Senior Functional Analyst - Sourcing & Procurement

Role: Senior Functional Analyst - Sourcing & Procurement
Location: Hybrid working ideally from our Derby office
About Us
Rolls‑Royce SMR is here to transform how nuclear energy is delivered—cleaner, faster and at global scale. Our teams are developing one of the world’s most advanced small modular reactors, helping secure affordable, low‑carbon energy for generations to come.
We’re doing something that’s never been done before. We’re revolutionising an industry. That’s a once-in-a-career opportunity for those excited by such a challenge. This is more than just a job; this is a legacy.
The Role
We are seeking a skilled SAP functional specialist to join our team to play a pivotal role in bridging the gap between technical implementation and business needs. Their responsibilities encompass various stages of the programme lifecycle. You will be involved in a multi-year digital transformation, implementation, upgrade and support of SAP software solutions, reviewing the design proposals from third party consultants. Understanding business requirements and the configuration of the SAP solution to align with those requirements. Providing ongoing support and recommendations for improvements for the system. Our ideal candidate has a strong understanding of SAP modules, excellent problem-solving and stakeholder management skills, and experience in project management. Ultimately, the role of the SAP functional specialist is to ensure that our SAP solutions are effective, efficient, and aligned with our business processes.
What We’ll Need You to Do
We’ll need you to:
Process Effectiveness
Link business process challenges and demand to process improvements and business benefits to influence and inform solutions to support the solution and technology strategies.
Design and deployment
Ensure and validate consistent design and deployment of a given process and the standards for process performance.
Support compliance with and performance of the end-to-end process.
Support Integrated Testing
Work with business stakeholders and delivery teams to ensure solutions are implemented and tested as designed.
Maintain Functional and Business Process Design Oversight
Stay involved through programme delivery into live operations to make sure solutions stay on track and meet expectations.
Improve Functional and Business Process Design
Suggest improvement opportunities and optimise business processes
Collaborate Across Teams
Build strong working relationships with business process leads, super users, other functional specialists, project managers, business analysts, architects and third party partners to support smooth delivery.
Functional specialist within one of the following key SAP domains:
Finance Specialist
Sourcing and Procurement Specialist
Project Systems Specialist
What You’ll Bring
Understand business processes and business requirements identifying opportunities for improvements.
Understand functional solution configuration.
Understand end to end processes across business, functional and solution domains.
Translate business requirements into IT demand aligning with programme plans and roadmap.
Analyse process flows and process execution to identify improvement opportunities.
Ensure designed and ‘to-be’ processes align with business needs whilst adhering to best practices.
Extensive knowledge of system modules relevant to the job role, including functional configuration, end to end processes and system integration capabilities.
Problem solving and analytical mindset to identify root causes of issues, troubleshoot problems, and identify solutions to address business challenges.
Provide ongoing support to business community, troubleshooting issues, and identify improvements to optimise process performance and usability.
Support super and end user knowledge and capability development acting as the initial point of contact (L1 support) for process & procedure queries or issues for business end users once in BAU.
Support and collaborate with the Testing Lead and business teams to conduct rigorous testing to ensure alignment with business requirements to validate the functionality and integrity of system solutions.
Experience & Qualifications
SAP Ariba modules
SAP MM / Sourcing & Procurement
Supplier lifecycle management
Supplier risk management
Supplier performance management
Contract and spend management
Implementation and/or support of SAP Ariba and S/4HANA procurement solutions
Experience with sourcing events, supplier onboarding, contracts and purchasing workflows
Support supplier performance and compliance management
Integration of procurement activities with finance and inventory processes
Proven track record of working with business stakeholders to improve supplier management, sourcing and procurement processes
Minimum 4 years of experience (must have)
SAP S/4HANA awareness and end-to-end business process understanding.
Strong stakeholder management and workshop facilitation skills.
Knowledge of Agile and Waterfall delivery approaches.
Understanding of implementation, incident and change management, testing and deployment activities.
Ability to mentor.
Training
SAP Ariba Sourcing
SAP Ariba Buying and Invoicing
SAP Supplier Lifecycle and Performance
SAP S/4HANA Sourcing and Procurement
Contract and Spend Management
Certifications
SAP Certified Associate - SAP Ariba Procurement
SAP Certified Associate - SAP Ariba Sourcing
SAP Certified Associate - SAP S/4HANA Sourcing and Procurement
Professional Procurement qualification
Desirable
Experience working in large-scale ERP transformation programmes.
Experience in Greenfield implementations.
SAP Activate methodology experience.
ITIL Foundation certification.
Agile Practitioner, Scrum Master, or SAFe certification.
Experience of hav