SAP FICO Workstream Lead (Hands-on practitioner)

Role: SAP FICO Workstream Lead (Hands-on practitioner)
Our Client Location: Corona, California
Travel: Alternate week travel (3 days/week on-site every two weeks) is required.- If someone is ready to relocate that would be great other wise travel is fine
Core Focus: 2+ full-lifecycle S/4HANA greenfield implementations.
Please note- Candidates must be comfortable working in an onshore-offshore model and demonstrate flexibility with their working hours to meet the project's demands. Specifically, will need to be comfortable conducting handover calls for the offshore India team during EST evenings (post 5:00 PM EST / IST mornings). This overlap is a critical expectation for the project, so candidates must be fully aligned with this delivery model.

must have-
FICO Lead Capabilities: Please highlight your experience leading FICO implementations, managing teams, or driving design blueprints.
Controlling (CO) & CO-PA: Your depth of experience in Profitability Analysis configuration and management.
Product Costing: Your hands-on experience and depth of knowledge in Product Costing modules.

We are seeking a highly experienced SAP FICO Lead with deep expertise in S/4HANA (RISE with SAP) greenfield implementations. In this role, you will lead and execute the finance workstream for a net-new S/4HANA build, joining an in-flight programme and taking ownership of the FICO track through Realize, Deploy and Run. You will work closely with multiple SI partners, Technical, and Business teams to deliver a clean-core, fit-to-standard finance solution.

Key Responsibilities:

1. Fit-to-Standard & Solution Design
Lead Fit-to-Standard Workshops: Drive finance fit-to-standard workshops against SAP Best Practices scope items, documenting delta requirements and design decisions in the backlog.

Define the Finance Solution Design: Establish the target finance operating model - chart of accounts, ledger and currency strategy, document splitting, and organizational structure - designed to standard rather than carried over from legacy.

Clean-Core Governance: Enforce clean-core principles, steering gaps toward standard configuration, SSCUI-based extensibility, or key-user and side-by-side extensions on SAP BTP instead of custom code.

Adherence to Established Delivery Approach: Follow the SAP Activate methodology, sprint cadence, and delivery standards already established on the program.

Greenfield Delivery Leadership: Join an ongoing SAP S/4HANA greenfield implementation and take ownership of FICO build and deployment activities, ensuring continuity of execution.

Process Compliance and Execution: Leverage existing project templates, design documents, and documented procedures without introducing unnecessary changes or reinventing established approaches.

FICO Build Management: Focus on configuring, validating, and deploying the standard S/4HANA Cloud finance solution rather than replicating legacy ECC process design.

2. Core Finance Configuration & Build
Universal Journal Setup: Configure the Universal Journal (ACDOCA) from the ground up - ledgers, accounting principles, currency types, and document splitting - aligned to group reporting requirements.

Core FICO Configuration: Build and validate General Ledger, Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, Asset Accounting, Bank Accounting, and Cost/Profit Center Accounting using standard configuration (SSCUIs and Central Business Configuration).

Master Data Design: Define chart of accounts, cost element, business partner, and bank master data structures, and govern data quality standards for load and ongoing operations.

3. Data Migration & Integration
Legacy Data Load: Own the finance data migration approach using the SAP Migration Cockpit - open items, GL balances, fixed assets, and master data - including mapping, staging, and load sequencing.

Integration Design: Work with Technical Architects on finance integrations (banking, tax, payroll, and third-party systems) via standard APIs and events, avoiding point-to-point custom interfaces.

Release Management: Track and validate the impact of SAP's quarterly upgrades on finance configuration and regression test scope.

4. Testing, Cutover & Hypercare
Financial Validation: Own the reconciliation matrix between legacy and S/4HANA Cloud (verifying Trial Balances, Asset Registers, and General Ledger balances) across each data load cycle.

Manage Test Cycles: Lead unit, string, integration, and user acceptance testing for the finance workstream, plus multiple mock data loads to refine the cutover playbook.

Go-Live & Hypercare: Lead the finance cutover sequence, execute post-go-live steps, and provide expert hypercare support to business users through the first month-end close.

Profile Requirements

Experience, Education and Travel
Education: Master's degree in finance or CA, Accounting, Computer Science, or a related field. Professional accounting certifications (CPA, CMA, CA) are highly preferred.

Overall Experience: Minimum of 10 12+ years of hands-on experience in SAP FICO.

Implementation Expertise: Must have led finance tracks for at least 2 full-lifecycle SAP S/4HANA implementations, with greenfield (new implementation) experience strongly preferred.

Cloud Experience: Hands-on delivery experience with SAP S/4HANA(RISE with SAP) and SAP Activate; active SAP S/4HANA Cloud Finance certification is an advantage.
Coordinate with cross-functional teams, manage dependencies, identify risks, and ensure timely completion of FICO build and deployment milestones.
Demonstrated experience in greenfield finance design, configuration, and deployment, and in managing FICO activities within an ongoing implementation.

Location Flexibility: Offshore candidates are encouraged to apply. Onsite presence is not a mandatory requirement, provided the candidate has the required skills and experience to lead FICO implementation activities effectively.

Technical & Functional Skills
Thorough knowledge of the SAP Activate phases for a new implementation (Discover, Prepare, Explore, Realize, Deploy, Run).
Strong command of configuration tooling - Central Business Configuration, SSCUIs, and the constraints of a clean-core, fit-to-standard model.
Expertise in Asset Accounting, Business Partner (CVI) setup, and Universal Journal design for a new build.
Practical experience with the SAP Migration Cockpit for finance data objects.
Proficient with SAP implementation tools such as SAP Solution Manager (Solman), Cloud ALM, Jira, or an equivalent SPM tool.

Soft Skills
Strong leadership qualities to direct global, cross-functional project teams.
Exceptional stakeholder management skills, with the ability to convey technical and design risks to executive finance leadership.
Ability to challenge legacy process assumptions and drive business adoption of standard SAP finance processes.