Product Lead - SAP Functional Solutions Manager

Belonging to Air Canada is to belong to a Canadian icon, Air Canada recently voted best airline in North America. Take your career to new heights by joining our innovative and diverse team at the forefront of passenger air travel.

The person in 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 Solution Product Lead to join the ERP Product 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 incumbent bridges the gap between financial leadership, enterprise IT architects, functional product owners, and technical implementation teams to ensure SAP solutions support business goals while maintaining a scalable, compliant architecture respecting Clean Core principles.

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 complex project implementation, mentor functional product owners and advisors, and ensure finance processes deliver business value.

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

Responsibilities:

Solution Strategy and Design

• Define an overall SAP Finance solutions strategy compliant with corporate 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 fit-gap 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-driven automation into finance and controlling 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.
• Drive adoption of standard SAP capabilities wherever possible.
• Collaborate with Product Owners to educate finance stakeholders on S/4HANA finance and controlling features and AI-based capabilities.
• Ensure finance-specific AI use cases comply with corporate AI governance policies.

Implementation and Project Leadership

• Lead functional design across projects, programs, and enhancements.
• Provide solution guidance during requirements analysis, design, implementation, testing, go-live, hypercare, and stabilization phases.
• 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 finance AI adoption.

Governance, Risk, and Compliance

• Ensure compliance with National Instrument 52-109, financial reporting requirements, audit standards, and security and segregation of duties requirements.
• Understand regulatory and technology trends and stay informed to assess potential impacts; apply these learnings at Air Canada.
• Participate in review boards.
• Establish solution governance and define design standards.
• Define AI governance guardrails for finance processes, ensuring AI model outputs are verifiable, explainable, and compliant with financial rules.
• Monitor and evaluate emerging regulations and ethical frameworks concerning 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 month-end, quarter-end, and year-end financial close activities.
• Drive reduction of recurring incidents through permanent corrective measures. Recommend continuous process improvements.

Team Leadership and Mentoring

• Act as a mentor to finance and controlling advisors, functional product owners, and business analysts.
• Establish operational standards and service delivery best practices.
• Lead solution reviews of vendors and application management service partners.
• 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 10 years of SAP FICO experience.
• At least 5 years of experience as a Principal Functional Architect or Solutions Architect.
• Track record of multiple end-to-end SAP implementations.
• Experience implementing S/4HANA within a finance department.

Functional Expertise

• Solid expertise in finance and controlling, group reporting, financial close, cost accounting, and profitability analysis.
• Proven experience leading global teams and stakeholders.
• Experience working in Agile and hybrid delivery environments.

Technical Expertise

• S/4HANA Finance, Universal Journal (ACDOCA), Financial Closing Cockpit (preferred), 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 ERP 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 guidance and effective communication on technical and non-technical plans.
• Experience establishing solution governance.
• Strategic thinking and mastery of SAP Clean Core principles, design guidelines, and their application to financial processes.
• Strong management, organizational, and communication skills.
• Experience facilitating discovery and design workshops.
• Experience leading application management services and vendor governance.
• Travel or airline industry experience is an asset, but not mandatory.
• Ability to critically evaluate claims from AI vendors and distinguish between hype and ready-to-use AI capabilities for corporate finance.
• Growth mindset and proven ability to upskill in emerging technologies, including AI, automation, and data-driven decision-making.
• Demonstrate punctuality and reliability to support overall team 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 titles: 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.
• Foundations of AI and machine learning certifications (e.g., Google Cloud AI, AWS AI Practitioner, Microsoft AI Fundamentals, or equivalent).

Employment Conditions:

Candidates must be eligible to work in the country concerned at the time an offer of employment is extended and are responsible for obtaining work permits, visas, or other necessary authorizations. Proof of eligibility must be provided prior to 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 workplace that highlights the unique contribution of our employees to our company's success.

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