Sr. Coupa Implementation Specialist - Procurement Systems & Data - 6323

Contract Duration: 12 months

Location: Downtown Toronto

In office requirement: 3 days per week

The Opportunity

We are seeking an energetic and curious systems and data professional who will be responsible for providing leadership and execution with respect to procurement technology and data. Key functions include configuring our procurement tools with business rules; maintaining them to ensure proper system behaviour and to align with evolving business practices; and to drive continuous improvement to optimize the user experience and maximize efficiency, adoption, and compliance. The successful applicant will become part of a dynamic and innovative team with a strong reputation for delivering value, through procurement advisory and execution, across the enterprise.

Who they will work with

Procurement is a department within the Finance division that is growing in both size and influence, and this scale necessitates the leveraging of technology to enable efficient collaboration across the enterprise on procurement matters.

• Since we are at the early stage of a major e-procurement platform implementation, near term work will be project-oriented, necessitating close collaboration with the procurement team, the broader implementation project team, as well as current process stakeholders and future system and workflow stakeholders.
• On a steady-state, daily basis, this role will primarily work with the Procurement team to ensure the system runs smoothly and data has high integrity. Interactions with core procurement sourcing and contract specialists will include topics related to how to use the system, determining the root cause of unintended system behaviour and developing and implementing resolutions, and working proactively and reactively to enhance the configuration for better user experience, to align with evolving policy and protocol, or to take advantage of software features. Other high priority stakeholders requiring similar, but less frequent support, include the legal department and risk partners (e.g. cyber security)
• Beyond the systems’ primary users, this role will also be responsible for supporting end users on system and data questions that core procurement team members can’t answer. This includes topics of how to use the system which has been configured to reflect specific procurement workflow, investigating the root cause of unintended system behaviour, and helping users reconcile system actions with procurement best practices, policy and due diligence obligations. ”End-users’ primary means internal users, however supporting external users, such as suppliers who interact with instance of procurement platforms, will be occasionally required.
• Acting as a representative and subject matter expert of the Procurement team, this role will have occasional internal liaison responsibilities e.g. with IT, the Data & Analytics team, Corporate Finance, etc. and occasional external liaison responsibilities, e.g. with software vendors on matters of maintenance and support.
• This role will report to the Director of Strategic Procurement, however reporting relationships for this role and other roles on the team are constantly subject to review for the purpose of maximizing the efficient delivery of procurement support services to the enterprise.

What they will do:

• Serve as the primary expert on procurement systems and data, managing both small- and large-scale projects and system configurations.
• Participate in workshops for the development or continuous improvement of procurement systems
• Configure and maintain workflows, business rules, and system settings to automate and optimize procurement processes.
• Ensure data integrity and accuracy within the procurement systems.
• Manage user accounts, roles, and permissions within platforms.
• Develop and optimize reports and dashboards within procurement systems.
• Develop test criteria, scripts and cases, and lead and execute testing of changes.
• Perform system upgrades and maintenance.
• Create and maintain functional specification documents, and design change and decision documents and records.
• Create, maintain and communicate standards related to procurement-specific master data.
• Provide ongoing knowledge transfer, support and troubleshooting for internal and external users, including the core Procurement team, other power users, end-users, and suppliers with whom does business and collaborates on our platforms. This may encompass technical troubleshooting, investigation and resolution; education related to system and workflow; and reinforcement of due diligence obligations and policy.
• Create and maintain training materials for employees and suppliers.
• Collaborate with IT teams on matters related to integrations with other systems, and for system integration, testing and releases.
• Leverage software vendor resources, both online/self-serve, and through support relationships at the vendor.
• Stay abreast of evolving functionality of the procurement systems, which could improve Procurement’s effectiveness, enhance the user experience (both power users and end-users), or address functionality issues.

Decision Making

• A key responsibility of this role will be maintaining, fixing and enhancing the configuration of procurement systems. The role will be looked upon to independently research and identify options for configuration changes.
• The role will be empowered to implement simple changes, especially those related to data management and maintenance. This is especially true where there is no impact on controls, change in system behaviour, or where a change brings the system into line with expected business rules/behaviour.
• Most proposed changes will be subject approval for two reasons: for documentation and control; and for awareness among a small group of procurement system thought leaders within the Procurement team. A discussion may be needed to weigh pros and cons of potential changes considering the impact on user experience, configuration simplicity / elegance, and workflow / controls / policy.

What they will need

• Bachelor’s Degree or equivalent in Computer Science, Engineering, Business or related fields
• 3+ years of hands-on experience as a system administrator supporting procurement functions
• 5+ years of Project Management
• Coupa Platform Certification would be an asset.
• Strong understanding of procurement processes, from Source to Pay.
• Experience in configuring and integrating procurement modules (e.g. supplier management, contract management, analytics, sourcing) with ERP systems.
• High degree of self-motivation and curiosity to learn new systems and new functionality.
• Procurement management expertise, including optimization of source-to-pay workflows, and a desire to continuously improve procedural efficiency.
• Strong communication skills and self-motivated desire to present to, teach and coach end-users.
• Ability to build effective relationships; to collaborate; to have a constant service mindset towards a diverse group of professional, technical and administrative personnel; and to elicit support for change.
• Proficiency in data visualization tools (e.g., Tableau, PowerBI).
• Strong data analysis and reporting skills, with the ability to generate insights from procurement data.
• Financial acumen, including understanding of cost structures and efficient spend management.
• Technical proficiency in test program development, functionality testing, ETL testing, performance testing, configuration management tools, and application security.
• Experience with data taxonomy and classification systems for effective management between applications.
• Advanced skills in Microsoft Office Suite, particularly Excel and PowerPoint.
• Change management skills, particularly in guiding individuals through changes driven by the use of technology within procurement contexts.
• Ability to work independently and in a team environment.
• Commitment to continuous learning and staying updated with the latest solution features and best practices.

This role will also be entrusted to independently represent Procurement team in interactions with internal and external suers. Change management and driving adoption of system and processes is a core responsibility of this role (as is the case for all Procurement team members), and during these interactions it may be necessary to reinforce, in a professional and positive manner, matters of workflow, due diligence obligations, and policy.