Finance ERP Transformation Lead - Outside IR35

SAP ECC to Oracle Fusion Cloud | As-Is to Future-State Finance Operating Model

Role Context

Our client is delivering a major ERP transformation, replacing SAP ECC with Oracle Fusion Cloud across Finance, Procurement, and HCM. The Finance ERP Transformation Lead is the senior role accountable for leading the finance function through this change: documenting the current SAP-based operating model, designing the Oracle future state, and delivering a fully operational finance service on the new platform. The role sits within a complex local government finance environment covering General Fund, HRA, DSG, capital, grants, reserves, Collection Fund, and statutory reporting under CIPFA, IFRS, and the Accounts and Audit Regulations. The finance function spans central finance, shared services, treasury, and directorate finance teams across Adults, Children’s, Place, and Corporate. This is not a functional consultant role. It is an end-to-end transformation leadership role covering business case delivery, process redesign, organisational change, data migration, testing, go-live, and post-implementation stabilisation. The postholder is accountable for ensuring Oracle Fusion delivers a step change in finance capability, not a like-for-like system replacement.

Role Purpose

To lead the transformation of the Council’s finance operations from the current SAP ECC model to a future-state operating model built on Oracle Fusion Cloud. The role ensures finance emerges from the programme with standardised processes, stronger controls, improved reporting, fewer manual workarounds, and full statutory and audit compliance.

Reporting Line and Key Relationships

Reports to: Programme Director, ERP Transformation, with dotted line to Section 151 Officer / Head of Finance

Direct reports: Oracle finance functional consultants, finance data migration analysts, finance testing lead

Key relationships: Section 151 Officer, Head of Finance, directorate finance leads, Finance Shared Service Manager, Treasury Management, Internal Audit, External Audit, SI Partner Oracle team, Data Migration Lead, OCM Lead, Programme Director

Key Responsibilities

• As-Is Assessment
• Document the current SAP ECC finance operating model end to end, including chart of accounts, cost centres, fund structures, SAP customisations, custom reports, and manual workarounds.
• Map Record-to-Report, Procure-to-Pay, and Order-to-Cash processes across journals, close, reconciliations, AP, AR, income, debtors, grants, and statutory reporting.
• Identify pain points, inefficiencies, risks, and undocumented dependencies.
• Baseline current finance capability, key-person dependencies, and control weaknesses.
• Future-State Design
• Lead design of the Oracle Fusion Cloud finance operating model, adopting Oracle standard best practice rather than replicating SAP.
• Design the future-state Chart of Accounts, mapping SAP structures to Oracle ledgers, legal entities, business units, and segments.
• Define budgetary control, approval hierarchies, delegation limits, and commitment controls.
• Redesign period-end and year-end close using Oracle capabilities such as Close Manager.
• Define future-state reporting through OTBI and OAC, including management, operational, and statutory reporting.
• Lead fit-gap workshops, make design decisions, and own the Finance Design Document with full approval and traceability.
• Data Migration and Integrity
• Own finance data migration scope, including CoA, opening balances, open AP/AR, assets, budgets, suppliers, and customers.
• Define cleansing rules so data is Oracle-ready, not just SAP-clean.
• Lead CoA crosswalk design to preserve reporting continuity and statutory mapping.
• Validate mock migration outputs and reconcile trial balance, subledgers, assets, and budgets from SAP to Oracle.
• Work with External Audit to ensure opening balance and migration assurance.
• Testing, Cutover, and Go-Live
• Define finance test scenarios for R2R, P2P, OTC, statutory reporting, year-end close, and edge cases.
• Lead finance UAT, including tester mobilisation, execution, defect triage, and readiness assessment.
• Own finance cutover planning: SAP close, data freeze, extraction, Oracle load, reconciliation, and go/no-go criteria.
• Lead parallel running where required to validate financial outputs before SAP decommissioning.
• Change and Readiness
• Ensure finance staff are trained, ready, and confident to operate Oracle from day one.
• Work with the OCM Lead on finance-specific change interventions.
• Champion transformation benefits and challenge resistance to legacy ways of working.
• Define future-state finance roles, skills, and training requirements.
• Ensure knowledge transfer from the SI Partner so the Council is self-sufficient post-go-live.
• Governance and Compliance
• Act as Finance Design Authority for finance process and configuration decisions.
• Escalate issues affecting statutory compliance, financial control, or audit assurance.
• Report progress, risks, decisions, and milestones to the Programme Board.
• Ensure compliance with CIPFA, IFRS, Accounts and Audit Regulations, Financial Regulations, and Scheme of Delegation.
• Engage Internal and External Audit throughout the programme.

Essential Skills and Experience

• Proven experience leading finance ERP transformation workstreams end to end in UK local government or public sector.
• Deep SAP FI/CO knowledge in a local authority context, including fund accounting, cost centres, CoA structures, and customisations.
• Strong Oracle Fusion Cloud Financials experience across GL, AP, AR, Assets, Expenses, Budgetary Control, and Intercompany.
• Experience redesigning and mapping Chart of Accounts from SAP to Oracle.
• Hands-on finance data migration, reconciliation, opening balance validation, and cutover experience.
• Strong knowledge of local authority statutory finance, including CIPFA, IFRS, RO, COR, WGA, and Accounts and Audit Regulations.
• Experience working with Section 151 Officers, Internal Audit, and External Audit.
• Strong stakeholder management and finance UAT leadership.

Desirable Experience

• Oracle Close Manager, OTBI, and OAC
• General Fund, HRA, Collection Fund, DSG, treasury, and capital accounting
• SAP to Oracle migration tooling such as FBDI and ADFDi
• CCAB qualification
• Multi-supplier delivery models

Behavioural Attributes

• Transformation mindset
• Confident challenger of legacy processes
• Strong statutory and governance awareness
• Credible with senior finance leaders and stakeholders
• Delivery-focused and decisive
• Collaborative and resilient in public sector environments

Key Success Measures

• As-is finance operating model signed off within 6 weeks
• Future-state Finance Design Document approved before end of design
• Finance data reconciled within agreed tolerances at mock loads and go-live
• Finance UAT completed with zero critical defects at go-live
• First Oracle period-end close completed within target cycle time
• External Audit unqualified opinion on first Oracle-based statutory accounts
• Finance team self-sufficient within 6 months
• 50%+ reduction in manual workarounds within 12 months