Cost Optimisation Manager

Salary: Competitive per annum

Hours: Full Time, 37.5 hours

Location: VHQ, Crawley, hybrid 3 days a week in the office

Contract: Permanent

Closing Date: 3rd July 2025

At Virgin Atlantic Airways, we believe that everyone can take on the world, and it's our vision to become the most loved travel company. As we embark on this next exciting stage of our journey, we’re harnessing our spirit of entrepreneurship and innovation to challenge the status quo.

In a nutshell

Virgin Atlantic is seeking a commercially minded and analytically driven Cost Optimisation Manager to lead the financial oversight and optimisation of our Technology’s operational and capital expenditure. Based within the Technology Management Office, this role is responsible for managing and reporting on the Technology Opex and Capex (BAU) budgets, ensuring cost transparency across services, products, and projects.

The successful candidate will play a key role in aligning financial planning with strategic technology goals, supporting cost reduction initiatives, and delivering insightful analysis to inform decision-making. Additionally, the role will lead the cloud financial operations (FinOps) process and develop a scalable cost framework to support the evolving needs of the business.

Day to day

Some of your key responsibilities as a Cost Optimisation Manager will be:

• Ensure full visibility of the Technology Opex and Capex (BAU) budgets by developing and maintaining a comprehensive 3-year cost forecast aligned with licensing requirements, growth projections, and transformation plans.
• Work closely with Finance and Contract Managers to ensure year-end delivery of budgets within +/-10% of forecasts
• Communicate IT cost structures and financial implications of services and products and ensure transparency of cost drivers for internal stakeholder.
• Lead a structured cost reduction programme in collaboration with Finance by setting clear cost-saving targets and tracking performance against them to ensure measurable outcomes.
• Identify opportunities for efficiency and value across Technology spend.
• Own and manage the cloud FinOps reporting tools for Technology, Data, and Digital, while monitoring and reporting on cloud expenditure across all environments to ensure cost visibility and control.
• Collaborate with Architecture, Infrastructure, Data, Digital and other Technology teams to forecast and manage cloud growth

About you

We’re looking for candidates with a sharp eye for detail, a strong commercial mindset, and a naturally analytical approach to problem-solving. We’d also love for you to demonstrate the following:

• A solid understanding of financial forecasting, budgeting, and cost control, ideally within a technology or digital environment.
• Either an ITIL qualification or hands-on experience applying FinOps principles to manage technology costs and drive financial efficiency.
• A degree or equivalent practical experience in Finance, IT, Business, or a related field.
• Experience contributing to or leading technology transformation programmes, with a focus on forecasting and managing associated costs.
• Confidence using Excel for financial modelling, preferably with familiarity in planning tools and Power BI dashboards to communicate insights clearly. Training or self-taught skills are equally valued.
• Strong stakeholder engagement and influencing skills, with the ability to build trusted relationships and communicate financial insights in a clear, collaborative, and inclusive way.

If this sounds like you, we would love to hear from you!

Our recipe for leadership

At Virgin Atlantic, our leaders empower teams to thrive through collaboration, innovation, and excellence. Explore our Leadership Recipe and discover the 20 core ingredients that define what it means to lead with us, driving our mission to be the most loved travel company and achieve sustainable profit. Want to learn more? Click here

Be yourself

Our customers come from all walks of life and so do our colleagues. That’s why we’re proud to be an equal opportunity employer and actively encourage applications from all backgrounds. At Virgin Atlantic, we believe everyone can take on the world - no matter your age, gender, gender identity, gender expression, ethnicity, sexual orientation, disabilities, religion, or beliefs. We celebrate difference and everything that makes our colleagues unique by upholding an inclusive environment in which we can all thrive. So that everyone at Virgin Atlantic can be themselves and know they belong.

To make your journey with us accessible and individual to you, we encourage you to let us know if you’d like a little extra help with your application, or if you have any individual requirements at any stage along your recruitment journey. We are here to support you, so please reach out to our team, ([email protected]) feeling confident that we’ve got your individual considerations covered.