Director, Systems Architecture-Finance

The Lead Architect - Digital Finance Ecosystem, will serve as the strategic technology lead architect focused on Finance end to end value chain, translating the why and what of business needs into the how-designing and implementing scalable, future-fit digital solutions across HARMAN's Finance landscape.

This role sits within the Digital organization and will report into the IT Leader for finance value stream and dotted to the Enterprise Architect and is accountable for shaping, governing, and delivering the technology architecture, platforms, integration patterns, and technical execution required to enable the Finance Digital Ecosystem, which includes SAP S/4HANA, OneStream, IBP, Salesforce, analytics platforms, automation tools, and advanced AI/ML capabilities.

Partnering deeply with Finance teams, especially with his counterpart on the Finance side and with the Digital teams, this leader will turn strategic business requirements into robust, end-to-end technical solutions that maximize reuse, ensure data consistency, enhance automation, and support global standardization. Finance Digital Leader (counterpart on Finance side) owns the WHY/WHAT (business need, outcomes, processes).This role owns the HOW (architecture, platforms, data models, integrations, technical standards).

Key Responsibilities

1. Architectural Leadership & Technical Strategy

• Lead the technical design and architecture of the Finance Digital Ecosystem in partnership with his counterpart on Finance side.
• Translate broad business outcomes into detailed functional, data, and technical requirements and solution designs.
• Own the "HOW": platform selection, architecture patterns, integration design, system configuration approach, and technical roadmap execution.
• Ensure the Finance ecosystem aligns with enterprise architecture, cloud strategy, security policies, and Digital's technology standards.
• Establish governance for design decisions, solution patterns, integration models, and global template adherence.
• This role serves as the authoritative design voice for all Finance-related digital platforms, ensuring architectural integrity and technical coherence across the ecosystem. Chair the Finance Design Authority and enforce clean-core and global template standards.

2. SAP S/4HANA & Core Finance Technology Ownership

• Partner with Data Architecture teams to design Finance data models and data products
• Serve as the Solution architect role for Finance data needs, including SAP S/4 platforms in FI/CO, Central Finance, embedded analytics, and extensibility options.
• Evaluate feasibility of business capabilities within S/4HANA and finance systems vs. systems in other value streams that feed it required data , guiding make-versus-buy and standard-versus-custom decisions.
• Drive system simplification: minimize custom code, ensure use of S/4 standard best practices, and enforce clean-core principles.
• Lead technical design for:
  • Master data architecture
  • Data hierarchies
  • Financial posting logic
  • CO-PA / margin analysis
  • Consolidation & reporting flows
  • Integration to OneStream, IBP, Data Lake, PLM, Engineering systems, Procurement, Salesforce, etc.

3. Digital Ecosystem Integration & Data Architecture

• Own end-to-end data flow, integration design, API strategy, and AI/automation orchestration across Finance platforms.
• Ensure robust architecture enabling:
  • Unified financial data backbone
  • Finance data products
  • Real-time or near-real-time integrations
  • High-quality planning & forecasting data pipelines
  • API-first & microservices adoption where appropriate
  • AI-first thinking
• Architect and govern the Finance data model within the enterprise Data Lake / analytics environment.
• Enable scalable analytics, self-service BI, and predictive insights in collaboration with Data & Analytics teams.

4. Solution Delivery & Execution Management

• Convert business requirements into detailed solution blueprints, user stories, configuration workbooks, integration specs, and technical designs.
• Oversee internal Digital teams, partners, and system integrators to deliver on-time, high-quality implementation.
• Implement dev/QA/prod governance, release management, testing strategy, and deployment standards across Finance systems.
• Ensure system reliability, performance, cybersecurity compliance, and high service availability.

5. Automation, AI & Intelligent Finance Operations

• Lead technical design and implementation of:
  • RPA solutions
  • Process mining
  • Intelligent document processing
  • Machine learning models supporting forecasting and anomaly detection
  • Autonomous finance use cases and AI agents in partnership with Finance
• Evaluate emerging technologies and embed them into the digital finance roadmap.

6. Collaboration, Governance & Stakeholder Management

• Act as the Digital counterpart to Finance:
  • Supporting requirement refinement
  • Challenging feasibility
  • Recommending optimal technical approaches
  • Ensuring alignment across process, data, and technology layers
• Partner closely with Enterprise Architects, SAP platform teams, Security, Data & Analytics, and other Digital product owners.
• Define and enforce global templates, standard processes, and architecture guidelines to ensure consistency across regions and business units.

7. Leadership & Capability Building

• Lead and directly manage a small team (