Director, FinOps

See yourself at Twilio

Join the team as Twilio's next Director, FinOps, leading our FinOps team and driving strategic value optimization initiatives for our R&D organization.

About the job

Twilio is the world's leading customer engagement platform empowering developers to build modern communication applications and experiences designed to be trusted, simple and smart. As R&D's Director, FinOps, you will play a critical role at the intersection of Finance, Engineering, and Procurement-driving financial transparency, operational efficiency, and strategic vendor management across Twilio's R&D organization. You'll serve as a trusted partner to Engineering leaders, Procurement, Product Operations, Finance and third-party vendors, ensuring that our infrastructure and opex investments are optimized for performance and cost and driving financial accountability and operational efficiency. You'll play a critical role in shaping a strong financial discipline across R&D.

You will lead the FinOps team supporting Twilio's Research & Development (R&D) organization, overseeing source-to-pay operations, cloud and technology cost management, data governance, vendor strategy and R&D's T&E spend. You'll be accountable for building and executing roadmaps and daily operations across 170+ vendors, multi-cloud environments (AWS, GCP, Azure), and on-prem infrastructure.

This role requires a strong bias for ownership-you'll lead with accountability, champion cost governance best practices, and proactively identify opportunities to improve how we scale spend alongside product growth. As a builder, you'll architect and evolve processes like taxonomy modernization, Opex and COGS cost allocation and tracking, plus tooling integrations (e.g., CloudZero and Backstage) that enable teams to move faster with greater financial insight.

You will thrive if you're passionate about using data to drive decisions, comfortable navigating complex cross-functional relationships, and energized by building repeatable frameworks that elevate cost accountability across the organization. This individual demonstrates a keen understanding of Opex, COGS and cloud spend optimization, combined with proven experience managing vendor contracts and negotiations. You are data-driven and skilled at delivering actionable insights and decision support that improve operational efficiency and financial outcomes. Above all, we are seeking a collaborative leader who can navigate complexity, communicate clearly to diverse stakeholders, and lead their team to enable the successful planning, launch, and scaling of value optimization strategies.

Key Responsibilities

• Vendor Contracts Management, Negotiations & Procurement Partnership




• Oversee contract lifecycle and proactively review vendor contracts based on value and renewal timelines to ensure continued alignment with business needs
• Lead key vendor negotiations for R&D tools and services, working closely with Procurement to ensure favorable terms, cost efficiency, and strategic alignment.
• Identify opportunities for tool consolidation, contract negotiation, or decommissioning underutilized services to optimize spend and efficiency
• Manage monthly vendor calls to ensure service alignment with Twilio's needs and provide feedback for product improvements.

Contracts Management: Compliance & Audit Readiness

• Lead Quarterly Compliance Reviews by assigning reviewers and tracking completion across Juno Team, TBAC Group, and Resource Role assignments.
• Ensure accountability and audit-readiness through meticulous documentation and status tracking




• Financial Operations & Forecasting




• Approve and manage monthly invoices against forecast to support accurate budget tracking
• Oversee timely and accurate purchase order processing for infrastructure spend (e.g., data centers, network)
• Manage and track our Opex and COGS spend across teams and product lines




• FinOps (Cloud Financial Management):




• Own cloud spend analysis and unit allocation processes, partnering with engineering to optimize infrastructure usage and drive cost efficiency across cloud services.




• Cross-Functional Collaboration




• Facilitate quarterly strategic planning meetings between R&D and Procurement to align on upcoming initiatives and vendor needs
• Partner with Engineering and Finance to conduct biweekly KPI reviews, analyzing CloudZero adoption, cost drivers, and utilization metrics.




• Program & Platform Management




• Own and drive the Taxonomy Modernization Program, including integration of backstage metadata with CloudZero to enhance cost transparency and reporting

Data Transparency:

• Partner with cross-functional teams to enable real-time visibility into key metrics-COGs, Opex, cloud spend, SLA credits, vendor costs and organizational health metrics-through self-serve dashboards or regular reporting.

Qualifications

Twilio values diverse experiences from all kinds of industries, and we encourage everyone who meets the required qualifications to apply. If your career is just starting or hasn't followed a traditional path, don't let that stop you from considering Twilio. We are always looking for people who will bring something new to the table!

Required:

• 8+ years experience in Financial Operations role with 4+ years in a leadership role with direct reports
• Bachelor's degree in Finance, Business, Economics or a related field
• A true servant-leader, there to help the teams do their best work
• Strong understanding of the full source-to-pay lifecycle and vendor relationship management
• Deep understanding of cloud financial models (AWS, GCP, Azure), billing structures, and usage-based pricing
• Ability to analyze spend trends, identify cost-saving opportunities, and drive unit economics improvements
• Familiarity with metadata-driven architectures and integrations (e.g., Backstage for taxonomy management)
• Proven ability to influence and collaborate with stakeholders across Engineering, Procurement, Finance, and Leadership
• Skilled in managing up and across-tailoring communication from C-suite to ICs with clarity and impact
• Ability to handle multiple competing priorities in a fast-paced environment
• Proven experience with FinOps practices and cloud cost optimization
• Deep understanding of Opex & COGs in a software/hardware/cloud environment.
• Strong ability to quickly build relationships and establish rapport with various cross-functional stakeholders and leadership
• Experience negotiating vendor contracts, managing renewals, and consolidating tools/services to maximize value while managing vendor relationships and contracts.
• Ability to communicate complex financial insights clearly to technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Outstanding written and verbal communication skills that drive executional impact at scale.
• Ability to thrive in a fast-paced, evolving, ambiguous environment, with a default to action in order to adapt quickly to changing priorities and requirements

Desired:

• MBA or relevant advanced degree preferred.
• Certification in FinOps Certified Practitioner or relevant discipline
• Experience working with SaaS product, CDPs, replatform programs
• Experience with cost visibility platforms (e.g., CloudZero, Apptio), cloud billing tools, and internal dashboards

Location

This role will be remote, but is not eligible to be hired in CA, CT, NJ, NY, PA, WA.

Travel

We prioritize connection and opportunities to build relationships with our customers and each other. For this role, approximately 5-10% travel is anticipated to help you connect in-person in a meaningful way.

What We Offer

Working at Twilio offers many benefits, including competitive pay, generous time off, ample parental and wellness leave, healthcare, a retirement savings program, and much more. Offerings vary by location.

*Please note this role is open to candidates outside of California, Colorado, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Vermont, Washington D.C., and Washington State. The information below is provided for candidates hired in those locations only.

The estimated pay ranges for this role are as follows:

• Based in Colorado, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Vermont or Washington D.C. : $138,700.00-$173,400.00XX-$XX.
• Based in New York, New Jersey, Washington State, or California (outside of the San Francisco Bay area): $146,800.00-$183,600.00XX-$XX.
• Based in the San Francisco Bay area, California: $163,100.00-$203,900.00XX-$XX

This role may be eligible to participate in Twilio's equity plan and corporate bonus plan. All roles are generally eligible for the following benefits: health care insurance, 401(k) retirement account, paid sick time, paid personal time off, paid parental leave.

The successful candidate's starting salary will be determined based on permissible, non-discriminatory factors such as skills, experience, and geographic location.

Applications for this role are intended to be accepted until 9/15/25 but may change based on business needs.