Job Purpose
The Sage Implementation Lead is a 12-month, time-bound delivery role responsible for completing Fika’s Sage Intacct implementation beyond the core accounting foundation. With Phase I nearing completion, the role will lead Phases II–V across integration, compliance, and operations, working cross-functionally with Finance, Business Development, Programs, Compliance, and Information Systems.
The role will define and document requirements with owning departments, design the integration architecture and configuration approach, and deliver each phase through implementation. Designs require approval from the Director of Enterprise Platforms to ensure alignment with Fika’s broader systems architecture and roadmap, while the Implementation Lead retains technical decision-making authority within the approved design.
The role is designed to build and hand off. Over 12 months, the Implementation Lead will complete Phases II–V and leave Fika with documented designs, trained users, and clear internal ownership for each module, eliminating the need for a successor implementation contract.
Phases in Scope
Phase I is closing out under Finance leadership and sits outside this role’s scope, though the Implementation Lead inherits its configuration decisions and constraints. Requirements maturity varies by phase. Phase I was delivered in house and its requirements exist largely as configuration history rather than documentation. Phases II-V should be assumed to require requirements definition from a standing start.
Phase Module Timeframe
II Salesforce Integration FY26 Q4
III Banking and Integration FY27 Q1
IV Grants Management FY27 Q2
V Warehouse and Project Billing FY27 Q3
One technical question the role inherits: the Divvy and BILL integration proved limited enough that Finance chose to keep using a journal entry import in order to retain both Project and Grant dimensions. Assessing whether Phase III changes that decision is part of the work. The Gusto payroll integration is operational and posts directly into Sage.
Duties & Responsibilities
Integration Architecture & Technical Delivery (30%)
- Design the Salesforce-to-Intacct integration architecture, including object and field mapping, dimensional alignment, error handling, reconciliation, and failure recovery, and secure approval from the Director of Enterprise Platforms before build.
- Develop the Phase III banking and payment integration architecture, including a recommendation on whether it replaces or supplements the existing journal entry import, and secure sign-off.
- Define the configuration approach for grants management, warehouse, and project billing based on approved business requirements.
- Ensure Project, Grant, and other key dimensions remain aligned end to end, with documented data mappings across each integration and configuration.
- Clearly document options, trade-offs, and recommendations for approval. Escalate any conflicts with Fika’s integration standards to the Director of Enterprise Platforms.
- Route material design changes identified during build back through the appropriate approval process rather than absorbing them without review.
- Partner with the Salesforce Lead and Salesforce Administrator to deliver the technical build once design approval is secured.
Requirements Definition, Phase Delivery & Implementation Management (30%)
- Facilitate requirements definition for each phase and produce the business and functional requirements covering processes, data, dimensions, reporting, and controls for approval by the owning department.
- Reconcile conflicting data definitions across Finance, Programs, Business Development, and Enterprise Platforms and document agreed standards.
- For Phase IV, translate Fika’s institutional and government award requirements into dimensional, reporting, and configuration requirements in partnership with Finance and Compliance.
- Lead the delivery plan for Phases II–V, including scope, dependencies, timelines, and coordination across affected functions.
- Run each phase as a discrete project with an agreed schedule, decision and risk logs, and reporting cadence.
- Ensure requirements are approved before a phase begins, each phase is closed before the next starts, and the core financial system remains stable throughout.
- Identify resourcing constraints and unresolved requirements early, particularly where delivery depends on teams outside the role’s direct authority, and escalate jointly to the relevant department lead and Director of Enterprise Platforms when needed.
- Sequence grants management configuration around Fika’s live institutional and government donor reporting obligations and compliance requirements.
Data Integrity, Testing & Financial Controls (20%)
- Design and execute unit, integration, and user acceptance testing for each phase in the Sage Intacct sandbox, including parallel validation where financial risk warrants it. No production deployment without appropriate sandbox testing and acceptance, with any limitations documented and mitigated in the deployment plan.
- Develop automated reconciliation and exception reporting to validate data transfers, record counts, and control totals, with Finance able to operate and interpret the reporting independently.
- Ensure each phase complies with Fika’s internal controls, approval workflows, and segregation of duties, coordinating with Finance and Compliance on any changes introduced by integrations.
- Preserve Sage’s established access, authentication, and audit trail standards, including two-factor authentication for all users.
- Ensure new configurations and integrations do not compromise existing reporting, including role-based dashboards and the Sage Intacct Planning budget environment.
Change Enablement, Training & Documentation (10%)
- Build and deliver practical, sustainable training for each phase that can be used independently after the contract ends.
- Keep configuration, architecture, data mappings, test evidence, and design decisions documented as living resources throughout implementation.
- Partner with Organizational Learning and Knowledge Management to embed implementation knowledge in Fika’s permanent systems and records.
- Provide a clear handover naming internal owners for each module and integration and documenting any outstanding risks or actions.
Vendor and Partner Management (5%)
- Serve as Fika’s day-to-day point of contact with Sage, implementation partners, and resellers supporting the in-scope phases.
- Assess Sage and partner recommendations against Fika’s dimensional integrity and existing Salesforce architecture, escalating conflicts to the Director of Enterprise Platforms before proceeding.
- Track Sage releases and roadmap developments to avoid unnecessary customisation and prevent releases from disrupting work in progress.
- Flag contractual or commercial issues with external partners to the Director of Enterprise Platforms and Finance rather than resolving them independently.
Reporting (5%)
- Provide regular written status reporting to the Director of Enterprise Platforms, escalating risk early and specifically.
- Prepare briefings for leadership or governance committees where a phase decision carries organizational, financial, or compliance consequence.
Qualifications
- 5+ years leading ERP or financial systems implementations, including at least one full Sage Intacct implementation through production.
- Proven experience designing integration architecture for financial systems, including direct experience integrating Salesforce with a financial system.
- Deep working knowledge of Sage Intacct dimensional architecture and its impact on downstream reporting.
- Strong ability to evaluate and communicate technical trade-offs, work within an approved architecture, and adapt when designs are modified.
- Demonstrated ability to lead cross-functional systems projects without direct authority over contributing teams.
- Experience eliciting and documenting business and functional requirements from non-technical stakeholders, including facilitated requirements sessions and process mapping.
- Strong understanding of core financial processes, including close, AP, bank reconciliation, and budget-to-actual reporting.
- Ability to produce clear requirements, configuration, and training documentation for non-technical users.
- Experience working effectively across time zones and cultures with distributed teams.
- Strong communication skills, with the ability to translate technical concepts and trade-offs for non-technical leaders.
- Bachelor’s degree or equivalent professional experience.
Working conditions
- This is a 12-month fixed-term contract, with no expectation of extension or conversion. Success is measured in part by whether Fika needs a successor contract.
- This is a remote position. If located near a program office, hybrid available. The role will require sufficient overlap with Fika colleagues across global time zones, including Africa, Europe, and North America.
- Travel requirements: <5%.
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