Finance Functional Lead

Cognizant; Coventry; On-site; GBP 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

Cognizant is seeking an experienced Finance Functional Lead to drive the design, delivery and optimisation of finance processes within a large-scale SAP/ERP environment.

You will bridge the finance and technical delivery teams, translating requirements into robust system solutions and ensuring alignment with UK Water/Utilities sector regulations and best practice.

Qualifications

• UK Water/Utilities sector finance knowledge.
• Experience with SAP/ERP finance modules.
• Ability to translate finance requirements into functional specifications and designs.
• Strong stakeholder management and communication across business and technical audiences.

Responsibilities

• Lead the functional design and configuration of finance modules within SAP/ERP (FI/CO, GL, AP/AR).
• Gather, analyse, and document finance requirements, translating them into functional specifications.
• Act as the liaison between finance stakeholders, delivery teams, and system integrators.
• Support end-to-end delivery activities including testing, data migration, cutover, and go-live.
• Provide SME guidance on finance processes for the Water/Utilities sector.
• Identify and drive process improvements post-implementation.

Skills

Finance domain

SAP ERP

Stakeholder management

Communication

Job description

We are seeking an experienced Finance Functional Lead to drive the design, delivery, and optimisation of finance processes within a large-scale SAP/ERP environment. Acting as the bridge between the finance business and technical delivery teams, you will translate finance requirements into robust system solutions and ensure they align with sector regulations and best practice.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the functional design and configuration of finance modules within SAP/ERP (e.g. FI/CO, GL, AP/AR, asset accounting).
• Gather, analyse, and document finance requirements, translating them into functional specifications.
• Act as the primary liaison between finance stakeholders, delivery teams, and system integrators.
• Support end-to-end delivery activities including testing, data migration, cutover, and go-live.
• Provide subject-matter expertise on finance processes specific to the Water / Utilities sector.
• Identify and drive process improvements and system enhancements post-implementation.

Essential Experience

• Proven experience in the UK Water / Utilities sector, with a strong understanding of its regulatory and operational finance environment.
• Deep finance domain knowledge across core accounting and financial processes.
• Hands-on SAP / ERP functional experience, ideally leading finance workstreams on implementation or transformation programmes.
• Strong stakeholder management and the ability to communicate across business and technical audiences.

Desirable

• Relevant finance qualification (e.g. ACA, ACCA, CIMA) and/or SAP certification.
• Experience with large-scale finance transformation or ERP migration programmes.