There Are More FinOps Career Paths Than You Think ft. Taylor Houck, PointFive | Ep 32

Where can a FinOps career take you? And how do the roles differ between small companies, global enterprises, and vendors?

In this special episode of FinOps in Action, I sat down with Taylor Houck, FinOps Specialist and co-creator of the Cloud Efficiency Hub at PointFive, to trace his career journey across the FinOps landscape: starting as a practitioner at a mid-sized company, scaling cost optimization at NBCUniversal, and now working on the vendor side.

Taylor shares the pros and cons of each career path, what he learned along the way, and how the FinOps role changes depending on scale, complexity, and organizational goals. Whether you’re just getting started or considering your next move, this episode is a roadmap for building a FinOps career that lasts.

 Here’s what we talked about:

• What it’s like starting a FinOps career at a small-to-midsized company

• How enterprise FinOps roles differ from smaller orgs

• The career leap: moving from practitioner to vendor

• Building the Cloud Efficiency Hub as a community resource

If you're trying to scale a FinOps practice, engage engineering teams, and reduce cloud waste—this conversation is packed with insights you can use right now.

 🎧 Subscribe for more FinOps leadership conversations → https://finopsinaction.substack.com/

 Quote of the Show:

• " The biggest thing is humility and trusting that everyone is good at their job and wants what's best for the company " - Taylor Houck

Links:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/twhouck/ 
• Website: https://www.pointfive.co/ 

Ways to Tune In:

• Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/f25a9d18-c12f-4ee4-93f5-2aa96e509b55 
• Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/finops-in-action/id1790497808 
• iHeart Radio: https://iheart.com/podcast/268443483/ 
• Podchaser: https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/finops-in-action-5958339 
• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3IpjMc3qxDXZAjic5Zq21t 
• Substack: https://finopsinaction.substack.com/ 
• Transistor: finopsinaction.com 
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@PointFiveCloudCostEfficiency