Junior Cloud Strategy & Cost Consultant (m/w/d)

Technology spend is growing in complexity - across cloud, AI, SaaS, and on-prem. Organizations need clarity on where their money goes, and how to optimise it. As a Junior Cloud Strategy & Cost Consultant at Cortex Reply, you'll work with C-suite stakeholders, engineering teams, and finance leaders to bring financial accountability and transparency to technology investments. We operate at the forefront of FinOps: shaping industry standards with the FinOps Foundation and expanding the discipline into areas like AI cost management and sustainability.

Your Tasks Client Engagements & Operating Models

• Lead FinOps engagements optimising cloud, AI, SaaS, and on-prem spending
• Analyse complex environments (IaaS, PaaS, AI workloads) to identify optimisation potential
• Design FinOps operating models tailored to each client's structure and maturity

Transparency & Accountability

• Architect cost allocation strategies, tagging standards, and showback/chargeback models
• Develop management reporting — from requirements and mockups to executive dashboards

Optimisation & Value Delivery

• Drive usage and rate optimisation campaigns: prioritise recommendations, enable account owners, track realised savings
• Evaluate and select FinOps tools through PoCs and vendor assessments

Stakeholder Enablement

• Coach product owners, engineering leads, and finance teams on cost-aware decision-making
• Deliver workshops that embed FinOps practices into daily operations
• Establish communities of practice and share benchmarks across the organisation

Thought Leadership

• Develop FinOps blueprints and playbooks for internal and external use
• Contribute trainings, talks, and publications that position the team as industry experts
• Expand offerings into FinOps for AI, FinOps for SaaS, and sustainability tracking

What We Offer

• Competitive compensation

• Professional development through challenging projects and training opportunities

• A diverse, international team with a strong knowledge-sharing culture

• Opportunities for thought leadership: conferences, publications, certifications

• A collaborative, supportive team environment

• Degree in Data Analytics, Finance, Business Administration, Informatics, IT Management, or related field

• Proficiency in English and German (min. B2 each)

• Residence in Germany with work eligibility

• Willingness to travel occasionally

• Strong analytical skills with focus on financial data interpretation

• Excellent communication and presentation skills for technical and non-technical audiences

• Understanding of agile frameworks (Scrum, SAFe, Kanban) and consulting/project management experience

• Initial experience with data analysis/visualisation tools (e.g. BigQuery, Power BI, Tableau)

• Initial experience with at least one major cloud provider (AWS, Azure, or GCP)

• Proactive, self-organised mindset with intrinsic motivation for sustainable technology solutions

Nice to Have

• Cloud certifications (AWS, GCP, Azure) or FinOps Practitioner certification
• Familiarity with cloud cost management tools (e.g. Cloudability, Flexera, Kubecost, Infracost)
• Exposure to SaaS management, on-prem licence optimisation, or AI cost management
• Interest in community building, public speaking, or content creation

Here you can find more information about Cortex Reply and how we process your data.