Job Description:

FICO Competency Lead - Associate Director.

Location: India (Pune, Bangalore, Mumbai).

Function: SAP S/4HANA Finance CoE.

Experience: 15+ years.

Qualification: Mandatory - Chartered Accountant (CA).

Reports To: Competency Head - SAP Practice.

Role Summary:

The FICO Competency Lead will own Bristlecone's SAP Finance competency, driving capability building, delivery excellence, solution thought leadership, and presales support across global S/4HANA programs.

The role requires a seasoned SAP Finance leader, strong communication skills, and hands-on expertise across core FICO, Group Reporting, Central Finance, and integration with logistics and planning modules.

As a qualified CA, the leader must bring strong financial process depth and the ability to translate business requirements into scalable SAP S/4HANA Finance solutions.

Key Responsibilities:

1. Competency Leadership and Practice Building:

- Build and scale a high-quality talent pool across FICO, Central Finance, Group Reporting, TRM, and related niche skill areas.

- Lead skilling, upskilling, and certification programs (S/4HANA Finance, CFIN, SAC Planning, Group Reporting).

- Establish best practices, reusable accelerators, templates, and solution frameworks.

2. Delivery Excellence:

- Oversee solution quality for engagements across implementation, rollout, migration, and AMS programs.

- Support project teams with complex design decisions, architecture reviews, fit-gap validation, and solution assurance.

- Act as escalation point for critical project issues and ensure adherence to SAP Activate and Bristlecone methodologies.

3. Solution Architecture:

- Drive end-to-end architecture for Finance solutions in S/4HANA (On-Prem, Private Cloud, RISE).

- Provide guidance on advanced capabilities including Universal Journal, Parallel Ledgers, Profitability Analysis, Central Finance, Group Reporting, Product Costing, Treasury, and Tax compliance.

- Integrate Finance with SD, MM, PP, EWM, TM, IBP, and external systems.

4. Presales and Solution Consulting:

- Support in presales cycles, solution walkthroughs, client workshops, RFP responses, and effort estimations.

- Present differentiated solutions leveraging BTP, AI/ML, automation, and connected planning (SAC).

- Support pre-sales teams with demos, POVs, and value engineering.

5. Thought Leadership:

- Represent Bristlecone in customer forums, SAP events, and digital finance communities.

- Create viewpoints, whitepapers, and offerings on Digital Finance, CFIN, Group Reporting, and Finance Transformation.

- Track SAP roadmap, releases, AI automation opportunities, and industry trends.

6. People Leadership:

- Mentor and develop senior consultants, solution architects, and module leads.

- Lead performance management, staffing decisions, and career pathing.

- Foster a strong culture of collaboration, delivery ownership, and customer-centricity.

Required Skills and Experience:

Must-Haves:

- 15+ years overall experience with at least 10+ years in SAP FICO/S/4HANA Finance.

- Chartered Accountant (CA) - mandatory for finance process credibility.

- Hands-on design leadership in 3+ full-cycle S/4HANA implementations.

- Strong knowledge of integration with logistics modules and external systems.

- Experience in Central Finance.

- Ability to guide complex design decisions and lead solution workshops.

- Excellent communication skills with senior client stakeholders (CFO, Controllers, Finance Directors).

Success Measures:

- Quality of Finance solution design across engagements.

- Talent development and competency maturity (certifications, niche skills).

- Presales win rate and solution differentiation.

- Customer satisfaction and referenceability.

- Delivery success across programs (design stability, defect density, audit/controls).