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

Today, Lonza stands as a global leader in life sciences, operating across three continents. While our expertise lies in science, our true strength is in our talented team working together, formulating ideas that drive businesses forward. In return, we encourage our people to take ownership of their careers. Their contributions, regardless of size, make a genuine impact on the world.

At Lonza, the SAP Analytics Cloud platform facilitates collaborative planning across our enterprise and plays a critical role for Finance. The role of Associate Director in FP&A spearheads application development for the SAP Analytics Cloud (SAC) platform, supporting Lonza’s global FP&A digitalization strategy in financial planning, management reporting, and business analytics. The incumbent will closely collaborate with business and IT domains to advance the XP&A vision and integrate key technologies such as SAP SAC, Datasphere, and MS Azure.

Key Responsibilities

General Management

1. Support the Head of Digitalization & Projects in executing the FP&A digitalization strategy across Lonza’s business divisions.

2. Be recognized as a thought leader in SAC application development and data products within group-finance.

3. Lead, mentor, and support junior developers and manage external vendors.

4. Drive automation, simplification, and continuous improvement initiatives.

5. Act as an innovation ambassador by adopting new technologies, such as predictive analytics AI/ML and driver-based planning.

6. Lead and perform technical development for new and existing SAC financial planning tools and applications to realize the FP&A vision for Lonza’s business divisions.

Solution Design and Development

1. Collaborate with business stakeholders to understand requirements and translate them into technical specifications for SAP Analytics Cloud solutions.

2. Develop and maintain SAC data models and logics, ensuring data accuracy, consistency, performance, standardization, and scalability.

3. Design and create SAC input templates, interactive dashboards, reports, and visualizations with a focus on process integration and optimal end-user experience.

4. Implement data integration solutions to unify data from various source systems such as SAP ERP, SAP BW, HFM, Workday, and Microsoft Azure Analytics.

5. Configure and manage security settings to ensure data security, privacy, access control, and compliance with organizational policies and regulations.

6. Identify and implement performance optimization techniques to enhance application speed and efficiency.

7. Continuously adopt new technology features released by SAP and apply best practices for ongoing improvement and innovation.

Collaboration and Training

1. Work with cross-functional teams to support change management, user training, troubleshooting, and knowledge sharing of applications.

2. Assist the Planning & Reporting Systems Team (“Run”) with planning cycle preparation and execution in SAC for key global planning processes such as strategic planning, budgeting, and forecasting.

3. Manage interfaces, prepopulate planning versions by importing and transforming transactional data, update master data, and adjust calculation logics and global parameters.

Key Requirements

1. Master’s degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, Data Science, or Engineering.

2. Business fluency in English.

3. Preferred SAP Analytics Cloud certification, Microsoft Certification, or other SAP certifications.

4. Extensive technical expertise in SAC, BPC, and BW with hands-on experience as a developer or solution consultant.

5. Solid working knowledge of Financial Planning and Reporting processes such as budgeting, forecasting, cost controlling, and results reporting.

6. Ability to identify and develop operational/financial improvements using a deep understanding of business areas.

7. Passion for Financial Planning and Analytics / BI technology.

8. Enthusiasm, energy, and drive to excel.

9. Ability to operate in an ambiguous, rapidly changing environment.

Every day, Lonza’s products and services positively impact millions of people. This immense privilege comes with great responsibility. How we achieve our business goals is as important as the goals themselves. At Lonza, we respect and protect our people and environment. Success is no success at all if not achieved ethically.

People join Lonza for the challenge and creativity involved in solving complex problems and developing new ideas in life sciences. In return, we offer the satisfaction of making a meaningful difference in lives worldwide.