Director, Finance Transformation – Record to Report

Applied Materials • Santa Clara, CA

3d • $180,500 - $248,500 • Onsite

About The Position

Reporting to the Vice President of Finance Transformation, the Director, Finance Transformation – Record to Report (R2R) will lead the Finance workstream of Applied’s SAP S/4HANA transformation for the Record to Report Key Process Chain. This leader will partner with the R2R Global Process Owner and Global Process Leaders to design the company’s future-state close, reporting, costing and control environment, and to translate Finance and Controllership priorities into solution requirements the program can build, test and deploy.
Applied Materials is replacing its SAP ECC core with S/4HANA and using that transition to retire system, data and process debt across the enterprise. The program is organized around Key Process Chains led by Global Process Owners, with a prioritized opportunity set grouped into capability bundles and sequenced across multiple releases. Record to Report scope includes a redesigned finance code block and legal entity structure, standardized product costing, automated revenue recognition on SAP RAR, intercompany and tax redesign, continuous close, embedded controls, and modernization of treasury, fixed asset and lease accounting.
The Director will own the R2R transformation agenda end to end — future-state process and operating model, solution requirements, control environment, release readiness and adoption — leading a team of direct reports alongside matrixed finance subject-matter experts and system integrator resources.
The successful candidate will combine deep Record-to-Report and controls expertise with hands-on SAP transformation delivery experience, operational discipline, executive presence, and the ability to influence Finance, Technology and Data leaders across a highly dynamic global technology and manufacturing environment.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Accounting, Finance, Engineering, Business or a related discipline; MBA, CPA, CA, CMA or other advanced credentials preferred.
• 12+ years of progressive experience in finance transformation, ERP-enabled transformation, or finance process and controls, including delivery in a top-tier advisory firm or a comparable in-house transformation organization.
• Demonstrated ownership of a Finance workstream on a full-scope SAP program — greenfield implementation, S/4HANA transformation or major ERP replacement — through design, build, testing and go-live.
• Hands-on functional depth in Record-to-Report, including close and consolidation, financial and management reporting, intercompany, product costing and reconciliation, together with working command of at least one adjacent process chain such as Order-to-Cash or Source-to-Pay.
• Strong controls background spanning SOX and ICFR, control design and automation, and audit readiness, with practical technical accounting exposure including ASC 606 revenue recognition and ASC 842 lease accounting.
• Proven ability to lead large-scale finance transformation, process improvement, systems implementation or analytics initiatives with quantified outcomes.
• Deep working knowledge of enterprise ERP environments, particularly SAP (ECC and/or S/4HANA), including financial data structures, the code block, cost center and profit center hierarchies, and reporting extraction.
• Hands-on experience with finance automation and close platforms such as BlackLine, receivables automation such as HighRadius, invoice capture such as OpenText VIM, SAP RAR, and planning or consolidation tooling, including design, implementation and adoption at scale.
• Strong working knowledge of AI and automation applications for enterprise finance functions, together with a practical understanding of the data quality, governance and control requirements these tools demand.
• Experience developing and translating requirements in an agile or hybrid delivery model, including user stories, acceptance criteria, backlog management and user acceptance testing.
• Experience supporting senior executives and influencing high-level strategic and operational decisions, including CFO- and Controller-level stakeholders and steering-committee forums.
• Exceptional analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to synthesize complex information into clear recommendations for executive audiences.
• Strong leadership, communication and interpersonal skills, with a demonstrated ability to influence across functions and organizational levels.

