Senior Cloud FinOps Engineer

Peraton is seeking a skilled and motivated FinOps Cloud Engineer to support DOI USGS Permitting Modernization and Cloud Infrastructure program. You will serve as the primary financial operations authority for a multi-environment AWS cloud platform supporting 50+ software developers, 20 business analysts, and Government staff engaged in permitting modernization. You will own end-to-end cloud cost management from consumption forecasting to rightsizing recommendations and budget enforcement, following the FinOps Foundation's Inform → Optimize → Operate framework. This is a high-visibility, mission-critical role operating within a FedRAMP-compliant federal environment, directly supporting one of DOI's flagship technology modernization efforts.

Peraton supports the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) and U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in modernizing the federal permitting process through the Permitting Modernization and Cloud Infrastructure program. At the heart of this initiative is the WARP platform (Workflows, Authorizations, Registrations, and Permits), a cloud-native AWS environment purpose-built to streamline and accelerate how the federal government processes permits, authorizations, and registrations. The program leverages cutting-edge cloud infrastructure, AI-assisted decision support, and advanced data engineering to serve a large, distributed team of developers, business analysts, and Government stakeholders. Peraton's role spans the full lifecycle of cloud operations from provisioning and managing secure multi-environment AWS infrastructure and AI/ML services to delivering workforce training and certification, all within a rigorous federal compliance framework including FedRAMP, FISMA, and NIST security standards.

Work Location: Remote

What You Will Do:

• Produce monthly FinOps reports including cloud and AI consumption forecasts vs. actuals, unit economics, and Government-facing chargeback views aligned to contract deliverables.
• Configure and manage AWS Budgets, Cost Explorer, Cost Anomaly Detection, and Trusted Advisor to monitor spending, identify anomalies, and enforce financial guardrails.
• Develop and maintain quarterly rightsizing recommendation packages, identifying underutilized or over-provisioned resources and presenting actionable optimization strategies to Government stakeholders.
• Implement and enforce auto-suspend policies for non-production environments to reduce idle consumption costs, as directed by the customer.
• Manage AI/ML cost tracking for Amazon Bedrock LLM inference and token consumption, applying FinOps for AI disciplines.
• Issue Limitation of Funds notifications to the Contracting Officer at the 75% consumption threshold and provide 60-day advance warning before funding exhaustion.
• Maintain compliance with FedRAMP Moderate, FISMA, NIST SP 800-53, and all applicable DOI security and financial policies.
• Complete mandatory annual DOI IT Security Awareness Training and execute required DOI Rules of Behavior and non-disclosure agreements.

Basic Qualifications:

• U.S. Citizenship required; must have the ability to obtain and maintain a Public Trust clearance; all work must be performed within the United States.
• Must perform all work within the United States; no international work permitted under this contract.
• Bachelor’s degree and 8 years of professional experience, or a Master’s degree and 6 years of professional experience, or a PhD and 3 years of professional experience, or an Associate’s degree and 10 years of professional experience, or a high school diploma/equivalent and 12 years of professional experience.
• 5 plus years of hands-on cloud engineering experience, with at least 2 years focused on cloud financial management (FinOps).
• Demonstrated knowledge and experience with FinOps Foundation Best Practices for cloud and AI including Tokenomics, FOCUS and tagging strategies.
• Demonstrated experience managing AWS cost attribution, budgets, and financial reporting in a multi-account, multi-environment AWS Organization.
• Proven ability to build and deliver recurring cloud consumption reports and cost optimization deliverables for Government or enterprise clients.
• Advanced proficiency with AWS Cost Management tools: Cost Explorer, AWS Budgets, Cost Anomaly Detection, Trusted Advisor.
• Understanding of Amazon Bedrock or other LLM/AI token-based cost models.
• Experience with Databricks or similar data platform cost management.
• Proficiency in reporting tools and ability to present financial data clearly to technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Experience supporting U.S. federal government programs with FedRAMP, FISMA, or NIST SP 800-53 compliance requirements.
• One or more of the following certifications (or able to obtain with 90 days):
• AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate or Professional.
• AWS Certified DevOps Engineer – Professional.
• FinOps Certified Engineer
• FinOps Certified AI Value

Preferred qualifications:

• Experience with FinOps for AI/ML cost management (token metering, inference optimization).
• Familiarity with Databricks cluster cost governance and workspace administration.
• Familiarity with AWS Organizations, tag policies, and Service Control Policies (SCPs).
• Familiarity with AWS compute services: EC2, Lambda, Fargate, ECS/EKS, and associated cost drivers.
• Familiarity with ETL pipelines and medallion-architecture cost considerations.
• Experience with 3^rd party cloud financial management tools such as IBM Cloudability, Flexera.
• Prior experience on a DOI, USGS, or other Department of Interior program.
• Experience working in an Agile/Scrum delivery environment using GitLab or Atlassian (Jira/Confluence).
• Knowledge of NIST SP 800-53, NIST SP 800-37 (RMF), or NIST SP 800-64 (SDLC security).
• Experience with cloud governance frameworks in multi-AZ/multi-region AWS deployments.
• Background in data engineering or analytics platforms (Databricks, AWS Glue, or similar).
• Familiarity with federal acquisition regulations, particularly reporting and notification requirements under T&M contract vehicles.