Head of Cost Optimization, Vendor Management & Complex Deals

Key Responsibilities

• Develop and Execute Cost Optimization Strategy: Leveraging data and insights, lead the development and execution of a comprehensive cost optimization strategy spanning Cloud FinOps, Vendor Management, Software License Management, and Workforce Optimization that aligns with the organization’s goals and objectives.
• Financial Operations (FinOps): Build capabilities across expense transparency, planning/forecasting/budgeting, and cost management practices including but not limited to:
• Design, develop and execute a mature (based on recognized maturity model) FinOps strategy aligned with enterprise financial goals.
• Create financial accountability through collaboration and effective communication with software development teams, engineering, finance, and appropriate business teams. Partner with engineering leaders to embed cost awareness into the software development lifecycle.
• Incorporate forward views of migrations, cloud growth, and expense forecasts into optimizations, budget plans, commitment management and overall FinOps strategy. o Maintain cloud hygiene through tagging governance, removal of orphaned resources, and alignment of valid resources to accountable IT owners.
• Develop and lead cost optimization programs including commitment management (RIs, Savings Plans, etc.), rightsizing, workload efficiency, and architectural reviews.
• Continuously evaluate emerging tools and services to provide cost transparency and automate cost optimization.
• Protect WTW by proactively identifying cost anomalies and financial risks.
• Own the development and enforcement of guardrails, policies, and accountability frameworks for consumption and rate management.
• Establish metrics to provide a clear view into FinOps maturity and status.
• Vendor Management and Consolidation:
• Manage Tech vendor relationships, support Group Procurement and Sourcing Category Managers in the negotiation of contracts, and partner with Procurement to consolidate suppliers to achieve cost savings and improve service delivery.
• Drive multi-year deal strategies including financial modeling, total cost of ownership (TCO), and business case development.
• Establish and enforce mechanisms to hold service providers and third-party vendors accountable for meeting contractual, financial, and operational commitments. o Implement strategies to enhance supplier performance, ensuring high-quality service and cost efficiency.
• Align vendor management with long-term business strategy while protecting WTW from overdependence or lock-in.
• Software License Management:
• Optimize software license usage and costs.
• Ensure compliance and maximize value from software investments.
• Leverage tools and automation to improve visibility into license consumption and identify opportunities for cost savings through consolidation, re-harvesting, or alternative licensing models.
• Integrate software license strategy with cloud presence and FinOps practices, ensuring license portability, cost efficiency, and alignment with modern deployment models.

Qualification & Requirements

Education

•  Bachelor’s degree in Technology, Business Administration, Finance, or a related field. Master’s degree strongly preferred.

Experience

• Minimum of 15 years of leadership experience in technology, with a combination of experience both driving cloud/ IT cost optimization at scale, and leading non-financial technical teams.
• Minimum of 4 years leading a FinOps or similar organization encompassing establishing or scaling FinOps practices, anomaly management, chargeback/showback models, and balancing rate/usage optimization.
• Minimum of 10 years working with cloud hosting and managed service vendors, including deep understanding of the how and why behind service providers’ pricing and commitment models.
• Strong background in TCO modeling, budgeting, forecasting, and cost analysis
• Hands-on experience onboarding and managing vendors in-life.
• Experience managing large ($300M+) budgets and ($100M+) contracts
• Experience working both in a large enterprise IT organization and a technology service provider strongly preferred.

Skills

• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, excellent communication, collaboration and negotiation abilities
• Strong understanding of consumption-based pricing models, enterprise licensing agreements, and volume purchasing.
• Proficiency with financial management and cloud cost management tools (e.g., CloudHealth, Apptio, Cloudability, Azure Cost Management). Ability to interpret usage reports and billing data.
• Experience establishing tagging strategies to facilitate cost transparency.
• Robust understanding of cloud models (IaaS, PaaS, SaaS) and services (compute, storage, networking, etc.).
• Comfort with ambiguity and ability to drive clarity in complex environments

Leadership

• Proven leadership experience with the ability to inspire and motivate teams to achieve cost-saving goals.
• Experience leading cross-functional initiatives that span Finance, Technology, and Procurement

Note: Employment-based non-immigrant visa sponsorship and/or assistance is not offered for this specific job opportunity (USA).

Benefits

WTW provides a competitive benefit package which includes the following (eligibility requirements apply):

• Health and Welfare Benefits: Medical (including prescription coverage), Dental, Vision, Health Savings Account, Commuter Account, Health Care and Dependent Care Flexible Spending Accounts, Group Accident, Group Critical Illness, Life Insurance, AD&D, Group Legal, Identify Theft Protection, Wellbeing Program and Work/Life Resources (including Employee Assistance Program)
• Leave Benefits: Paid Holidays, Annual Paid Time Off (includes paid state/local paid leave where required), Short-Term Disability, Long-Term Disability, Other Leaves (e.g., Bereavement, FMLA, ADA, Jury Duty, Military Leave, and Parental and Adoption Leave), Paid Time Off (Washington State only)
• Retirement Benefits: Contributory Pension Plan and Savings Plan (401k). All Level 38 and more senior roles may also be eligible for non-qualified Deferred Compensation and Deferred Savings Plans

Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance and Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.