Skills › concept
FinOps / cost optimization jobs: demand and pay (October 2026)
311 open data & AI postings at 193 companies mention FinOps / cost optimization, or 2.4% of all data & AI postings we track (as of October 18, 2026).
2.4%share of data & AI postings
193companies hiring
$195Kmedian pay, US (n=82)
—week over week (needs more history)
FinOps / cost optimization pay by level
| Level (from title) | Median pay | Postings with pay (n) |
|---|---|---|
| Mid (II) | — | 1 |
| Senior | $180K | 17 |
| Staff / lead | $205K | 19 |
| Principal | — | 8 |
| Manager | — | 9 |
| Director+ | — | 7 |
| Level not stated | $175K | 21 |
Median of the published range midpoint, US postings in USD, annualized. Shown only when n ≥ 10; “—” means fewer.
Roles that ask for FinOps / cost optimization
| Role | Postings | % of that role |
|---|---|---|
| AI Engineer | 89 | 2.4% |
| Data Engineer | 74 | 4.2% |
| Machine Learning Engineer | 46 | 2.3% |
| Data Architect | 32 | 8.1% |
| Data & AI leadership | 31 | 2.9% |
| Data Scientist | 12 | 0.8% |
| Analytics Engineer | 12 | 3.2% |
| Data Analyst | 7 | 0.6% |
| Database Engineer / DBA | 6 | 2.0% |
| Data Governance & Quality | 2 | 0.9% |
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How it's measured: a posting counts if its title or description matches the FinOps / cost optimization patterns in our taxonomy. Postings by the vendor itself are excluded. See the methodology.