Senior Analyst: Finance System implementation

The Senior Analyst, Finance Systems Implementation acts as the functional-technical bridge between Finance, the IT organization, and external implementation partners across the company's strategic finance systems portfolio (ERP, Procurement platforms, Financial Consolidation tools, and related applications). This person is not the hands-on system builder or configurator — that work is delivered by implementation partners and IT specialists — but must understand technical implementation logic, system architecture, data flows, and integrations well enough to translate business requirements into technical specifications, challenge partner and IT proposals, anticipate downstream impacts, and ensure that finance processes are properly represented and protected throughout the project lifecycle.

Key Responsibilities

Project & Solution Interface

• Act as the primary point of contact between implementation partners, the internal IT team, and finance key users

during the design, build, testing, and deployment phases of ERP, Procurement, Consolidation, and related system

projects.

• Translate finance business requirements into functional and technical specifications that partners and IT can build

against, and translate technical constraints back into business terms for finance stakeholders.

• Review and validate solution designs, integration architecture, and data models proposed by implementation

partners, flagging risks, gaps, or misalignment with finance processes before they reach production.

• Facilitate decision-making across parties, escalating and resolving conflicts between technical feasibility and

business needs.

Technical & Data Oversight

• Maintain a working understanding of the systems' technical architecture, including modules in scope, master data

structures, and how the platform integrates with upstream and downstream systems.

• Map and validate end-to-end data flows across systems (e.g., Procurement to ERP, ERP to Consolidation, source

systems to reporting layers), ensuring data integrity, consistency, and traceability.

• Partner with IT and implementation teams on integration design (APIs, interfaces, batch/real-time flows), without

being responsible for coding or configuring integrations directly.

• Support test planning and execution (unit, integration, UAT) by defining business scenarios, validating results

against expected data outcomes, and coordinating key-user testing.

Governance & Change Management

• Ensure that documentation (process flows, data dictionaries, integration maps, functional specs) is complete,

current, and accessible to all stakeholders.

• Support change management and training efforts, helping key users understand new processes and system

behavior resulting from implementation.

• Monitor project milestones, risks, and dependencies related to the technical build, escalating issues that could

affect timeline, data quality, or financial control.

• Contribute to post-go-live assisted operation, hypercare and continuous improvement, identifying enhancement

opportunities and recurring data or integration issues.

Required Qualifications

• Education: Bachelor's degree in Finance, Accounting, Information Technology / Information Systems,

Engineering, or a related field.

• Experience: 3+ years of experience directly involved in a finance systems implementation project (ERP,

Procurement, or Financial Consolidation), covering at least one full project phase — requirements, design, build,

testing, or deployment — whether on the business/finance side, the IT side, or as part of an implementation

partner team.

• Interface experience: Prior experience acting as a liaison between business, IT, and external

implementation/consulting partners during a systems project.

• Platform-specific experience: Direct, hands-on exposure to specific platforms such as SAP, Oracle, Sage or

Microsoft Dynamics (ERP); Coupa, Ariba, or Ivalua (Procurement); or OneStream, Hyperion, or SAP BPC/Group

Reporting (Consolidation) or similar platforms.

• Consulting background: Background as a consultant with a Big 4 or systems implementation partner (e.g.,

Deloitte, PwC, EY, Accenture) or other implementation partners active in South Africa.

• GCP: Knowledge of Google Cloud Platform (GCP) — familiarity with cloud data architecture, storage, and how

finance data is hosted and processed in a cloud environment.

• Fluence / Anaplan: Hands-on or functional exposure to Fluence and/or Anaplan, particularly for planning,

consolidation, or reporting use cases.

Technical & Functional Skills

• Finance process knowledge: Solid understanding of core finance processes (record-to-report, procure-to-pay,

financial consolidation, and reporting) and how they are represented in ERP/Procurement/Consolidation systems.

• Systems literacy: Ability to read and reason about system architecture diagrams, data models, and integration

designs (APIs, interfaces, middleware) without needing to build them personally.

• Data flow fluency: Comfortable working with data flows across systems; able to trace a data element from source

to report and identify where breaks or inconsistencies occur.

• Query/analysis tools: Working knowledge of SQL or data query tools is a strong plus, sufficient to

independently validate data rather than relying entirely on IT or partners.

• Project methodology: Familiarity with agile or hybrid project delivery methods, requirements gathering,

functional specification writing, and UAT/test management.

• Integration awareness: Ability to read integration/interface specifications and assess whether a proposed

technical solution meets the business requirement.

Soft Skills & Competencies

• Bridge communication: Comfortable operating between technical (IT/partners) and business (finance key users)

audiences, adjusting language and depth accordingly.

• Analytical rigor: Able to spot inconsistencies, risks, or gaps in complex system designs and processes before

they become production issues.

• Influence without authority: Confident challenging implementation partners and IT on technical proposals when

they do not serve the business need, while maintaining collaborative relationships.

• Organization: Structured, detail-oriented, and comfortable managing multiple workstreams and stakeholders

simultaneously.

• Curiosity for technology: Genuine interest in how systems work — this role suits someone who enjoys

understanding the "plumbing" behind finance processes, not just the process itself.