Product Manager - SAP Functional Solution Lead

Being part of Air Canada is to become part of an iconic Canadian symbol, recently ranked the best Airline in North America. Let your career take flight by joining our diverse and vibrant team at the leading edge of passenger aviation.

This position sits within Air Canada's ERP-SAP Product Management group on the Digital Product team to enable the evolution of finance and SAP products.

Air Canada seeks a highly motivated and experienced Product Manager Solution Lead to join the ERP Product team.

The SAP FICO Functional Solution Lead is responsible for the end-to-end functional solution strategy, design, governance, and delivery of SAP Finance and Controlling solutions. This role serves as the bridge between finance leadership, enterprise architects, functional product owners and technical delivery teams to ensure SAP solutions support strategic business objectives while maintaining a scalable, compliant, and clean-core architecture.

The role provides leadership across SAP S/4HANA Finance transformation initiatives, enhancements, integrations, operational support, and continuous improvement programs. The individual is expected to define solution direction, oversee complex implementations, guide functional product owners and consultants, and ensure delivery of business value across Finance processes.

This individual must have experience creating innovative, high-performance ERP solutions, and be customer-centric, data driven, and passionate about the travel industry. The ideal candidate thrives while operating in a collaborative, fast-paced, and high-energy continuous improvement delivery model.

Responsibilities:

Solution Strategy & Design

- Define end-to-end SAP Finance solutions strategy, aligned with enterprise standards.
- Lead solution design for: General Ledger (GL), Accounts Payable (AP), Accounts Receivable (AR), Asset Accounting (AA), Cost Center Accounting (CCA), Profit Center Accounting (PCA), Internal Orders, Product Costing, Profitability Analysis (CO-PA), Project Systems (PS), Treasury and Cash Management, Tax and Compliance.
- Ensure alignment with SAP S/4HANA best practices and Clean Core principles.
- Conduct fit-gap analysis and recommend optimal solutions.
- Design integration points with SAP and non-SAP applications.
- Review and approve functional solution designs, FSDs, and WRICEF requirements.
- Evaluate and incorporate SAP AI capabilities (e.g., SAP Business AI, Joule copilot, intelligent invoice matching, predictive accounting) into finance solution designs.
- Define functional solution patterns for embedding AI-driven automation within FI/CO processes.

Stakeholder Engagement

- Partner with Functional Product Owner and Finance process owners / managers.
- Translate business requirements into scalable SAP solutions.
- Facilitate workshops and design sessions.
- Present solution recommendations to executive and steering committees.
- Drive adoption of SAP standard capabilities whenever possible.
- Collaborate with Product Owners in educating finance stakeholders on FICO functionality and AI-enabled capabilities within SAP S/4HANA
- Ensure finance-specific AI use cases are in alignment with enterprise AI governance policies.

Delivery & Project Leadership

- Lead functional design across projects, programs, and enhancements.
- Provide solution guidance during: discovery, design, build, testing, cutover, hypercare and stabilization.
- Ensure quality of functional specifications and testing deliverables.
- Support release planning and roadmap execution.
- Evaluate AI-readiness assessments in project discovery phases: data quality, process maturity, and organizational readiness for AI adoption within finance.

Governance, Risk & Compliance

- Ensure compliance with: 52-109 controls, financial reporting requirements, audit standards and security and segregation-of-duties requirements.
- Understand and stay current on regulatory, and technology trends to understand their potential impact and apply these learnings within Air Canada.
- Participate in review boards.
- Establish solution governance and design standards.
- Define AI governance guardrails for finance processes, ensuring AI model outputs are auditable, explainable, and compliant with financial regulations.
- Monitor and evaluate emerging AI regulations and ethical AI frameworks relevant to financial processes and airline industry compliance.

