Procurement Platform IT Owner - VP

Who we are

Sumitomo Mitsui Finance Dublin Limited (SMFD) is a wholly owned subsidiary of SMBC and is growing rapidly as a Centre of Excellence for the bank’s universal banking business across EMEA.  It provides a range of technology and operational support services, aligned to SMBC’s growth, innovation, and transformation strategies.

Purpose of Job

The Procurement Platform IT Owner will lead the build-out and delivery of the EMEA Procurement technology capability, with a primary focus on Coupa and related procurement platforms. The role will drive  technical change, enhancements and project delivery by  collating and translating business requirements and operating model needs into practical functional outcomes. 

Working closely with Procurement, ITSD project teams, external implementation partners and the US-based Coupa technical team, the role will  manage the creation, configuration, testing and implementation of new platform capabilities in line with agreed development standards and change governance. This is a hands-on role, suited to someone who combines strong platform and technical expertise with the ability to influence senior stakeholders, lead cross functional teams and deliver strategic system development, major enhancements and strategic upgrades. 

Background

• The core focus of this role will be ownership of all technical delivery activity, change and enhancements relating to the Coupa platform and associated Procurement technology across the EMEA Region 
• The role involves working closely with business customers and other members of ITSD team to deliver optimal and prioritised business solutions.  

Accountabilities and Responsibilities

• Owning the end-to-end procurement platform technology domain across EMEA, including the end-to-end delivery lifecycle covering solution design, development oversight, system testing, and controlled implementation of reconciliation technology assets  
• Leading strategy, roadmap planning, and architectural direction for procurement services, ensuring decisions are delivered through funded system build and upgrades. 
• Leads, coaches, and develops team members, fostering a high‑performance culture and building capability to support consistent, high‑quality technical delivery. 
• Driving delivery of material enhancements, and integration initiatives, including requirements definition, solution design, development, system testing, UAT and production deployment  
• Own product vision, roadmap, functional design, and provide configuration support of  key strategy and design elements for Coupa Procure to Pay, Contract Lifecycle Management, Sourcing and other in-scope modules for EMEA. 
• Lead prioritisation of  Coupa Procure-to-Pay projects and backlogs. 
• Support configuration, implementation, testing and user training. 
• Work closely with ERP development teams in the creation, validation and maintenance of user interfaces and functional/non-functional requirements. 
• Provide occasional support of the Coupa Procure-to-Pay environment including applying periodic patches, reporting requirements, ad-hoc requests from business and production system support. 
• Maintain a configuration document of all Coupa-related changes. 
• Liaise across IT domains to deliver Coupa Procure-to-Pay functionality, including but not limited to infrastructure engineering, database, security and operations support. 
• Support Data Mapping/Integration design efforts, creating specifications for building of ERP integrations with Coupa environment.  
• Continuously review opportunities for improvement in how the Coupa platform is leveraged while bringing best practices to the forefront. 
• Ensure that proposed solutions comply with the company's technology direction as well as change management and security policies. 
• Facilitate creation of and document user test cases, assist in development of test scripts for automated testing purposes. 
• Support the change management process for all Coupa SMBC-requested change requests 
• Support occasional off hours and weekend work to where change deployment activity necessitates. 

Knowledge, Skills, Experience and Qualifications

Education & Qualifications: 

• Educated to degree level or equivalent vocational or working experience. 
•  Proven experience within a Technology Implementation lead, Project Manager or Business Analyst role operating preferably in the financial services industry. 
• Certification in Coupa or a similar platform would be advantageous. 

Knowledge & Experience: 

• Demonstrable hands on technical understanding of Procure-to-Pay (Coupa, Ariba Oracle Procurement or Ivalua) 
• Ability to clearly describe end-to-end business processes and the key integration points, work cross-functionally across different business processes within an organisation. 
• Experience leading and developing high-performing teams, with accountability for delivery and performance management 
• Strong I.T. analysis, configuration and development experience and implementation in a formal SDLC environment. 
• Substantial experience (technology or functional / industry specific) of Procurement/Third-Party Management, Procure-2-Pay, e-Invoicing & Source-2-Pay.  
• Substantial experience of data analysis and reporting 
• Advanced knowledge of office suite applications, especially MS-Visio, MS-Excel and MS-Word 
• Some knowledge of Agile tools, JIRA, Confluence and / or MS DevOps. 

Skills: 

• Empathetic with strong analytical and problem-solving skills  
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills with the ability to communicate appropriate, concise and accurate information.  
• Ability to multi-task, with Excellent interpersonal skills, organisational awareness and people skills. 
• Strong stakeholder management, negotiation, influencing and communication skills  
• Fluency in written and spoken English. 
• Ability to operate sensitively and effectively in a multicultural environment. 

Challenges

• Bridging the gap between broad business knowledge and in depth technical skills in order to understand the nature of issues and resolve these satisfactorily.  
• The role has to combine a high degree of business expertise and common market practices with IT technical skills, with ability to use these to address SMBC specific requirements. 
• The role requires collaborative skills to work in parallel with different IT teams to deliver cross system solutions to meet business requirements. 
• Working in matrix environment, with a complex set of internal & external stakeholder relationships. 

What we offer

For all the expertise and experience you bring to help us make a difference, it’s only sustainable if we support you to build your career and be your best self so we offer competitive company benefits, centred around promoting positive well-bring and work-life balance. We also believe in fostering a diverse and inclusive work environment, where all team members perspectives and contributions are valued. Initiatives in place which promote a diverse and inclusive culture and healthy work life balance include hybrid working, Sport & Social Clubs and Diversity and Inclusion networks.

As an employee of SMBC you have access to a host of both useful and exciting benefit offerings. See below some of the benefits on offer to you:

• Hybrid and flexible working 
• Competitive paid leave days
• Benefits to support your physical wellbeing, including private medical insurance and life and invalidity insurance 
• Various policies to support your mental wellbeing, including a robust behavioural health network with counselling and coaching services  
• Access a wide range of learning and development opportunities and career progression opportunities 
• Ambitious remuneration package

So, if you like a challenge and want to continuously grow and develop in a role where you will be supported along the way by a dynamic and diverse team, apply today!!