SAP Professional Services Functional Lead

Job Title: SAP Cloud ERP Professional Services Functional LeadLocation: Chicago, IL or New York City, NYOnsite Requirements: 10% onsiteIntroductionWe are seeking an experienced SAP Cloud ERP Professional Services Functional Lead to own the functional design, configuration, stabilization, and ongoing optimization of SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition Professional Services processes for a project-based organization. This role centers on the customer project lifecycle, project billing, time and cost capture, profitability, and operational controls, and involves close partnership with Finance and connected workforce and resource management systems.Day-to-Day ResponsibilitiesOwn the post-go-live functional roadmap and configuration backlog for SAP Professional Services and customer project capabilitiesConfigure and support customer project structures, stages, work packages, roles, planned effort, cost, and revenue inputs, and lifecycle controlsLead functional design for billing preparation, billing plans, billing elements, and billing requests, including handoffs to billing and accountingSupport project financial planning, visibility into actual costs and revenue, margin analysis, and integration with Finance and Event-Based Revenue RecognitionDefine and maintain project master data standards, templates, derivation rules, validation controls, and governancePartner with resource management and time systems so project, role, assignment, budget, and time data are ready for downstream processingAnalyze production defects tied to customer projects, billing, time and cost postings, master data, workflow, or integrationsLead acceptance criteria, test scenarios, regression packs, and business validation for Professional Services changesMaintain end-to-end process documentation from project setup through time and cost capture, billing, revenue recognition, and closureDrive fit-to-standard decisions and limit unnecessary custom extensionsSupport business teams during billing cycles, project setup peaks, period-end activities, and critical incidentsReview SAP release changes to assess business impact, test scope, and adoption opportunitiesCoordinate functional dependencies across Finance, Billing, HR/time, resource management, CRM/engagement systems, data, and integration teamsLead backlog refinement and prioritize changes based on operational risk, business value, and stabilization needsProvide quality oversight of system integrator deliverables, including configuration, test evidence, and production fixesOwn stabilization of customer project and billing processes using severity- and SLA-based triageMonitor recurring errors in project setup, time and cost postings, billing preparation, project closure, and integrated master dataMaintain operating procedures, support playbooks, known-error records, and release regression scenariosDrive continuous improvement in project setup cycle time, billing readiness, data quality, and user adoptionRequired Skills & Qualifications8+ years of SAP Project Systems / Professional Services functional experience, including S/4HANA deliveryExperience with SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition Professional Services and customer projects (hands-on configuration strongly preferred)Knowledge of project lifecycle, work packages, project master data, and project financial controlsExperience with project billing, billing plans, and billing elementsExperience integrating with Finance/Controlling and Event-Based Revenue RecognitionUnderstanding of project-based services economics, including time and cost capture, billing, margin, and revenue recognition dependenciesFamiliarity with time/expense and resource management integration conceptsExperience with SAP Fiori, testing, defect triage, configuration governance, and release impact assessmentProduction support experience following an ERP go-liveBachelor's degree in Business, Finance, Information Systems, Engineering, or equivalent experiencePreferred Skills & QualificationsExperience in consulting, accounting, engineering, legal, or other project-based professional services firmsExperience integrating SAP with workforce, resource planning, or time systems such as Deltek Replicon and DayshapeCurrent SAP certification aligned to S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition Professional Services, or related implementation training