SAP S/4HANA Finance Business Advisor (Utility FERC Accounting Expert)

Job Description: SAP S/4HANA Finance Business Advisor (Utility FERC Accounting Expert)

Location: Newark NJ (Hybrid- 3 days a week onsite)

Role Overview

We are seeking an SAP S/4HANA Finance Business Advisor / Utility FERC Accounting Expert to directly support the FERC Accounting Lead on an active S/4HANA Bluefield (Selective Data Transition) program for a major regulated utility client in New Jersey.

You will serve as an expert-level technical and regulatory reviewer representing the business. You will analyze, provide rigorous feedback on, and support approval of system configurations, data migration mapping, and WRICEFS functional specifications.

Your primary objective is to support the business Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) by guiding critical design decisions, ensure outcome explicitly complies with the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) governing utility accounting, New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (NJBPU) filing requirements, specific data migration standards, internal controls, and 10 CFR Part 810 compliance requirements related to nuclear generation assets.

Key Responsibilities

FERC & New Jersey Regulatory Accounting Governance

• Audit Configurations Against Federal Regulations: Review and support approval of S/4HANA Finance and Asset Accounting (FI-AA) configuration documents to ensure precise alignment with 18 CFR Part 101 (Uniform System of Accounts for Electric Utilities) and 18 CFR Part 201 (Uniform System of Accounts for Gas Utilities).
• Embed NJBPU Compliance Frameworks: Review and validate configuration designs to ensure the system architecture seamlessly isolates and tracks costs required for New Jersey-specific filings. This includes the NJBPU Annual Report, localized cost-of-service rate cases, and rider recovery mechanisms (e.g., Infrastructure Investment Programs, clean energy programs, and social balancing accounts).
• Validate Asset & Plant Classifications: Cross-reference technical specifications against CFR requirements for Continuous Property Records (CPR), ensuring automated ledger postings for original cost tracking, retirement units, and salvage values follow regulatory definitions.
• Verify Complex Utility Calculations: Review system logic and formulas to ensure deferred regulatory asset/liability calculations fully comply with FERC s prescribed accrual and compounding rules.

Nuclear Accounting & 10 CFR Part 810 Compliance

• Enforce Nuclear Data Controls: Review SAP security designs, master data structures, and interface workflows to ensure that technical data, operational costs, and documentation linked to nuclear assets comply with 10 CFR Part 810 export and transfer restrictions.
• Audit Nuclear Lifecycle Financials: Validate the configuration and data structures supporting specialized nuclear accounting, including the Nuclear Decommissioning Trust Fund (NDTF), the Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation (ISFISI), and nuclear fuel accounting, ensuring compliance with both FERC and NRC requirements.
• Support the need to manage the migration of financial data of 810 information to the corporate system

Design Review & WRICEFS Quality Assurance

• Support Approval of WRICEFS Specifications: Critically review, provide detailed feedback on, and sign off on functional specification documents for Workflows, Reports, Interfaces, Conversions, Enhancements, Forms, and Security (WRICEFS) to ensure zero gaps between regulatory text and software development.
• Enforce Clean Core Standards: Audit the system integrator's designs to maximize standard SAP Fiori apps and Universal Journal (ACDOCA) parallel ledger capabilities, protecting the system from unnecessary custom ABAP code.

Data Cleansing & Bluefield Migration Oversight

• Validate CFR Data Mapping: Review legacy-to-target data mapping matrixes to ensure historical transaction strings are restructured into the correct S/4HANA regulatory layouts without losing multi-ledger audit trails.
• Oversight of Cleansing Rules: Validate and support approval of data cleansing rules for duplicate, unmapped, or obsolete legacy assets, ensuring historical balance adjustments follow federal reporting rules.
• Audit Reconciliation Logs: Review technical cutover plans, migration staging table schemas, and conversion data logs to guarantee a zero-variance financial reconciliation before final business sign-off.

Required Skills & Qualifications

Utility & Regulatory Accounting Expertise (Core)

• FERC Uniform System of Accounts: Expert, hands-on knowledge of 18 CFR Part 101 and 18 CFR Part 201, with a clear understanding of how federal accounting structures govern cost-of-service utility ratemaking.
• NJBPU Regulatory Knowledge: Direct experience aligning general ledger structures with NJBPU Annual Report formatting and state-specific regulatory deferral/rider mechanisms.
• Nuclear Asset Familiarity: Practical experience dealing with the accounting complexities of nuclear generation assets, including decommissioning funds and 10 CFR Part 810 compliance environments.
• Regulatory Reporting Output: Familiarity with data structures required to automate the output of FERC Form 1, Form 2, and localized state compliance schedules.

SAP S/4HANA Functional & Technical Literacy

• Specification Review: Proven experience acting as an owner's representative or advisor, holding system integrators accountable by spotting design deficiencies or compliance shortcuts in functional documents.
• S/4HANA Architecture: Strong functional understanding of the S/4HANA Universal Journal (ACDOCA), parallel accounting ledgers, and Asset Accounting (FI-AA).
• Migration Mechanics: Familiarity with the mechanics of SAP Bluefield/Selective Data Transition methodologies and data migration tools (e.g., SAP Migration Cockpit) to effectively evaluate conversion scripts and staging data quality.

Preferred Background & Professional Experience

• Minimum 10+ years in utility financial environments, with at least 3+ years specifically focused on SAP Analytics Cloud (Planning and Reporting) architecture, implementation, or advisory phases.