# Senior Finance Partner – Cloud Strategy Office

## About the Role

Rakuten’s Cloud Strategy Office is seeking a senior finance partner to support internal-cloud service providers and improve the financial management of cloud services. The role will own financial modelling, forecasting quality, service economics, cost allocation, internal pricing, and decision support.

You will partner with internal-cloud service providers, the Cloud Center of Excellence, data specialists, finance teams, senior leaders, and internal cloud buyers. Engineering specialists will support the underlying data and tooling, allowing you to focus on financial insight, constructive challenge, and decision-making.

The role will also evaluate and track the realized value of AI investments and productivity initiatives under guidelines established by the hiring manager.

## Key Responsibilities

– Serve as the senior finance partner to internal-cloud service providers.
– Own financial models, consolidation, quality controls, and decision support for budgets and forecasts.
– Lead budget-versus-actual and forecast analysis, identify key drivers, and follow up on agreed actions.
– Develop and challenge service unit economics, cost structures, allocation methods, chargeback or showback models, and internal pricing.
– Lead cost-saving and operational-efficiency initiatives.
– Analyse fixed assets, capitalization, depreciation, hardware investment and lifecycle, and vendor cost structures.
– Assess alternatives and recommend improvements that increase efficiency and customer value while maintaining service quality and reliability.
– Challenge technical and operational stakeholders using financial evidence, scenarios, and clearly defined trade-offs.
– Evaluate AI investments and productivity initiatives, track benefits and realized value, and provide follow-up reporting.
– Improve financial dashboards, simulations, automated reports, and management information for service owners and leadership.
– Communicate, document, participate in review meetings, and provide decision support in English.

## Required Skills

– At least 6 years of relevant experience in FP&A, management accounting, or finance business partnering.
– Practical familiarity with technology infrastructure or cloud cost structures.
– Hands-on experience with fixed assets, capitalization, and depreciation.
– Experience with cost allocation, chargeback or showback, or internal service pricing.
– Strong budgeting, forecasting, variance analysis, financial modelling, and management reporting skills.
– Experience analysing cost structures involving hardware, capacity, usage, or vendor spending.
– Ability to challenge operational or technical stakeholders using financial evidence and credible alternatives.
– Ability to explain concepts such as OpEx and CapEx clearly to non-finance stakeholders.
– Business-level English, demonstrated by a TOEIC score of 800 or higher or equivalent ability.

## Preferred Skills

– Experience with cloud services, internal technology products, data centres, telecommunications, SaaS, or another infrastructure-intensive business.
– Experience evaluating technology investments, productivity initiatives, or AI-related benefits and tracking realized value.
– Experience improving finance processes through dashboards, automation, or data products.
– Advanced Excel, SQL, business intelligence, or comparable financial-data skills.
– Relevant accounting, management accounting, FP&A, or FinOps certification.
– Business-level Japanese.

## Cloud Platforms & Technologies

### Cloud Environments
– Internal cloud
– Private cloud
– Public cloud

### Data, Reporting & Analytics
– Excel
– SQL
– Business intelligence
– Financial dashboards
– Automated reporting
– Financial simulations

### Technology Areas
– AI
– Hardware and data-centre infrastructure
– SaaS

## FinOps Responsibilities

– Manage cloud financial models, consolidation, budgets, forecasts, and management reporting.
– Analyse cloud cost structures across hardware, capacity, usage, depreciation, and vendor spend.
– Develop unit economics, allocation methods, chargeback or showback models, and internal service pricing.
– Lead cost optimisation and efficiency initiatives.
– Evaluate cloud-related technology investments and track realized benefits.
– Improve cloud financial dashboards, simulations, automated reports, and decision-support tools.
– Support multi-cloud strategy through financial analysis and internal service pricing.

## Why You Might Be Interested

This role offers the opportunity to shape financial strategy for Rakuten’s internal-cloud services within a newly formed, small cross-functional team. It combines FP&A, infrastructure economics, cost governance, technology investment evaluation, and FinOps activities. You will work closely with technical stakeholders, senior leaders, finance teams, and internal cloud buyers while influencing service quality, efficiency, and pricing decisions.