SAP FICO Lead

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 otherwise travel is fine

Core Focus: 2+ full-lifecycle S/4HANA greenfield implementations.

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.
• 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.