SAP Finance Director, IT Product Line Lead

Job Description

We are seeking a seasoned IT SAP Finance Director to lead the design, delivery and continuous improvement of SAP Finance solutions across our division. The ideal candidate combines deep technical SAP expertise with business acumen in commercial and manufacturing finance, proven delivery experience across multiple full SAP lifecycles (including S/4HANA), and strong leadership to manage a large, distributed team. This role will own the roadmap and governance for Finance, Digital Payments, and SAP reporting/analytics platforms (BW/HANA), and will partner closely with Finance, IT, Operations and business stakeholders to drive measurable business value.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the strategy, architecture and roadmap for SAP Finance for our Company's Animal Health Division, ensuring alignment with corporate objectives and digital transformation priorities.
• Own delivery and governance for SAP Finance implementations, upgrades and integrations (including S/4HANA), ensuring quality, on-time and on-budget execution.
• Provide leadership and direction to a multi-disciplinary team (direct and indirect reports) across development, integration, support, and analytics.
• Drive end-to-end solutions for Manufacturing Finance processes (costing, production variance, product costing, inventory accounting, production planning integration, shop-floor interfacing), ensuring systems and processes support business objectives and compliance.
• Design and implement SAP solutions for Commercial Finance including Credit & Collections, Customer Master Data, Contract Accounting (FI-CA) and Sales Finance analytics to support go-to-market strategies and commercial decision-making.
• Lead design and implementation of Digital Payments strategies and integrations (credit card processing, digital wallets, tokenization, payment gateway integrations, PCI compliance considerations) within SAP and connected ecosystems.
• Oversee SAP BW and HANA reporting/analytics strategy, ensuring robust data models, timely financial reporting, and analytics capabilities that enable actionable insights for Finance and Operations.
• Partner with Finance and business leaders to translate business requirements into scalable SAP solutions and to quantify ROI, cost-to-serve and process improvement opportunities.
• Mentor, develop and build a high-performing organization with clear succession planning and capability development.

• Represent IT Finance on senior leadership forums; communicate strategy, risks, program status and business impact to executives and board stakeholders.

• Oversee SAP BW and HANA reporting/analytics strategy, ensuring robust data models, timely financial reporting, and analytics capabilities that enable actionable insights for Finance and Operations.
• Partner with Finance and business leaders to translate business requirements into scalable SAP solutions and to quantify ROI, cost-to-serve and process improvement opportunities.
• Mentor, develop and build a high-performing organization with clear succession planning and capability development.

Required Qualifications

• 12+ years of progressive SAP Finance experience, including leadership roles with end-to-end responsibility for SAP Finance solutions.
• Minimum of 5 full lifecycle SAP implementations (design, build, test, deploy) with at least 2 full implementations on S/4HANA.
• Deep domain knowledge and documented experience in Manufacturing Finance (standard costing, actual costing, variance analysis, product costing, WIP, inventory accounting, integration with shop-floor and manufacturing execution systems).
• Strong commercial finance experience covering Credit & Collections, contract accounting and customer financial analytics.
• Hands-on experience implementing Digital Payments (credit card integrations, digital wallets, tokenization, payment gateways) within SAP or integrated ecosystems.
• Strong SAP BW and HANA experience - architecture, modeling, data migration, reporting and analytics.
• Demonstrated enterprise leadership skills with experience managing large teams (both direct and indirect reports), including matrixed teams and third-party partners.
• Strategic thinker with proven ability to develop and execute multi-year roadmaps and to align IT investments with business outcomes.

• Strong stakeholder management and communication skills; ability to influence at the executive level and build cross-functional partnerships.
• Solid understanding of security, compliance and regulatory requirements relevant to payments (PCI-DSS) and finance systems.
• Experience in a GXP environment
• Bachelor's degree in Finance, Accounting, Computer Science, Information Systems, or related field; MBA or advanced degree preferred.
• Travel - 15-20% required.
• Hybrid with 3 days in the office

Desired/Preferred Skills

• Certifications in SAP Finance modules (FI/CO), SAP S/4HANA, SAP BW or relevant solution architect certifications.
• Experience with SAP Cloud Platform, Integration Suite, CPI, or other middleware for payments and third-party integrations.
• Familiarity with treasury and receivables/payables systems, bank connectivity (EBICS, SWIFT, bank APIs).
• Experience with process improvement frameworks (Lean, Six Sigma), and modern delivery approaches (Agile/SAFe).

