Financial Systems Enterprise Application Owner

Gallagher•Toronto, IA

2d•Remote

About The Position

The Enterprise Application Owner, Finance Systems is the strategic and operational leader responsible for the end-to-end lifecycle of the organization’s financial application ecosystem. The role ensures finance platforms serve as systems of record for core financial processes, including general ledger, financial planning and analysis (FP&A), consolidation, reporting, and regulatory compliance. It safeguards data integrity, financial controls, and system reliability while enabling scalable, standardized finance capabilities. Acting as the primary liaison among Finance, Controllership, and Technology, the owner aligns system capabilities with business objectives, optimizes processes, supports audit and SOX compliance, and enables timely, accurate financial reporting. The role leads the roadmap for finance-system enhancements, integrations, and automation to improve close cycles, reporting insights, and operational efficiency. It also oversees vendor relationships, platform governance, and user adoption, ensuring the application landscape develops in line with organizational growth, regulatory requirements, and industry best practices. The role defines a three-to-five-year application vision, manages the roadmap and demand prioritization, owns application total cost of ownership and budgets, and is accountable for delivery and operational health. It works with IT Operations on performance, availability, reliability, root-cause analysis, and supported-version management. It also supports data stewardship, security and compliance remediation, and current documentation. The position partners with, mentors, and develops a high-performing global IT team and works with internal stakeholders, vendors, and partners to deliver enterprise applications.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology, Finance, Accounting, or a related field.
10 or more years of progressive experience in enterprise technology.
At least 5 years of experience in Finance Systems roles such as Application Owner, Product Manager, Solution Architect, or Business Analyst supporting large-scale ERP and financial platforms.
Strong functional knowledge of Record-to-Report (R2R), general ledger, financial close, consolidation, FP&A, and financial reporting.
Experience defining and executing multi-year application roadmaps aligned to finance transformation initiatives, such as close optimization, reporting enhancements, and automation.
Experience managing total cost of ownership, including budgeting, forecasting, licensing, and vendor spend for enterprise finance systems.
Experience in regulated environments and strong understanding of SOX controls, audit requirements, segregation of duties, and financial data governance.
Hands-on experience with finance platforms such as Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations and OneStream, or comparable ERP/EPM tools, including integrations with upstream and downstream systems such as CRM, payroll, and BI/reporting.
Strong understanding of modern delivery methodologies such as Agile/Scrum and experience working with cross-functional product and engineering teams.
Excellent communication skills and ability to translate technical concepts into business outcomes for Finance leadership and vice versa.
Leadership, stakeholder-management, and vendor-management skills, with the ability to influence across Finance, IT, and executive leadership.
Ability to prioritize and negotiate across Finance, Controllership, FP&A, and Technology stakeholders while balancing competing demands.
Experience with controlled environments, SOX, audit requirements, segregation of duties, financial controls, and data-governance standards such as GAAP, SOC, and COBIT.
Ability to lead finance platforms in a global environment supporting multiple regions, currencies, and regulatory requirements.
Proactive problem-solving skills and ability to anticipate business needs and deliver scalable, practical solutions.
Ability to build trusted partnerships with Finance leadership and technology teams and align demand, capacity, and investment to business priorities.
Strong judgment in complex, data-sensitive environments, balancing financial accuracy, risk, and operational efficiency.
Demonstrated ability to lead through influence in a matrixed, global organization and motivate teams across regions and levels.

Nice To Haves

Advanced degree, such as an MBA, or a CPA.

Responsibilities

Define, communicate, and secure executive alignment for the application’s long-term strategic vision, ensuring it supports organizational objectives and business capabilities.
Develop and maintain the application roadmap, balancing feature development, upgrades, technical debt reduction, and retirement or replacement planning.
Serve as the primary liaison to designated Business Process Owners and translate business needs, regulatory changes, and pain points into prioritized functional requirements.
Measure and report on the application’s business value and return on investment.
Lead intake and prioritization for change requests, new features, and bug fixes, balancing competing demands and focusing IT resources on high-value initiatives.
Own the application’s total cost of ownership and manage annual operating and capital budgets, including licensing, maintenance, hosting, and development.
Manage software-vendor relationships, contract negotiations, license compliance, and service delivery performance.
Be accountable for successful delivery of roadmap projects and features on time, within budget, and to quality standards.
Collaborate with IT Operations to monitor application performance, availability, reliability, and SLAs; lead root-cause analysis and address recurring issues with long-term solutions.
Ensure application architecture adheres to enterprise standards and keep the application on a current, supported version to mitigate technical and security risks.
Act as or closely support the designated Data Steward and ensure compliance with data governance policies, data-quality and integrity requirements, privacy regulations, and retention policies.
Ensure the application environment meets corporate IT security, risk, and audit requirements, and lead and track remediation of security findings.
Maintain current documentation for business processes, technical architecture, data model, and license usage.
Partner with, mentor, and develop a high-performing global IT team, fostering collaboration, innovation, and accountability.
Build and maintain relationships with internal stakeholders, external vendors, and partners to support effective enterprise application delivery.
Support financial process ownership for close cycles, consolidation and reporting, and FP&A and forecasting.
Support SOX and audit readiness, financial data integrity, and segregation-of-duties controls.
Deliver business outcomes including shorter close cycles, improved reporting insights, and standardized finance processes.
Champion Gallagher’s values and culture and engage, participate, and collaborate with others.