Product Lead - Functional SAP Solutions Manager

Being part of Air Canada is being part of a Canadian symbol, recently voted best airline in North America. Take your career off by joining our innovative and diverse team at the forefront of passenger air transport.

The person occupying this position is part of the SAP Product Management group for Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) within the Digital Products team. Their mandate is to evolve finance and SAP products.

Air Canada is looking for a highly motivated and experienced Solutions Product Lead to join the ERP Products team.

The SAP FICO Functional Solutions Manager is responsible for the overall functional solutions strategy, design, governance, and delivery of SAP finance and controlling solutions. The person in this position acts as the link between financial management, enterprise IT architects, functional product owners, and technical implementation teams to ensure that SAP solutions support the business objectives of the company while maintaining a scalable, compliant, and Clean Core architecture.

The person leads transformation, improvement, integration, operational support, and continuous improvement program initiatives related to SAP S/4HANA Finance. The successful candidate will define solution direction, oversee the implementation of complex projects, mentor functional product owners and advisors, and ensure that finance processes deliver business value.

They must have experience in creating high-level innovative solutions for ERP in addition to being customer and data-driven, and passionate about the travel industry. The ideal candidate excels in a collaborative, highly dynamic, fast-paced environment, following a delivery model focused on continuous improvement.

Responsibilities:

Strategy and Solution Design

• Define a comprehensive SAP Finance solutions strategy aligned with company standards.
• Lead solution design for general ledger, accounts payable, accounts receivable, asset accounting, cost center accounting, profit center accounting, internal orders, product costing, profitability analysis, project management systems, treasury and cash management, taxation, and compliance.
• Ensure compliance with S/4HANA best practices and Clean Core principles.
• Perform gap-fit analyses and recommend optimal solutions.
• Design integration points with SAP and non-SAP applications.
• Review and approve functional solution designs and WRICEF requirements.
• Evaluate and integrate SAP AI capabilities (e.g. SAP Business AI, Joule, intelligent invoice matching, predictive accounting) into financial solution design.
• Define functional solution models for integrating AI-based automation into finance and control processes.

Stakeholder Engagement

• Collaborate with the functional Product Owner, process owners, and Finance managers.
• Translate business requirements into scalable SAP solutions.
• Facilitate workshops and design sessions.
• Present solution recommendations to executive committees and steering committees.
• Encourage the adoption of standard SAP capabilities wherever possible.
• Collaborate with Product Owners to train Finance stakeholders on finance and control functionalities and S/4HANA AI-based capabilities.
• Ensure that Finance-specific AI use cases comply with company AI governance policies.

Implementation and Project Leadership

• Lead functional design within projects, programs, and enhancements.
• Provide solution guidance during requirements analysis, design, implementation, testing, go-live, hypercare, and stabilization stages.
• Ensure the quality of functional specifications and expected test results.
• Support release planning and roadmap implementation.
• Review AI readiness assessments during project discovery phases: data quality, process maturity, and organizational readiness for AI adoption by Finance.

Governance, Risk, and Compliance

• Ensure compliance with Regulation 52-109, financial reporting requirements, auditing standards, and security and segregation of duties requirements.
• Understand and stay abreast of regulatory and technology trends to assess their potential impacts; apply these learnings at Air Canada.
• Participate in review committees.
• Implement solution governance and define design standards.
• Define AI governance guardrails for Finance processes, ensuring that AI model outcomes are verifiable, explainable, and compliant with financial rules.
• Monitor and evaluate new rules and ethical frameworks concerning AI that impact Finance processes and compliance in the airline industry.

Operational Support and Continuous Improvement

• Provide Level 3 functional expertise for critical incidents as needed.
• Lead root cause analysis and problem management activities.
• Support activities related to month-end, quarter-end, and year-end financial close.
• Drive the reduction of recurring incidents through permanent corrective measures. Recommend continuous process improvements.

Team Leadership and Mentorship

• Act as a mentor to finance and control advisors, functional product owners, and business analysts.
• Establish operational standards and best practices for service delivery.
• Lead reviews of vendor and application management service partner solutions.
• Collaborate in facilitating knowledge-sharing sessions on SAP Business AI, Joule, and new AI features planned in the S/4HANA Finance roadmap.

Qualifications

Education

• Bachelor's degree in finance, accounting, information systems, computer science, engineering, or a related discipline.

Experience

• At least ten years of SAP FICO experience.
• At least five years of experience as a principal functional architect or solutions architect.
• Completion of multiple end-to-end SAP implementations.
• Experience implementing S/4HANA in a finance department.

Functional Expertise

• Strong expertise in finance and controlling, group reporting, financial closing, costing, and profitability analysis.
• Proven experience in leading global teams and stakeholders.
• Experience working in Agile and hybrid delivery environments.

Technical Expertise

• S/4HANA Finance, Universal Journal (ACDOCA), Financial Closing Cockpit (preferably), SAP Treasury, SAP Analytics Cloud (SAC), Fiori, integration architecture, knowledge of SAP BTP and financial master data management.
• Understanding of SAP Business AI capabilities, including Joule, SAP AI Core, and BTP AI Foundation services.
• Knowledge of machine learning and predictive analytics concepts, and their application to Finance processes (e.g. predictive journal entries, intelligent invoice processing, cash flow forecasting).
• Knowledge of generative AI trends and responsible AI principles in the context of corporate finance and enterprise resource planning systems.
• Understanding of data quality, data governance, and master data prerequisites for successful AI adoption in SAP environments.

Soft Skills and Leadership

• Ability to provide clear direction and effective communication on technical and non-technical plans.
• Experience in establishing solution governance.
• Strategic thinking and mastery of SAP Clean Core principles, design guidelines, and their application to financial processes.
• Strong talent for management, organization, and communication.
• Experience in facilitating discovery and design workshops.
• Experience in managing application management services and vendor governance.
• Experience in the travel or airline industry is an asset, but not mandatory.
• Ability to critically evaluate AI vendor claims and distinguish between hype and ready-to-use AI capabilities for corporate finance.
• Growth-oriented mindset and proven ability to upskill in emerging technologies, including AI, automation, and data-driven decision making.
• Demonstrate punctuality and reliability to support the team's overall success in a fast-paced environment.

Desirable Certifications

• SAP Certified Application Associate or Professional certifications: S/4HANA Financial Accounting, SAP Management Accounting, SAP Certified Solution Architect, SAP Activate certification, SAP BTP certification.
• Professional designations: CPA, CMA, CGA, ACCA, PMP/SA, TOGAF, ITIL Foundation or ITIL Managing Professional.
• SAP Certified AI Associate or any other AI-related certification within the SAP Business Technology Platform.
• Certifications in fundamental AI and machine learning concepts (e.g. Google Cloud AI, AWS AI Practitioner, Microsoft AI Fundamentals or any equivalent certification).

Employment Conditions:

Candidates must be eligible to work in the country concerned at the time a job offer is extended and are responsible for obtaining work permits, visas, or other necessary authorizations. Proof of eligibility must be provided before the start date.

Language Requirements

All things being equal, preference will be given to bilingual candidates.

Diversity and Inclusion

Air Canada is strongly committed to diversity and inclusion and aims to create a healthy, accessible, and rewarding work environment that showcases the unique contribution of our employees to our company's success.

As an equal opportunity employer, we encourage diverse applications so that we can build a varied workforce representative of our customers and the communities where we live and serve.

Air Canada thanks all applicants for their interest, but only those selected for an interview will be contacted.