Behavioral Competencies

• Strategic orientation: able to balance near-term delivery needs with longer-term transformation goals.
• Business acumen: translates technical choices into measurable business value and understands finance KPIs.
• Influential leadership: builds trust, motivates teams and drives alignment across functional stakeholders.
• Problem-solving and decisiveness: navigates ambiguity, prioritizes trade-offs, escalates appropriately.
• Customer focus: champions user-centered designs and adoption through training and change management.

Required Skills:
Asset Management, Benefits Management, Business Acumen, Communication, Go-to-Market Strategies, Information Systems Management, Management Process, Management System Development, Process Improvement Projects, Product Management, Requirements Management, SAP BW/4HANA, SAP BW on HANA, SAP Cloud Platform Integration (CPI), SAP FI S/4HANA Central Finance, SAP HANA, SAP HANA Administration, SAP Implementations, SAP S/4HANA, Stakeholder Relationship Management, Strategic Planning, Succession Planning, System Designs

Preferred Skills:

Current Employees apply HERE

Current Contingent Workers apply HERE

US and Puerto Rico Residents Only:

Our company is committed to inclusion, ensuring that candidates can engage in a hiring process that exhibits their true capabilities. Please click here if you need an accommodation during the application or hiring process.

As an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer, we provide equal opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibit discrimination on the basis of race, color, age, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, protected veteran status, disability status, or other applicable legally protected characteristics.--As a federal contractor, we comply with all affirmative action requirements for protected veterans and individuals with disabilities.- For more information about personal rights under the U.S. Equal Opportunity Employment laws, visit:

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We are proud to be a company that embraces the value of bringing together, talented, and committed people with diverse experiences, perspectives, skills and backgrounds. The fastest way to breakthrough innovation is when people with diverse ideas, broad experiences, backgrounds, and skills come together in an inclusive environment. We encourage our colleagues to respectfully challenge one another's thinking and approach problems collectively.

Learn more about your rights, including under California, Colorado and other US State Acts

U.S. Hybrid Work Model

Effective September 5, 2023, employees in office-based positions in the U.S. will be working a Hybrid work consisting of three total days on-site per week, Monday - Thursday, although the specific days may vary by site or organization, with Friday designated as a remote-working day, unless business critical tasks require an on-site presence.This Hybrid work model does not apply to, and daily in-person attendance is required for, field-based positions; facility-based, manufacturing-based, or research-based positions where the work to be performed is located at a Company site; positions covered by a collective-bargaining agreement (unless the agreement provides for hybrid work); or any other position for which the Company has determined the job requirements cannot be reasonably met working remotely. Please note, this Hybrid work model guidance also does not apply to roles that have been designated as "remote".

The salary range for this role is
$169,700.00 - $267,200.00

This is the lowest to highest salary we in good faith believe we would pay for this role at the time of this posting. An employee's position within the salary range will be based on several factors including, but not limited to relevant education, qualifications, certifications, experience, skills, geographic location, government requirements, and business or organizational needs.

The successful candidate will be eligible for annual bonus and long-term incentive, if applicable.

We offer a comprehensive package of benefits.- Available benefits include medical, dental, vision healthcare and other insurance benefits (for employee and family), retirement benefits, including 401(k), paid holidays, vacation, and compassionate and sick days. More information about benefits is available at .

You can apply for this role through (or via the Workday Jobs Hub if you are a current employee). The application deadline for this position is stated on this posting.

San Francisco Residents Only: -We will consider qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records for employment in compliance with the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance

Los Angeles Residents Only: -We will consider for employment all qualified applicants, including those with criminal histories, in a manner consistent with the requirements of applicable state and local laws, including the City of Los Angeles' Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance

Search Firm Representatives Please Read Carefully-
Merck & Co., Inc., Rahway, NJ, USA, also known as Merck Sharp & Dohme LLC, Rahway, NJ, USA, does not accept unsolicited assistance from search firms for employment opportunities. All CVs / resumes submitted by search firms to any employee at our company without a valid written search agreement in place for this position will be deemed the sole property of our company. -No fee will be paid in the event a candidate is hired by our company as a result of an agency referral where no pre-existing agreement is in place. Where agency agreements are in place, introductions are position specific. Please, no phone calls or emails.-

Employee Status:
Regular

Relocation:
No relocation

VISA Sponsorship:
No

Travel Requirements:
25%

Flexible Work Arrangements:
Hybrid

Shift:
Not Indicated

Valid Driving License:
No

Hazardous Material(s):
n/a

Job Posting End Date:
02/16/2026
*A job posting is effective until 11:59:59PM on the day BEFORE -the listed job posting end date. Please ensure you apply to a job posting no later than the day BEFORE the job posting end date.

Requisition ID: R369096