Associate Director Data Products and Solutions (f/m/d)

Today, Lonza is a global leader in life sciences operating across three continents. While we work in science, there’s no magic formula to how we do it.

Our greatest scientific solution is talented people working together, devising ideas that help businesses to help people.

In exchange, we let our people own their careers. Their ideas, big and small, genuinely improve the world. And that’s the kind of work we want to be part of.

At Lonza the SAP Analytics Cloud platform enables collaborative planning across our enterprise and is a key tool for Finance.

This role in FP&A leads the application development for the SAP Analytics Cloud (SAC) platform, supporting Lonza’s global FP&A digitalization strategy in the areas of financial planning, management reporting and business analytics.

Key tasks include the understanding of business requirements, application design, development and implementation as well as the continuation of business operations for existing data products on the SAC platform.

The incumbent will partner closely with both business and IT domains to drive the XP&A vision and the further development and integration of key technologies such as SAP SAC, Datasphere and MS Azure.

Key responsibilities :

General Management :

• Supports the Head of Digitalization & Projects in delivering the FP&A digitalization strategy supporting Lonza’s business divisions.
• Is visible and recognized as thought leader across group-finance for SAC application development and data products.
• Leads, coaches, and supports junior developers and manages external vendors.
• Drives automation, simplification, and continuous improvement.
• Acts as an ambassador of innovation by adopting new technologies, such as predictive analytics AI / ML and driver-based planning.
• Leads and performs the technical development of new and existing SAC financial planning tools and applications to deliver the FP&A vision to Lonza’s business divisions.

Solution Design and Development :

• Collaborates with business stakeholders to understand requirements and translate them into technical specifications for SAP Analytics Cloud solutions.
• SAC Data Modeling : Develops and maintains business planning data models and logics (i.e. SAC data actions) ensuring optimal outcomes including data accuracy, consistency, performance, standardization and scalability.
• SAC Front-end Development (UI / UX) : Designs and creates SAC input templates, interactive dashboards, reports and visualizations using SAC's built-in tools (i.

e. stories and application designer) focusing on process integration and an optimal end-user experience and ease of use.

• Data Integration : Implement data integration solutions to bring together data from different source systems such as SAP ERP, SAP BW, HFM, Workday, Microsoft Azure Analytics.
• Security : Configure and manage security settings to ensure data security, privacy, access control and compliance with organizational policies and regulations.
• Performance Optimization : Identify and implement performance optimization techniques to enhance speed and efficiency of applications.
• Continuous Improvement : Adopt new technology features released via SAP regular updates and apply best practices to ensure continuous improvement and innovation.
• Collaboration and Training : Collaborate with cross-functional teams to support change management, user training, troubleshooting, and knowledge sharing of applications.

Planning Cycle Support ( Run ) :

Support the Planning & Reporting Systems Team ( Run ) with the planning cycle preparation and execution in SAC for main global planning processes : strategic planning, budgeting, and forecasting.

This includes for example setting up interfaces, prepopulating planning versions by importing and transforming transactional data such as Actuals, updating master data, or adjusting calculation logics and global parameters.

Key requirements :

• Master degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, Data Science or Engineering.
• Must be business fluent in English.
• SAP Analytics Cloud certification or Microsoft Certification or any other SAP certifications is preferred.
• Extensive technical expertise in SAC, BPC and BW, ideally hands-on experience as a developer or solution consultant.
• Solid working knowledge in Financial Planning and Reporting processes such as budgeting forecasting, cost controlling and results reporting
• Uses knowledge of his / her own business area and related areas to identify and develop operational / financial improvements
• Passion for Financial Planning and Analytics / BI technology
• Enthusiasm, energy, drive
• Ability to operate in an ambiguous, fast changing environment

Every day, Lonza’s products and services have a positive impact on millions of people. For us, this is not only a great privilege, but also a great responsibility.

How we achieve our business results is just as important as the achievements themselves. At Lonza, we respect and protect our people and our environment.

Any success we achieve is no success at all if not achieved ethically.

People come to Lonza for the challenge and creativity of solving complex problems and developing new ideas in life sciences.

In return, we offer the satisfaction that comes with improving lives all around the world. The satisfaction that comes with making a meaningful difference.

Reference : R60837