Director, SAP Technology Lead - Finance

Category/Area of Expertise: IT & Technology
Job Requisition: 486652
Address: USA-NC-Salisbury-2110 Executive Drive
Store Code: IT Executive & Administration (5167689)
Ahold Delhaize USA, a division of global food retailer Ahold Delhaize, is part of the U.S. family of brands, which includes five leading omnichannel grocery brands - Food Lion, Giant Food, The GIANT Company, Hannaford and Stop & Shop. Our associates support the brands with a wide range of services, including Finance, Legal, Sustainability, Commercial, Digital and E-commerce, Technology and more.
Primary Purpose
The Director, SAP Technology Lead - Finance is a senior technology leadership role responsible for defining and executing the SAP Finance transformation strategy for Ahold Delhaize USA (ADUSA), a multi-billion-dollar grocery retail organization. This leader will architect the future of Retail Finance through SAP S/4HANA and RISE with SAP, partnering closely with business and technology executives across the enterprise. The role owns the end-to-end design, delivery, and ongoing support of enterprise retail finance capabilities, including orchestrating the migration of an existing on-premise SAP S/4HANA Finance platform to SAP RISE, applying clean core principles, and consolidating finance processes from legacy systems into a single SAP environment.
This leader sets enterprise finance technology standards, drives disciplined execution and alignment across all workstreams of the transformation, and partners with Finance business leadership and IT to direct System Integrator partners toward fit-to-standard, clean-core-aligned solutions that support a long-term cloud operating model. With an AI- and analytics-first mindset, the Director enables automated financial workflows, intelligent financial planning and analysis, predictive cash flow management, and real-time profitability insights across the enterprise. The ideal candidate brings deep expertise in SAP S/4HANA Finance capabilities, hands-on RISE with SAP migration experience, a proven track record delivering large-scale ERP transformations in complex, high-volume retail or similarly demanding environments, and the executive presence and organizational leadership skills to influence senior stakeholders and mobilize System Integrator partners.
Duties & Responsibilities
Transformation Strategy, Execution & Governance

• Define and execute the enterprise SAP Finance transformation roadmap, aligned with business and Finance strategy
• Establish a strategic vision for S/4HANA, SAP BTP, SAP Business Data Cloud (BDC), Joule, and emerging SAP capabilities
• Lead the transformation of Retail Finance processes toward a standardized, scalable, digital operating model
• Lead the consolidation of all finance-related functions from legacy systems into SAP S/4HANA Finance, delivering centralized, standardized end-to-end finance processes that eliminate redundancy and reduce technical debt
• Drive fit-to-standard and clean-core principles throughout the transformation, challenging non-standard requirements and maximizing adoption of SAP standard functionality
• Establish and enforce design governance, architecture standards, and release controls, ensuring solutions align with clean core principles, RISE service boundaries, SAP BTP extensibility guidelines, and enterprise cloud operating models
• Oversee the design and execution of data migration strategy from legacy and on-premise SAP systems to RISE, ensuring data quality, integrity, completeness, and compliance throughout

Finance & Retail Integration

• Partner closely with Finance leadership to translate financial strategy and operational requirements into scalable SAP functional and technical designs, enabling accurate financial reporting, efficient period-end close, regulatory compliance, and real-time profitability visibility
• Provide leadership for SAP S/4HANA Finance across retail operations, ensuring alignment between Finance and adjacent retail capabilities, including merchandising, inventory and stock valuation, procurement, sales and revenue, pricing, supply chain, and store operations
• Establish an integrated view of financial impacts across end-to-end retail processes
• Provide governance and strategic direction for SAP Finance architecture, integrations, extensions, and data
• Deliver intelligent automation through AI and analytics solutions to optimize finance processes.

