, FP&A, Strategic Finance, Business Operations, Engineering Operations, Data Analytics, or a related analytical role.
- Strong analytical skills, including advanced spreadsheet modeling and experience working with large datasets.
- Hands-on experience with Python or an equivalent scripting language for data analysis, automation, and reporting.
- Strong SQL skills and experience with BI tools, APIs, cloud billing data, or recurring data pipelines.
- Experience analyzing SaaS, infrastructure, cloud, software, or usage-based cost models.
- Strong business judgment and the ability to translate technical usage data into financial insights.
- Excellent written communication and the ability to create concise executive-ready summaries.
- Proven ability to work cross-functionally with Engineering, Product, Finance, Procurement, IT, Legal, and Data stakeholders.
- Ability to operate independently in ambiguous environments and create structure where no mature process exists.
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience with cloud cost optimization, SaaS infrastructure economics, technical vendor management, AI/LLM token economics, usage-based pricing, product margins, or software gross margin.
- Experience with Cloud FinOps, cloud cost optimization, SaaS infrastructure economics, technical vendor management, AI/LLM token economics, usage-based pricing, product margins, or software gross margin.
- Experience supporting Product & Engineering organizations.
You'll own a high-visibility, cross-functional mandate with direct impact on technology spend accountability, savings realization, vendor decisions, and Product & Engineering financial decision support — and the autonomy to shape how Celonis manages one of its fastest-growing cost areas.
What Celonis can offer you:
- Pioneer Innovation: Work with the global leader in Process Mining and the Process Intelligence Graph to shape the future of AI-driven business operations.
- Ownership from Day 1: Every full-time "Celonaut" is an owner, receiving Restricted Stock Units (RSUs) and merit-based refresh grants.
- Unrivaled Family Support: Benefit from our inclusive parental leave policy—24 weeks of fully paid leave for primary carers and 12 weeks for supporting carers, available from your first day of employment.
- Work-Life Integration: Enjoy Unlimited PTO (in applicable regions) and generous PTO globally, as well as a flexible hybrid work model that balances remote focus with vibrant office collaboration.
- Continuous Growth: Elevate your skills through our 70-20-10 learning framework, mentorship programs, and access to a dedicated learning platform.
- Holistic Well-being: Prioritize your health with subsidized Wellhub memberships, mental health counseling, and dedicated "Wellness Weeks" that prioritize work/life balance.
- Drive Sustainability: Participate in annual Impact Days, where you receive paid time off to volunteer for community and environmental causes with your local office, or virtually.
- Global Inclusion & Belonging: Find community through our Inclusion Think Tank and participate in our annual Inclusion Days, ensuring every voice is heard and valued.
- Value-Driven Impact: Join a mission-led organization where our core values—Live for Customer Value, The Best Team Wins, We Own It, and Earth Is Our Future—drive every decision.
About Us:
Celonis is the trusted platform to industrialize Enterprise AI, empowering organizations to analyze, design, and operate AI-driven processes. The Celonis Platform is powered by the Celonis Context Model, which combines process data, business knowledge, and intelligence to create a living digital twin of the enterprise that AI can understand — turning AI’s operational blind spots into operational clarity. Industry-leading companies around the world trust Celonis and its global ecosystem of partners to make their AI agents, people, systems, and processes work together, achieving transformational outcomes. Celonis is headquartered in Munich, Germany, and New York City, USA, with more than 20 offices worldwide.
Get familiar with the Celonis Process Intelligence Platform by watching this video.
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At Celonis, we believe our people make us who we are and that “The Best Team Wins”. We know that the best teams are made up of people who bring different perspectives to the table. And when everyone feels included, able to speak up and knows their voice is heard - that's when creativity and innovation happen.
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