Operational Support & Continuous Improvement

- When required, provide Level 3 functional expertise for critical incidents.
- Lead root cause analysis and problem management activities.
- Support month-end, quarter-end, and year-end financial close activities.
- Drive reduction of recurring incidents through permanent corrective actions.
- Recommend continuous process improvements.
- Team Leadership & Mentoring
- Mentor FICO consultants, functional product owners and business analysts.
- Establish functional delivery standards and best practices.
- Lead vendor and AMS partner solution reviews.
- Collaborate in leading knowledge-sharing sessions on SAP Business AI, Joule, and emerging AI capabilities in the S/4HANA Finance roadmap.

Qualifications

Education

- Bachelor's degree in: Finance, Accounting, Information Systems, Computer Science, Engineering or Related discipline.

Experience

- 10+ years SAP FICO experience.
- 5+ years as a Lead Functional Architect or Solution Architect.
- Multiple end-to-end SAP implementations.
- SAP S/4HANA Finance implementation experience.

Functional Expertise

- Strong expertise in: FI, CO, Group Reporting, Financial Close, Costing, Profitability Analysis.
- Proven experience leading global teams and stakeholders.
- Experience working in Agile and hybrid delivery environments.

Technical Expertise

- SAP S/4HANA Finance, Universal Journal (ACDOCA), Financial Closing Cockpit, Central Finance (preferred), SAP Treasury, SAP Analytics Cloud (SAC), Fiori,
- Integration architecture, SAP BTP awareness and Finance master data management.
- Understanding of SAP Business AI capabilities, including Joule copilot, SAP AI Core, and AI Foundation services within BTP.
- Familiarity with machine learning concepts, predictive analytics, and their application to finance processes (e.g., predictive journal entries, intelligent invoice processing, cash flow forecasting).
- Awareness of generative AI trends and responsible AI principles as they apply to enterprise finance and ERP systems.
- Understanding of data quality, data governance, and master data prerequisites for successful AI adoption in SAP environments.

Soft Skills & Leadership

- Ability to provide clear direction and effective communication both in technical and non-technical terms.
- Experience in building solution governance.
- Strategic thinker understanding SAP Clean Core principles, design guidelines and their application to Financial Processes.
- Excellent management, organization, and communication skills.
- Experience leading discovery and design workshop sessions.
- Experience with AMS and vendor governance leadership.
- Airline or Travel Industry experience a plus, but not required.
- Ability to critically evaluate AI vendor claims and distinguish between hype and production-ready AI capabilities for enterprise finance.
- Growth mindset with demonstrated ability to upskill on emerging technologies including AI, automation, and data-driven decision-making.
- Demonstrate punctuality and dependability to support overall team success in a fast-paced environment.

Nice-to-Have Certifications

- SAP Certified Application Associate or Professional certifications: SAP S/4HANA Financial Accounting, SAP Management Accounting, SAP Certified Solution
- Architect, SAP Activate Certification, SAP BTP Certification.
- Professional credentials: CPA, CMA, CGA, ACCA, PMP / SA, TOGAF, ITIL Foundation or ITIL Managing Professional.
- SAP Certified AI Associate or any SAP Business Technology Platform AI-related certification.
- Certifications in AI/ML fundamentals (e.g., Google Cloud AI, AWS AI Practitioner, Microsoft AI Fundamentals, or equivalent).

Conditions of Employment:

Candidates must be eligible to work in the country of interest at the time any offer of employment is made and are responsible for obtaining any required work permits, visas, or other authorizations necessary for employment. Prior to their start date, candidates will also need to provide proof of their eligibility to work in the country of interest.

Linguistic Requirements

Based on equal qualifications, preference will be given to bilingual candidates.

Diversity and Inclusion

Air Canada is strongly committed to Diversity and Inclusion and aims to create a healthy, accessible and rewarding work environment which highlights employees’ unique contributions to our company’s success.

As an equal opportunity employer, we welcome applications from all to help us build a diverse workforce which reflects the diversity of our customers, and communities, in which we live and serve.

Air Canada thanks all candidates for their interest; however only those selected to continue in the process will be contacted.