Head of Global IFRS Excellence

Posted May 18

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What you'll do

This position is located within the Corporate Financial Reporting (CFR) department of SAP. You (f/m/d) will directly report to SAP’s Chief Accounting Officer and Head of Corporate Financial Reporting. CFR is directly assigned to the Group CFO of SAP and is responsible for the completeness and correctness of SAP’s IFRS accounting and for SAP’s external financial reporting under German and U.S. law.

Corporate Financial Reporting is structured in the following sub teams:

‘Local Accounting and Reporting’
‘Corporate Revenue Accounting and Reporting’,
‘External Reporting and Accounting Technology’
‘Global IFRS Excellence’.

The ’IFRS Excellence’ team is ultimately responsible for all of SAP’s IFRS accounting CoEs (except for IFRS 15 related matters) This also includes the ownership of SAP’s Global Accounting Guideline. The role also comprises the representation of CFR on a global level in the interaction with the other global and corporate departments involved in SAP’s accounting and financial reporting and the creation and maintenance of strong and globally standardized agile processes within the organization.

As a member of the CFR leadership team, you (f/m/d) will be involved in developing and executing on CFR’s mid- and long-term strategy towards our mission “Being agile, we strive for expert service excellence and, using our technology, we provide holistic external reporting that complies with applicable regulations and at a level of transparency that best serves SAP’s interests.”

The job includes

People management for the organization with one additional manager reporting into the function.

PRINCIPAL responsibilities:

IFRS accounting policy setting – documentation of all critical IFRS accounting matters (except revenue recognition) – including discussions with SAP’s auditors and business stakeholders
Ensure full compliance with external reporting regulations (e.g. SEC, ASCG, etc.) and support implementation of new accounting requirements.
Represent CFR in internal and external working groups
Close alignment with the corresponding CFO-organization as well as e.g. with SAP’s Shared Service organization, the Global Tax organization, Global Treasury, Corporate Development, Investor Relations and the different corporate units impacted by SAP’s accounting processes.
Ensure a max. level of customer satisfaction of those who use CFR’s accounting and reporting services and build good business relations to CFR’s customers.
Identify and drive CFR’s accounting digitalization initiatives in accounting– support implementation of SAP technology and co-innovate with product engineering.
Customer interaction: present SAP-runs-SAP use cases in accounting and reporting and engage with customers/user groups.

ADDITIONAL, as eventually required or where applicable

Support projects that impact accounting and financial reporting. Proactively participate in the design of new business models, global policies and processes.
Strive for accounting process standardization & digitalization of processes.
Support SAP’s Best Run GFA initiative, drive transformation within the organization.

What you bring

8+ years functional accounting experience in a company or in an audit firm
Experience in both is a plus
Accounting experience in an IT or tech-company as an auditor or accountant
Experience in accounting in a company with a U.S. public listing is a plus
At least 4 years of people management experience with proven leadership excellence track-record
Very strong and broad IFRS technical accounting knowledge – knowledge in US-GAAP and German GAP (HGB) is a plus.
Strong experience in accounting policy setting, policy writing and documentation, experience in leading an accounting-CoE.
Ability to sync accounting policy with (digital) finance processes and IT accounting systems (ERP, analytics, etc.)
Experience in interacting with senior leadership and at an executive level.
Strong people focus; excellent people leadership skills – proven track record of strong leadership/leadership trust.
Very strong interpersonal and excellent communication skills.
Ability to anticipate and manage change in a fast-paced environment, experience in change management processes; (agile) project management/agile leadership and organizational development skills are a plus.
Good understanding of SaaS business models and typical accounting focus areas in the software/SaaS industry
Influencing skills at executive levels.
Excellent English language skills – German language skills is a plus

We build breakthroughs together

SAP innovations help more than 400,000 customers worldwide work together more efficiently and use business insight more effectively. Originally known for leadership in enterprise resource planning (ERP) software, SAP has evolved to become a market leader in end-to-end business application software and related services for database, analytics, intelligent technologies, and experience management. As a cloud company with 200 million users and more than 100,000 employees worldwide, we are purpose-driven and future-focused, with a highly collaborative team ethic and commitment to personal development. Whether connecting global industries, people, or platforms, we help ensure every challenge gets the solution it deserves. At SAP, we build breakthroughs, together.

We win with inclusion

SAP’s culture of inclusion, focus on health and well-being, and flexible working models help ensure that everyone – regardless of background – feels included and can run at their best. At SAP, we believe we are made stronger by the unique capabilities and qualities that each person brings to our company, and we invest in our employees to inspire confidence and help everyone realize their full potential. We ultimately believe in unleashing all talent and creating a better and more equitable world.

SAP is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace and is an affirmative action employer. We are committed to the values of Equal Employment Opportunity and provide accessibility accommodations to applicants with physical and/or mental disabilities. If you are interested in applying for employment with SAP and are in need of accommodation or special assistance to navigate our website or to complete your application, please send an e-mail with your request to Recruiting Operations Team: Careers@sap.com.

For SAP employees: Only permanent roles are eligible for the SAP Employee Referral Program, according to the eligibility rules set in the SAP Referral Policy. Specific conditions may apply for roles in Vocational Training.