Nice To Haves

• Experience in the semiconductor, advanced technology, capital equipment, industrial, manufacturing or other complex global industries strongly preferred, particularly environments with configure-to-order or engineer-to-order complexity.
• Familiarity with a Global Process Owner operating model, clean-core governance, and global shared-services or center-of-excellence operating footprints.
• A very mature individual with the right balance of confidence and humility.
• Exceptional ability to absorb and handle stress.
• Process oriented while also strongly developing and relying on interpersonal relationships across the company
• Ability to connect equally well upwards, downwards and sideways in the organization
• Self-motivated and driven towards excellence
• A high level of EQ to be able to manage across a large team with significant diversity
• An inspiring leader
• Analyzing, processing and decision-making based on multidisciplinary and multi-functional data sources that could frequently be incomplete.
• Ability to distinguish between and prioritizing urgent and important issues
• Situational awareness and complex decision-making ability appropriate for the situation

Responsibilities

• Own the Record-to-Report future-state process design across close and consolidation, financial and management reporting, intercompany, tax, product costing, revenue recognition, treasury, fixed assets and leases.
• Align the design to clean-core principles and standard S/4HANA capability, challenging customization that carries forward existing system and process debt.
• Translate Finance and Controllership priorities into solution requirements, process designs, user stories, acceptance criteria and decision papers that Global Process Leaders, IT and the system integrator can execute against.
• Maintain the R2R roadmap and release content, sequencing opportunities across capability bundles and releases and keeping scope decisions traceable to the program value case.
• Manage cross-process dependencies with Forecast-to-Cash, Source-to-Settle, Idea-to-Retire, Plan-to-Fulfill and Customer Service, escalating conflicts early and resolving them at the right level.
• Shape the future-state Finance operating model, including role design, global process ownership, shared services and center-of-excellence boundaries, and the governance required to sustain harmonized process after go-live.
• Design the future-state control environment, including embedded and automated controls, segregation of duties within the new role model, and SOX and ICFR coverage throughout the transition.
• Ensure an audit-ready evidence trail across design, testing, cutover and dual-run periods.
• Partner with Controllership and Technical Accounting on revenue recognition automation in SAP RAR, lease accounting, intercompany and transfer pricing mechanics, ensuring accounting policy intent survives translation into system configuration.
• Work with Internal Audit and the external auditor on program risk, control reliance and remediation so that go-live does not introduce audit findings or material weaknesses.
• Establish process and control documentation, standard operating procedures and ongoing ownership for the future-state environment.
• Drive the Finance automation agenda across close, reconciliation, path-to-cash and reporting processes, assessing and prioritizing opportunities, building the business case, and delivering measurable cycle-time and effort reduction.
• Champion the responsible adoption of AI and machine learning within the Record-to-Report processes — including anomaly detection, automated reconciliation, and narrative reporting — with appropriate governance, data controls and human review.
• Own Finance master data and governance requirements, including the code block, cost center and profit center hierarchies, legal entity and plant structures, partnering with Finance systems, Data & Analytics and the Executive Data Council.
• Evaluate and integrate complementary platforms where standard S/4HANA is not the answer — close and reconciliation automation, invoice capture, receivables and collections, planning and consolidation — with a realistic view of integration effort and total cost of ownership.
• Run the R2R workstream, including plan, resource model, budget, risk and issue management, milestone readiness, testing and defect triage, cutover and hypercare.
• Provide transparent status reporting that surfaces risks and dependencies early enough to be acted upon.
• Prepare and present to executive governance forums, including the S/4 Steering Committee and Finance leadership, framing options, trade-offs, resource implications and a clear recommendation.
• Secure and hold Finance resource commitments, backfills and subject-matter-expert allocations across the preparation, design and deployment phases.
• Manage system integrator and advisory partners to the standard of work Applied expects, holding them accountable for quality, pace and knowledge transfer.
• Lead the change and adoption agenda for Finance, including stakeholder engagement, communications, training, documentation and post-go-live reinforcement for finance users globally.
• Measure success by adoption and process performance rather than training completion, and act on the gaps that measurement exposes.
• Build, lead and develop a high-performing transformation team, coaching direct reports and seconded finance subject-matter experts.
• Promote collaboration across Corporate Finance, business-unit finance teams, Accounting, Tax, Treasury, Internal Audit, IT and Data & Analytics.
• Foster a culture of analytical rigor, accountability, operational excellence and continuous improvement.

Benefits

• supportive work culture that encourages you to learn, develop, and grow your career
• comprehensive benefits package
• participation in a bonus and a stock award program

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Director