Manager, Finance Technologies

The Manager SAP S4 FICO member of the FICO IT team, reporting to the Director IT , Corporate functions.

The FICO IT  team is part of LS&Co’s IT Corporate functions organization and represents finance requirements/interests on projects involving the company’s ERP system. The team is responsible primarily for the implementation of S4 HANA in markets not already using S4. For markets already live on S4/ECC, the team supports the identification and implementation of new system functionality to improve existing global or regional finance business operations; and supports new IT projects that impact finance business processes.

ABOUT THE JOB (RESPONSIBILITIES):

• Candidate with good functional knowledge in SAP FICO and who can exploit the best use of these modules in the most effective, efficient way.  FICO Manager will handle a team which will focus on the delivery of projects within their scope of area. The overall responsibilities will include
• Responsible for the design Build, solutioning, troubleshooting Pros vs Cons analysis, “Hands-On“ in configuration – as per the Global design for LSCO
• Enhance, maintain, and support the design built within the framework of the Global design for LSCO
• Collaborate with key stakeholders across finance, IT, and business units to gather requirements, prioritize initiatives, and ensure alignment of SAP FICO with organizational goals.
• Lead change management initiatives related to SAP FICO implementations, upgrades, and process improvements.
• Communicate effectively with senior management to provide updates, escalate issues, and seek approvals for major decisions.
• Managing a medium sized team – responsible for their deliverables in their respective areas and also be responsible for their growth within the team
• Collaborate with the FICO Enterprise Business and other cross functional/technical teams to deliver projects according to scope, benefits and timeline, Participate in business process discussions and conversations.
• Work with third party service providers (i.e. banks, representatives of third-party applications used in payables processes) throughout project phases, including but not limited to; conducting periodic status or working session meetings, coordinating system integrated testing (SIT) phases, coordinating ramp up/down activities for Go-Live.
• Develop business process documentation (process flows, business process procedures, etc)
• Actively participate in or lead workshops and presentations to validate business processes, solutions and change impacts with the end user community. Help develop workshop/presentation plan and content in advance.
• Aid in the design of reports, forms, interfaces, conversions, enhancements, and user authorizations including the review of functional specification documents
• Participate in the system testing phase to ensure that the systems built meets the business requirements, including development of test scenarios, validation of test scripts and support of user acceptance testing.
• Identify and document issues/errors and drive successful resolution of issues through all project phases (design, testing, and stabilization). Escalate issues when appropriate.
• Support data conversion activities (strategy, old-to-new data field mappings, data cleansing, validation, etc)
• Assist in formal and informal change management and business cutover activities
• Assist in the development of training approach and materials. Lead live training sessions, if required.
• Provide first line of support during implementation stabilization periods and hyper care

ABOUT YOU (QUALIFICATIONS):

Education:

• Bachelor’s Degree in Accounting or Finance; or equivalent experience.  Advanced degree preferred.
• Chartered Accountant is a plus.

Skill & Experience: 

SAP FICO

• General Ledger – Must have  – Expert level + Hands on

• New GL functionalities - Parallel ledger/Global Chart of accounts/Country specific Chart of accounts/Experience in Multiple currency set ups/Multi GAAP requirements
• Tax set up/ reporting / Account determination/With holding tax set up
• Financial Closing
• Working with Interfaces (ALE/IDOC/PI-PO etc )

• Controlling and Profitability Analysis –Must have – Expert +Hands on working
  • Solid understanding of master data hierarchies and their impacts on business processes and org structures.
• Accounts Receivable and Payable - Required – Expert level + Hands on

• Strong experience in Integration with the other modules  - PTP/OTC
• Intercompany accounting / reconciliation
• Payment methods, Payment files

• Asset accounting / Banking - – Required – Expert + Hands on working
• SAP FICO Certification – Required. Certification specific to S4 – preferred
• ABAP-Basic understanding of ABAP/Debugging / read codes etc – Nice to have

PEOPLE MANAGEMENT

• Demonstrated ability to manage the workload for the whole team and assign priorities.
• Stakeholder management skills, with a sense of when to escalate vs when to manage the priority within team.
• Be responsible for the bi-yearly Performance Reviews for the team and upskilling guidelines to direct reports.
• Experience, Ability and propensity to resolve conflicts.

EXPERIENCE

Relevant SAP FI/CO experience of 15+ years in

• Implementation/Global template roll out of FICO module in a large / multi country set up in SAP ECC/S4
• Production support/enhancements/projects with the ability to scale up and work in implementations
• Experience in working along side globally located IT teams
• Experience in retail space/understanding of retail industry will be an advantage
• Managing small to medium size teams for a project
• Prior project experience is required, including participation in design, testing and implementation of new system functionality/system process improvements. Prior experience with data conversion and training is preferred.
• Application software skills are required, including presentation, spreadsheet, and word processing applications (preferably MS PowerPoint, Excel, Word)
• Language Proficiency in English
• Win Shuttle user/design experience is preferred.
• Experience with reporting/dashboard tools (BI HANA, Tableau, etc.) is strongly preferred
• Familiarity with Jira/Confluence or similar tool is a plus.

Other Skills and Abilities:

• Ability to work in a fast paced, hands-on environment. Embraces and adapts quickly to changes
• Ability to quickly learn organizational structure, business strategies and processes
• Strong analytical skills. Empowered to make decisions on functional, process, or operational changes including when information is incomplete but sufficient. Challenges the status quo
• A Strong team lead . Enjoys working with multiple levels of the organization and across functions or domains
• Strong oral and written communication skills
• Ability to raise relevant issues, drive for solution/alignment, and make decisions under time constraints
• Experience with conducting presentations and training
• Successfully manages competing priorities to ensure continuous progress is made and critical deadlines are met
• Capable of clearly documenting business and functional requirements for current/future state processes
• Ability to represent change within the organization
• Ability to resolve minor conflicts/issues using different tactics prior to escalation
• Willingness to work a flexible schedule on occasion to collaborate with team members in different time zones/countries and/or meet critical project deadlines