Ola Darlington
Dallas,TX
Summary
Results-oriented Multi-Cloud Certified Cloud FinOps Engineer with a proven track record of driving success and exceeding targets through strategic Cloud financial management and cross-functional collaboration. Expertise in Cloud solutions management, cost optimization and financial reporting.
Overview
6
6
years of professional experience
1
1
Certification
Work History
CLOUD FINOPS ENGINEER
GAMA-1 TECHNOLOGIES
12.2023 - Current
- Leads a cross-functional teams to implement and optimize cloud financial management strategies across multiple cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP), resulting in a 28% reduction in cloud infrastructure costs within the first 6 months.
- Developed and implemented cloud cost allocation models using native cloud billing tools and third-party solutions (e.g., Cloudability, CloudCheckr), improving financial visibility and accountability across 20+ departments.
- Streamlined cloud cost optimization processes, including rightsizing, reserved instance management, and auto-scaling strategies, leading to a 15% improvement in cost efficiency.
- Collaborates with engineering, finance, and procurement teams to establish budget forecasting, financial reporting, and cost governance policies, enabling accurate monthly reporting and forecasting that reduced financial discrepancies by 30%.
- Lead monthly cloud cost reviews with senior leadership and finance teams, presenting actionable insights on cost trends, optimization opportunities, and budget compliance.
- Built automated dashboards using cloud-native tool (AWS QuickSight) to deliver real-time cost visibility and decision-making for stakeholders at all levels.
AWS FINOPS DELIVERY LEAD
CRAYON SOFTWARE EXPERTS LLC
01.2023 - 12.2023
- Championed cloud cost awareness initiatives across engineering teams, providing training and workshops on cost optimization best practices and cloud-native tools, leading to a average reduction in clients cloud cost variance by 25% .
- Implemented governance controls and cost management policies to ensure compliance with corporate financial policies, reducing risk and ensuring more predictable cloud spend.
- Worked with vendors to negotiate cloud pricing agreements, securing significant savings and improving the overall financial health of the cloud environment of various organizations in diverse industries and line of businesses .
- Managed cloud financial operations for SME's and Organizations with multi-million dollar cloud budgets, consistently optimizing cloud spend while meeting client's business needs, contributing to the successful scaling of cloud resources without exceeding budget.
- Developed and documented cloud financial best practices and policies for cloud cost management, ensuring continuous improvement and adherence to cost-effective operational standards.
FINOPS ANALYST/CONSULTANT
CAPITAL GROUP ( CONTRACT VIA LTI MINDTREE)
12.2021 - 12.2022
- Supported the development of cloud financial reporting frameworks, enabling client to track and analyze cloud spend against set budgets and KPIs, enhancing overall cloud financial management.
- Collaborated with DevOps and engineering teams to align cloud infrastructure choices with business priorities, balancing performance requirements and cost optimization strategies.
- Analyzed historical cloud usage data and provided recommendations for reducing redundant services and optimizing resource allocation, contributing to over 30% reduction in unnecessary cloud resources.
- Optimized cloud architecture for cost efficiency by recommending changes such as serverless architectures, containerization, and multi-cloud strategies, enabling client to reduce their monthly cloud expenditures through cost avoidance.
- Implemented cloud chargeback and showback models, aligning costs with specific departments or projects or applications, improving financial transparency, and driving accountability in cloud spending and cost ownership.
CLOUD STRATEGY LEAD
KINGZ INTERNATIONAL LOGISTICS
02.2019 - 11.2021
- Led the development and execution of cloud strategy for a global enterprise, aligning cloud adoption with business objectives and ensuring scalability, security, and cost optimization across multi-cloud environments (AWS, Azure).
- Drove the transition to cloud-native architectures, leading the migration of legacy systems to cloud-based solutions, resulting in over 30% reduction in infrastructure costs and enhanced system performance.
- Collaborated with C-suite executives and cross-functional teams to define and execute a long-term cloud strategy, ensuring alignment with organizational goals, business growth, and digital transformation initiatives.
- Spearheaded cloud vendor selection and negotiation processes, establishing key partnerships with AWS and Microsoft, to secure favorable pricing models and contractual terms, leading to cost savings of over 20%.
- Developed comprehensive cloud training and enablement programs to ensure internal teams were equipped with the skills needed for cloud adoption, leading to measurable reduction in Cloud-related operational errors.
Education
Associate of Science - Data Analytics
University of Benin
Nigeria 01.
Skills
Cost Management & Optimization Tools:
- AWS Cost Explorer, Azure Cost Management, GCP Billing
- , CloudCheckr, CloudBolt, Apptio,Flexera
Cloud Financial Management:
- Billing and Usage Reporting, Cost Allocation, Budgeting & Forecasting, Multi-cloud and hybrid-cloud cost management
Data Analytics & Reporting:
- SQL, Excel, Power BI, QuickSight
Cloud Cost Models:
- Chargeback and Showback models, Cost Allocation Tags, Labels, etc
- Managing instance lifecycles and reducing wastage
- Financial Controls & Compliance:
- Cross-Functional Collaboration
- Communication
Affiliations
- THE FINOPS FOUNDATION
Certification
AWS certified solutions architect(Associate)
AWS certified solutions architect(Professional)
AWS Cloud Economics Accredited.
MICROSOFT AZURE AZ-900 certified
FINOPS certified Practitioner
FINOPS certified Engineer
Timeline
CLOUD FINOPS ENGINEER
GAMA-1 TECHNOLOGIES
12.2023 - Current
AWS FINOPS DELIVERY LEAD
CRAYON SOFTWARE EXPERTS LLC
01.2023 - 12.2023
FINOPS ANALYST/CONSULTANT
CAPITAL GROUP ( CONTRACT VIA LTI MINDTREE)
12.2021 - 12.2022
CLOUD STRATEGY LEAD
KINGZ INTERNATIONAL LOGISTICS
02.2019 - 11.2021
Associate of Science - Data Analytics
University of Benin
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