Team Leadership & Talent Development

• Provide inspirational leadership and direction for a purpose-driven team, with direct accountability for talent management activities including recruiting and leading a high performing team, developing technical and functional capabilities through targeted upskilling programs, conducting performance management, and retaining critical expertise throughout the multi-year transformation journey
• Upskill and coach internal IT teams and SMEs on cloud mindset, Clean Core, and SAP Best Practices.
• Establish clear roles, responsibilities, governance structures, decision-making frameworks, and engagement cadences across key stakeholders within and outside the transformation program.
• Foster a culture of inclusion, collaboration, innovation, and continuous improvement while actively modeling ADUSA's core values and partnership behaviors to drive engagement, knowledge sharing, and shared success across the transformation ecosystem

Governance, Risk & Compliance

• Ensure all finance solutions meet regulatory requirements including SOX compliance, GAAP/IFRS standards, audit trail requirements, segregation of duties, and internal control frameworks.
• Establish and maintain comprehensive security controls, access governance, and authorization models across all SAP Finance modules to ensure data protection, privacy compliance, and risk mitigation.
• Lead disaster recovery planning, business continuity strategies, and operational resilience initiatives for the SAP Finance platform, ensuring minimal disruption during RISE migration and ongoing operations.

Change Management & Communication

• Partner with transformation change management and communications leads to develop and execute targeted messaging strategies addressing organizational change impacts
• Actively engage with business leaders to co-create transition roadmaps, align on deployment wave sequencing, define stabilization success criteria, and establish realistic expectations for capability rollout timelines and business benefits realization
• Serve as the primary escalation point and trusted advisor for operational risk identification throughout each deployment wave, proactively proposing mitigation strategies
• Lead executive and governance committee presentations and business readiness assessments, translating complex technical concepts into business value narratives that resonate with C-suite stakeholders

Supervisory Responsibilities

• Directly manages and develops SAP Finance technical leads, architects, developers, and analysts across multiple finance modules and workstreams.
• Provides functional oversight and technical direction to System Integrator delivery teams, offshore resources, and contractor staff working on SAP Finance initiatives.
• Collaborates with peer technology leaders across merchandising, supply chain, store operations, and digital commerce to ensure cohesive enterprise transformation delivery.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering, Finance, or related field required; MBA, Master's degree,
• 15+ years of SAP Finance experience, including leadership of large-scale SAP S/4HANA transformations within retail, grocery, or consumer-facing organizations.
• Proven track record leading large scale full-lifecycle SAP implementations, including fit-to-standard design, clean-core adoption, build governance, testing oversight, cutover, and post-go-live stabilization.
• Strong understanding of Finance, accounting, and end-to-end financial processes in a retail environment.
• Strong understanding of SAP Configurations, Clean Core strategy, SAP BTP extensibility and demonstrated success driving Fit-to-Standard and reducing technical debt/custom code
• Demonstrated experience integrating SAP Finance with retail and enterprise platforms such as merchandising, supply chain, POS, FP&A, treasury, and enterprise analytics solutions.
• Proven ability to standardize and modernize finance processes, retire legacy systems, and enable scalable financial operations across multi-brand, multi-channel environments.
• Executive presence with the ability to influence CFO organizations and senior technology leaders, drive organizational change, and ensure alignment between finance strategy and technology delivery.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in retail grocery or big-box retail with high SKU velocity, complex DC networks, and store fulfillment models

Compensation & Benefits• Competitive compensation and benefits package.• Located at the ADUSA regional headquarters which are located just outside Charlotte, North Carolina (Salisbury).
Salary Range: $160,000 - $240,000
Actual compensation offered to a candidate may vary based on their unique qualifications and experience, internal equity, and market conditions. Final compensation decisions will be made in accordance with company policies and applicable laws.
#li-mm1 #li-hybrid
At Ahold Delhaize USA, we provide services to one of the largest portfolios of grocery companies in the nation, and we're actively seeking top talent.
Our team shares a common motivation to drive change, take ownership and enable our brands to better care for their customers. We thrive on supporting great local grocery brands and their strategies.
Our associates are the heartbeat of our organization. We are committed to offering a welcoming work environment where all associates can succeed and thrive. Guided by our values of courage, care, teamwork, integrity (and even a little humor), we are dedicated to being a great place to work.
We believe in collaboration, curiosity, and continuous learning in all that we think, create and do. While building a culture where personal and professional growth are just as important as business growth, we invest in our people, empowering them to learn, grow and deliver at all levels of the business.
#BI-Hybrid