SAP Authorization Officer

Daikin Europe NV (DENV) is a subsidiary of Daikin Industries Limited, a Japanese outstanding company and worldwide the biggest developer, producer and supplier of HVAC-R (heating, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration) solutions, including heating pumps and cooling technology.

DENV is Daikin’s sales, R&D, and production headquarters for Europe, the Middle-East and Africa. The headquarter has Belgian offices in Brussels, Ghent and Ostend, as well as 8 production plants, 24 sales subsidiaries and offices and a whole network of independent distributors and dealers across the EMEA region.

The department

The Internal Control team is part of the Corporate Planning department. Corporate Planning is the financial controlling department and supports top-management decision making in the Daikin Europe Group. As the Daikin Group is listed on the Japanese stock exchange, the Group has the obligation of being compliant with relevant internal controls legislation, in particular so-called Japanese SOX (JSOx). The Internal Control team is responsible for the implementation and monitoring of a wide range of internal controls in the entities in the DENV Group, including Segregation of Duties in the common ERP. 

Internal Control cooperates closely with Internal Audit, Finance and Accounting and IT in Daikin Europe NV. There is also a close working relation with the internal control and authorisation responsible persons in the other Group companies.

Function description
Daikin Europe Group uses SAP as main ERP system throughout the EMEA Region and for all processes (more than 3000 users, 60 key users, 70 business owners). The system management, including user access and authorizations, is centralized in IT EMEA department. 

Within this framework, the SAP Authorization Officer (SAO) is part of the Corporate Planning (virtual) team of the Headquarters, and safeguards the business interests and compliance requirements related to authorizations for the DENV (G). The compliance requirements are regulated by the Board Of Directors of DENV Group, by the DENV Audit Committee, by JSOx, and by internal and external auditors. 

The SAO analyses requested changes in SAP authorizations and approves with the purpose of limiting Segregation of Duties (SOD) conflicts and critical or confidential access, and of maintaining an appropriate concept throughout the group. This involves: 

• Daily (expertise) activities and communication with the IT team implementing required changes
  • From a business point of view, analysing technical change requests and auth. set-up during projects, challenging the solutions proposed by IT;
  • Being involved in projects with impact on SAP auth.;
  • Being the first line of support on matters of SAP access/concept and supporting business to identify acceptable changes to authorizations;
  • Gathering and sharing business insight, support and solutions for authorization incidents;
• Monitoring and controlling activities
  • Designing and implementing regular checks on the authorization concept and user access to ensure Segregation of Duties, e.g. 
    • evolution of SOD conflicts in time (+ causes)
    • regular clean-up of unused transactions
    • detection of authorization changes without approval
• Follow-up on periodic controls such as SOD conflicts review and user access review
• Support with re-designing/improving procedures involving SAP auth.
  • Maintaining documentation related to SAP auth. processes for projects, Business ruleset change, etc.…
  • Based on best practices, continuously improving procedures and guidelines 
  • Maintaining the GRC tool (rule set used to detect SOD conflicts and sensitive access);
  • Sharing knowledge with key actors in the authorisations processes (Auth. Key users, risk owners, …);

Required profile and skills:

• Master degree in Accounting, Economics or IT;
• Solid analytical capabilities and strong affinity with IT;
• Critical mind set;
• Ability to work independently as well as in team.
• Kick learner
• Self-management and decision making, with initiative for continuously improving both business and technical knowledge; 
• Communication skills:
  • Ability to form and maintain good relationships with a large number of business and technical stakeholders across all affiliates;
  • Professional and diplomatic;
  • Fluent in English;
• Knowledge of SAP, ideally in authorizations concept and functionality, as well as business processes in order to 
  • challenge both IT and business persons regarding SAP authorizations design and impact on processes;
  • raise awareness about SAP authorizations matters;
• Proficiency with MS Excel is a plus 

Daikin Europe is a subsidiary of Daikin Industries Ltd. and the leading provider of heating, cooling, ventilation, air purification, and refrigeration technology. The company designs, manufactures and brings to market a broad portfolio of equipment, as well as tailor-made solutions for residential, commercial, and industrial purposes in Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA). To date, Daikin EMEA has over 12 000 employees across more than 59 consolidated subsidiaries. It has 12 major manufacturing facilities based in Belgium, the Czech Republic, Germany, Italy, Spain, Turkey, Austria, and the UK. Our aim is to drive sustainable and effective solutions, sparking a good climate for the generations to come. And all this can only be achieved because of our People. 

We believe our employees are the beating heart of our company and that top-quality solutions are delivered by talented individuals in a good working environment. As a result, we live in a unique environment based on our people-centered approach, where we value each person's uniqueness and where we truly believe in people's unlimited potential.

We believe: Good climate starts with people.