Senior SAP Finance Functional Expert

Job’s mission

Digital and Information Technology (DIT) department has worldwide responsibility for all IT processes, solutions and services. The aim is to further enhance Santen functions by delivering common solutions and services.

Global business solutions (GBS) covers the management of business relationships and the design, development and implementation of common solutions by following a consistent methodology.

The SAP Senior Functional Expert (SFE) reports to the SAP Centre of Excellence (CoE) Head. He/she is responsible for building and delivering expertise and support related to a specific application / functional domain. These are typically related to finance, supply chain, quality, manufacturing, processes. The SFE is responsible for the design and built of IT Solutions taking into account the lifecycle management of specific applications that are in scope of the Centre of Excellence and has a key role in projects related to the implementation and changing of those solutions. In managing the lifecycle the SFE balances costs effectiveness with the functional and technical fit of the solution. The SFE actively seeks for improvement opportunities in business processes and IT enablement.

The SFE has generic knowledge about and experience with all per CoE relevant topics but is specialized in one functional domain e.g. finance or supply chain.

Within any activity the SFE will need to manage project-related items within the allocated tasks to his/her area of expertise in accordance with our delivery standards. Within the area of expertise a SFE may also be allocated and expected to manage project management tasks on the assigned activities.

The Senior SAP Functional Expert is expected to:

• Understand and interpret financial information to ensure value driven decision are made and the impact to the organisation clearly articulated
• Understand the end to end service not just the technical or functional components and business impact from a user’s perspective
• Own the technical architecture and delivery of the assigned domain E.g. Supply Chain, Finance, Quality, Manufacturing, etc
• Develop win-win, collaborative relations that add clear value to all internal and external stakeholders
• Actively embrace and promote change, especially from a business perspective
• Lead by example and actively engage and motivate individuals around them

Key Responsibilities & Accountabilities

Process Excellence

• Act as “technical” owner and guardian of the Global template for the assigned domain
• Grow maturity of application management team and broader DIT departments providing insight into the technical setup of the template
• Ensure execution of governance decision and planned implementation by AMS and other suppliers
• Build and promote a knowledge repository in close collaboration with other (Senior) Functional Experts

Solution Optimisation

• Solution Architecture of the whole domain (robust, scalable and supportable), customer centric and across the product life cycle, using best practices and innovation, stick to standard and avoid high customization if no business rationale exists (consider options vs effort/benefits/long term impacts)
• Provides subject matter expertise, and guidance on solution standards in the assigned SAP domain.
• Shape the long-term technical application strategy, roadmap, innovations/update in line with the Lead Architect
• Raise technology related scope change requests aligned with overall governance and roadmap
• Actively seek opportunities for improvement and innovation related to potential new IT solutions to support business and IT requirements

Delivery Capability

• Deliver on promise, manage (project) changes and technical deployment with clear communication on progress and challenges (incl. testing)
• Signal and judge appropriateness of new IT developments, systems, applications and processes and provide advice on potential improvement opportunities and the (dis) advantages of implementation.
• Perform the analyses and impact study in case of new requirements related to the SAP assigned domain, coming from new initiatives, projects or change requests.
• Take on an active role in the definition, design, construction, testing and implementation of SAP assigned domain
• Take responsibility for SAP assigned domain and promote the use of the solution and guard the solution integrity
• Provides knowledge to others during design work to ensure any complexities needing incorporated into the future build or data mappings are not overlooked.
• Coordinate and provide (end user) training related to new or changed application features that are supported by SAP CoE
• Contribute to and ensure a smooth and planned handover of assigned SAP domain solutions to Global Operations (AMS)
• Drive SolMan change request, coordinate approvals, validation, testing, and cutover (change coordination role).
• Update lifecycle documentation and ensure approval of SLDC documents

Application Health

• Provide proactive oversight and support on operational issues, root cause analysis, propose potential solutions and support the implementation of improvements to assigned SAP domain (L3).
• Monitor system performance, availability, and reliability aspects when implementing technical solutions

Business Engagement

• Translation of business demands, support requirement analysis to ensure cost effective and fit for purpose solution (gaps as-is to-be; documentations; impact on existing processes, required budget, technology required)
• Actively support the business partners, portfolio manager and other experts in verifying the impact and value of IT changes to business processes and vice versa
• Partner with PMO and portfolio manager in managing governance bodies support of the process leads (e.g. CAB, PGB)
• Steer the key user network, support key user onboarding in alignment with process lead

Requirements

EDUCATION

• SAP certification in the applicable expertise area
• Bachelor or Masters degree in IT or Business
• PMP, Prince2 or equivalent certification

EXPERIENCE

• A minimum of 7 years’ experience managing SAP global applications with strong track record of design and architecting across the relevant solutions whether deployed on-premises or in public or private cloud
• Partnership with demanding business, project, operation and maintenance stakeholders to enable business value achievement and manage portfolio of solution demands.
• Preferably you have done a similar role in SAP CoE and pharma environment.