Director, Finance Digital Architect

A Career at HARMAN

As a technology leader that is rapidly on the move, HARMAN is filled with people who are focused on making life better. Innovation, inclusivity and teamwork are a part of our DNA. When you add that to the challenges we take on and solve together, you’ll discover that at HARMAN you can grow, make a difference and be proud of the work you do every day.

Job Summary

We are seeking a visionary Finance Digital Leader with deep expertise in Finance data and systems architecture deployment. The Finance Digital Lead will play a pivotal role in driving HARMAN’s Finance Digital transformation. As an integral part of the Finance organization that role will be a strategic partner to both the Automotive Finance and Digital organizations. This role will drive the design, and help build along with Digital a scalable Finance Digital Ecosystem, integrating core platforms such as SAP, OneStream, IBP Integrated Business Planning), Salesforce, best-of-breed analytics applications and Automation / AI deployments

This leader will combine financial acumen, technology fluency, and process excellence to deliver a seamless digital backbone that enables real-time insights, efficient processes, and strategic decision-making across the enterprise.

Reporting to the Automotive Division Finance Head, this role is responsible for creating the digitized Finance vision, expand and drive the digitalization roadmap along with Digital. The ideal candidate will have a proven track record of finance digital transformation implementing innovative solutions, leveraging S/4HANA, OneStream and leading teams to support strategic goals besides driving process changes and thinking of new ways of working in a digitalized finance function.

Key Responsibilities:

Strategic Leadership

• Co-create along with Digital a scalable digital finance strategy that enhances operational efficiency, drives automation of finance operations including shared services with SAP S/4HANA as the backbone. Prepare the finance digital ecosystem to be ready for additional expansion including M&As.
• Partner with the senior leaders of Finance, Digital and other senior leaders to align & drive digital finance initiatives with organizational priorities.

Finance Digitalization:

• Ensuring seamless data flow across systems and eliminating redundancies. Understand the ‘why’ and ‘what’ needed for the finance digitalization transformation and work together with Digital on the how including evaluating and implementing digital solutions that reduce operational complexity, gives operational efficiency and improve time-to-close cycles for finance. Leverage existing the capabilities of the eco-system to the maximum extent possible / best-in-class ways of working.
• Implement advanced analytics and reporting tools to deliver actionable insights and faster decision-making for finance teams. Support a Business Self-Service set-up.
• Design and implement tools and frameworks to enable "what-if" scenario modeling, sensitivity analysis, and long-term forecasting including across Sales, Engineering and Supply chain controlling functions. Partner with FP&A teams to refine financial models and work closely with Digital to integrate them into scalable technology solutions.
• Lead the streamlining and automation of shared service operations, focusing on accounts payable, accounts receivable, fixed assets, banking, payroll, reconciliation, and financial close processes. Implement robotic process mining and process automation (RPA), intelligent document processing, and workflow tools to drive efficiency and eliminate manual tasks. Identify and deliver on AI use cases especially the leverage of agents.

Architectural Leadership & S4 HANA expertise

• Significantly contribute and partner closely with Digital leader to the implementation of a scalable finance system & data architecture, aligned with end-to-end HARMAN Automotive Digital architecture.
• Serve as the organization’s SAP S/4HANA subject matter expert for Finance, ensuring optimal use of its capabilities across finance operations.
• Leverage S/4HANA’s advanced features, such as Central Finance, embedded analytics, and predictive insights, to support decision-making, scenario planning and operational efficiency.
• Support the migration of legacy systems to S/4HANA, ensuring seamless integration and minimal disruption to operations.
• Understand business needs and drive needed integration of S/4HANA with other enterprise systems (e.g., Salesforce, Procurement, SIOP, PLM, Engineering Project Management) along with Digital to ensure seamless data flow and reporting.
• Collaborate with Digital to adopt cloud-based platforms, APIs, and microservices that supports automation and analytics and scale to use of AI.
• Drive for global standard processes and adherence to them. Minimize customization to the must-have. Drive documentation and roll-out of process blueprints across countries and company codes.

Execution and Governance

• Prepare Finance Digital roadmap, lead the execution of Finance Digital initiatives closely partnering with Digital, ensuring alignment with business goals, timelines, and budgets.
• Monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of implemented solutions, ensuring continuous improvement and adaptability.
• Act as a Business Integrator. Support the Finance function and their Business Partners identifying needs and translate them into requirements and actions on the Digital side. Recommend responses to identified business needs.

Team Leadership and Development

• Serve as a thought leader, fostering a culture of innovation, collaboration, and continuous improvement with regards to a future fit digitized Finance organization,.
• Establish clear goals, performance metrics, and accountability for the Finance Digital team and set expectations for the Finance counterparts in Digital.
• Foster cross-functional collaboration between finance, Digital, and other functions to drive digital enablement.

Requirements:

• Bachelor’s degree in finance, with minor in Computer Science, Information Systems, or a related field (master’s preferred).
• 10+ years of experience leading finance technology deployment and driving finance digital transformation, with a strong focus on financial systems architecture and scenario planning.
• Dual-fluency: Finance process authority & systems/architecture ownership (ERP FI/CO (PC/PA), EPM, Finance Analytics).
• Deep expertise and experience in SAP S/4HANA, including its finance modules of FI/CO, FP&A and reporting, financial planning tools, financial consolidation and advanced analytics platforms.
• Ecosystem thinking: Integration across SAP / EPM (OneStream) / IBP / Salesforce) / BI to enable planning, forecasting, and performance management.
• Strong technical knowledge of Data lakes, Analytics and Automation technologies. Excellent problem-solving skills.
• Analytics uplift: KPIs, self-service dashboards, predictive modeling to support FP&A and decisioning.
• Automation & data quality: Process digitization, RPA/AI, master data and reporting standards

Preferred Skills:

• SAP certifications (e.g., S/4HANA Finance, Central Finance, or Technical Architect).
• Knowledge of advanced technologies such as AI and machine learning in financial forecasting and operations.
• Strong change management skills to lead organizational transformation and adoption of new tools.
• Experience with cloud platforms (e.g., AWS, Azure) and enterprise architecture frameworks (e.g., TOGAF).

HARMAN is proud to be an Equal Opportunity / Affirmative Action employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard torace, religion, color, national origin, gender (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, or other applicable legally protected characteristics.