How to Size and Structure FinOps Teams for Different Maturity Stages

The journey to FinOps maturity is a transformative process for many (if not all) organizations adopting cloud financial management practices. As organizations progress through the Crawl, Walk, and Run stages of FinOps maturity, the size and structure of each FinOps team should evolve accordingly. In this blog post, I'll explore the ideal team size, roles, and activities at each stage of maturity, ensuring the team is equipped to optimize the value of its cloud investments.

Understanding FinOps Maturity Stages

Before diving into team structures, let’s briefly define the three stages of FinOps maturity:

1. Crawl: Organizations are beginning their FinOps journey, focusing on understanding cloud costs and establishing basic visibility and accountability.

2. Walk: Teams have gained confidence in cloud cost management, implementing processes for forecasting, optimization, and collaboration.

3. Run: Organizations operate at full FinOps maturity, embedding cost optimization into the culture and automating processes to scale.

Stage 1: Crawl

At the Crawl stage, the focus is on building foundational FinOps practices. Organizations are just beginning to establish visibility into cloud spend and create basic accountability among stakeholders.

Team Size:

1-3 team members (depending on organization size and cloud spend complexity).

Key Roles:

1. FinOps Practitioner/Analyst: A generalist responsible for managing cloud cost reports, analyzing spending, and beginning to build relationships with engineering and financial teams.

2. Cloud Financial Analyst (optional): If resources allow, this role can focus on cost allocation and tagging.

Activities:

• Establish tagging strategies for cloud resources.

• Set up basic cost allocation and reporting tools (e.g., cloud provider cost management tools like AWS Cost Explorer, Azure Cost Management, or GCP Billing).

• Begin educating teams about cloud cost accountability.

• Create initial dashboards/reports to provide visibility into cloud spend.

Stage 2: Walk

As your organization matures, the Walk stage focuses on collaboration between teams, deeper cost optimization efforts, and forecasting cloud spend.

Team Size:

3-6 team members, with more defined roles emerging.

Key Roles: 1. FinOps Lead/Manager: Oversees the FinOps program, sets strategy, and ensures collaboration across engineering, finance, and operations teams. 2. Cloud Financial Analyst: Focuses on cost analysis, forecasting, and cost allocation. 3. Cloud Operations Engineer: Supports tagging enforcement, resource utilization monitoring, and implementing cost optimization measures. 4. Procurement Specialist (optional): Handles cloud vendor negotiations and contract management.

Activities:

• Begin implementing chargeback/showback models to hold teams accountable for cloud spend.

• Introduce forecasting processes to predict future cloud costs.

• Collaborate with product and engineering teams to identify cost-saving opportunities (e.g. reserved instances, savings plans, autoscaling policies).

• Conduct regular cloud spend reviews with stakeholders.

• Ensure tagging compliance and governance policies are followed.

Stage 3: Run

At the Run stage, FinOps practices are fully embedded in the organization’s culture. Teams focus on automation, scaling, and driving innovation through optimized cloud spending.

Team Size:

6+ team members, depending on organizational size and cloud complexity.

Key Roles:

1. FinOps Director/Program Manager: Leads the FinOps program at an executive level, driving strategy and innovation.

2. FinOps Analysts: Multiple analysts specializing in cost optimization, forecasting, and reporting.

3. Cloud Engineers: Dedicated engineers who implement automation for cost management (e.g. automated resource cleanups, scaling policies).

4. Data Scientist (optional): Builds predictive models for advanced forecasting and cost optimization.

5. Procurement and Vendor Manager: Manages relationships with cloud providers, negotiates contracts, and monitors usage commitments.

6. Product Owner (FinOps Tooling): Manages FinOps tools and ensures their effective use across teams.

Activities:

• Automate cost optimization processes (e.g. rightsizing instances, shutting down unused resources).

• Scale cost reporting and forecasting to support complex, multi-cloud environments.

• Drive cultural adoption of FinOps across all teams, ensuring cost becomes a shared responsibility.

• Conduct regular training sessions for teams to continuously improve FinOps practices.

• Incorporate advanced metrics, such as unit economics, to optimize spend in relation to business outcomes.

Summary Table: FinOps Team Growth

Stage	Team Size	Key Roles	Focus Areas
Crawl	1-3 Members	FinOps Practitioner, Cloud Financial Analyst	Visibility, tagging, cost allocation, basic reporting
Walk	3-6 Members	FinOps Lead, Cloud Financial Analyst, Cloud Operations Engineer, Procurement Specialist (optional)	Forecasting, chargeback, showback, collaboration, cost optimization efforts
Run	6+ Members	FinOps Director, FinOps Analysts, Cloud Engineers, Procurement Manager, Data Scientist (optional)	Automation, scaling, advanced forecasting, unit economics, cultural adoption of FinOps practices

Conclusion

As your organization progresses through the Crawl, Walk, and Run stages of FinOps maturity, your team’s size and structure should adapt to meet growing demands. Starting with a small but focused team in the Crawl phase, you’ll gradually expand roles and responsibilities as you move into the Walk and Run stages, emphasizing collaboration, automation, and innovation. By thoughtfully scaling your FinOps team and defining clear roles and objectives, you can ensure your organization maximizes the value of its cloud investments while maintaining financial accountability.

Additional Resources

FinOps Foundation – Explore the overall FinOps framework and best practices. State of FinOps – Gain insights into how organizations are adopting FinOps globally and ensure you filter on specific years to better understand trends. AWS Cost Management – Learn about AWS tools for cloud cost visibility. Azure Cost Management – Explore cost management tools for Azure.

Google Cloud Billing – Understand GCP billing practices.

Let me know how your FinOps journey is progressing in the comments below! 🚀