AP Deployment Specialist

Key Responsibilities

• Discovery & Country Requirements
• Engage in country discovery workshops, process walkthroughs, and design discussions.
• Illustrate and clarify current-state AP processes, controls, approval workflows, exception handling, and operational practices.
• Identify specific legal, tax, regulatory, compliance, language, and operational needs for each country.
• Ensure accurate understanding and documentation of local requirements.
• Evaluate the operational impacts of proposed future-state processes.
• Process Validation & Future-State Readiness
• Review and validate Process Design Documents (PDDs), business requirements, process flows, controls, exception scenarios, and operating procedures.
• Verify that future-state processes accurately represent AP operational needs and business realities.
• Assess how future-state processes will be managed, supported, and governed by AP after
  
  

deployment.

• Identify operational gaps, support requirements, ownership responsibilities, and adoption risks.
• Confirm that future-state solutions are scalable, sustainable, and practical for long-term AP operations.
• Business Validation & User Acceptance Testing (UAT)
• Create comprehensive UAT scenarios and business test scripts based on real AP operational activities, controls, and exception handling requirements.
• Prepare and maintain necessary business test data.
• Conduct UAT and ensure solutions meet approved business requirements.
• Verify that business outcomes are achieved, focusing on functional operations beyond mere system performance.
• Identify defects, process gaps, usability issues, operational impacts, and business risks.
• Assist in defect triage, retesting, and business sign-off activities. System Integration Testing (SIT) is executed by implementation and development teams, while the Senior AP Deployment Specialist emphasizes business validation and UAT tasks.
• Deployment Readiness & Go-Live Support
• Assist in deployment planning, readiness assessments, cutover activities, and country go-live preparations.
• Validate operational readiness across users, controls, work instructions, exception handling procedures, and support processes.
• Coordinate deployment readiness activities with country AP teams.
• Ensure user preparedness and operational readiness prior to deployment.
• Support business go-live activities and the transition to production operations.
• Hypercare & Stabilization
• Serve as an AP User during go-live and hyper-care phases.
• Aid in issue identification, investigation, prioritization, escalation, and resolution.
• Monitor user adoption, operational effectiveness, exception trends, and process performance.
• Facilitate the transition from project deployment to steady-state AP
  
  

ownership and operations.

• Confirm that AP teams are fully equipped to maintain and sustain future-state processes.
• AP Operations & Continuous Improvement
• Identify opportunities to enhance process effectiveness, user experience, controls, and operational efficiency.
• Document lessons learned and support continuous improvement efforts for future deployment phases.
• Encourage the adoption of standardized global processes across various countries.
• Assist AP in incorporating intelligent automation and future AI-driven capabilities.
• Provide operational insights to inform future solution enhancements and country rollouts.
  
  

Qualifications Required On Your First Day

• Bachelor’s degree in accounting, Finance, Business Administration, Supply Chain, Information Systems, or a related field.
• 5-7 years of experience in Accounts Payable, Procure-to-Pay, Shared Services, Finance Operations, or AP transformation projects.
• In-depth understanding of invoice processing, approvals, exception management, controls, and payment readiness processes.
• Experience in UAT, deployment, go-live, hyper-care, or operational improvement initiatives.
• Strong analytical, communication, documentation, and stakeholder management abilities.
• Proven capability to work collaboratively across global teams and multiple countries.
  
  

Preferred Experience

• Familiarity with SAP ECC and/or SAP S/4HANA.
• Experience in supporting ERP, invoice processing, workflow, or automation deployments.
• Knowledge of intelligent document processing, workflow automation, RPA, or AI-enabled finance solutions.
• Background in supporting global or multi-country transformation programs.
• Experience within Shared Services or Global Business Services organizations.
  
  

Critical Success Factors

• Represent AP operational requirements throughout the deployment process.
• Bring practical AP operational insights into process reviews, testing, deployment, and stabilization activities.
• Ensure that future-state processes are sustainable and practical for AP teams.
• Identify operational risks, process gaps, control issues, and adoption challenges early in the lifecycle.
• Support successful UAT, deployment readiness, go-live, hyper-care, and stabilization efforts.
• Build credibility with AP users, operational stakeholders, and project teams.
• Drive successful user adoption and transition into steady-state operations.
• Advocate for continuous improvement and operational excellence post-deployment.
  
  

Success Metrics

• AP operational requirements are accurately represented throughout the deployment lifecycle.
• Country-specific business needs are validated and effectively integrated.
• PDDs, requirements, and operational procedures reflect genuine AP operational demands.
• UAT scenarios encompass realistic business activities and exception scenarios.
• AP users are well-prepared for deployment, adoption, and future-state operations.
• Future-state processes are sustainable and can be efficiently managed by AP teams following project completion.
• Country deployments achieve successful business adoption with minimal disruption.
• Hypercare activities transition seamlessly into stable operations and business ownership.