SAP HANA Modeler / Analytics Lead/Architect

Job Description: SAP HANA Modeler / Analytics Lead/Architect

Location: Remote

Position Summary

We are seeking an experienced Senior SAP HANA Modeler / Analytics Engineer to design, develop, optimize, and maintain enterprise-grade analytical data models within an SAP Sidecar HANA architecture. The environment uses SAP Landscape Transformation Replication Server (SLT) to replicate SAP application tables in near real time into a separate SAP HANA database for advanced analytics and commercial profitability reporting.

The successful candidate will have strong hands-on experience with SAP HANA native modeling, complex calculation views, SAP SD and FI data structures, and the integration of financial and commercial data into unified reporting models. This role will support existing SAP BusinessObjects Web Intelligence (WebI) and ThoughtSpot AI-powered analytics solutions, while integrating external data sources through SAP BusinessObjects Data Services (BODS).

The ideal candidate combines deep SAP data knowledge with strong SQL and data modeling skills, an understanding of commercial profitability and financial reporting, and the ability to troubleshoot and improve complex analytical models in a high-volume production environment.

Key Responsibilities

1. SAP HANA Data Modeling and Development

• Design, develop, enhance, and maintain SAP HANA calculation views for enterprise analytics and reporting.
• Build complex graphical and SQL-based calculation views using joins, unions, projections, aggregations, calculated columns, filters, and other HANA modeling techniques.
• Combine data from SAP PP, SD, and FI into integrated reporting models for manufacturing operations, production cost analysis, and commercial profitability.
• Analyze, troubleshoot, and refactor existing complex calculation views to improve performance, accuracy, scalability, and maintainability.
• Design reusable analytical models with appropriate dimensions, measures, hierarchies, currency handling, aggregation rules, and business calculations.
• Ensure correct data grain and join cardinality when combining production orders, material movements, sales transactions, and accounting documents.
• Maintain model dependencies and minimize disruption to downstream reporting when underlying data structures or calculation logic change.

2. SAP SLT Replication and Source Data Management

·         Work with SAP SLT live replication to understand and troubleshoot the movement of SAP application tables into the sidecar HANA database.

·         Understand SAP table structures, primary keys, relationships, and dependencies across PP, SD, and FI.

·         Investigate replication latency, missing records, duplicate data, and discrepancies between SAP source tables and HANA reporting results.

·         Collaborate with SAP Basis, SLT, functional, and source-system teams to resolve replication and data consistency issues.

·         Assess the impact of SAP configuration changes, transports, and source-system enhancements on downstream HANA models.

·         Develop data validation and reconciliation methods to ensure reliable reporting from replicated data.

3. Integrated Manufacturing Cost and Commercial Profitability Reporting

• Design integrated analytical models that combine SAP PP, SD, and FI information to provide end-to-end visibility into manufacturing costs and commercial profitability.
• Connect production orders, material consumption, manufacturing output, sales transactions, and financial postings using appropriate business keys and document relationships.
• Develop reporting logic for actual manufacturing cost, standard cost, cost per unit, sales revenue, COGS, gross margin, and profitability measures.
• Support comparisons between standard and actual costs, planned and actual production quantities, and expected versus realized commercial margins.
• Understand the differences between production-order costs, inventory valuation, material ledger values where applicable, and FI financial postings.
• Ensure that manufacturing costs are associated with the appropriate materials, products, periods, and business dimensions.
• Resolve discrepancies caused by timing differences, different levels of transactional detail, settlement processes, reversals, or multiple records representing the same business event.
• Work with business stakeholders to define calculation rules and reconcile analytical results with SAP source transactions and established financial reports.

4. SAP BusinessObjects Web Intelligence (WebI)

• Support existing WebI reports, universes, and reporting data sources that consume SAP HANA calculation views.
• Partner with BI developers to define reporting-friendly dimensions, measures, attributes, and semantic structures.
• Troubleshoot reporting discrepancies caused by join cardinality, aggregation behavior, data grain, filtering, or underlying HANA models.
• Optimize HANA models and SQL execution paths to improve WebI report performance.
• Ensure model changes remain compatible with existing reports and downstream dependencies.

5. SAP BODS and External Data Integration

• Work with SAP BusinessObjects Data Services (BODS) developers to integrate external database information into the SAP HANA analytics platform.
• Understand source-to-target mappings, ETL transformations, data cleansing, lookups, and data quality rules.
• Integrate external reference, operational, and business data with SAP-replicated data for consolidated reporting.
• Troubleshoot data loading failures, mapping issues, duplicate records, and discrepancies between external sources and HANA models.
• Help establish consistent keys, data definitions, and integration patterns across SAP and non-SAP datasets.

8. Performance Optimization, Support, and Governance

• Analyze expensive SQL statements, execution plans, calculation-view performance, and resource utilization.
• Optimize complex joins, aggregations, filters, and calculation logic to reduce query execution time and resource consumption.
• Investigate production reporting issues and provide root-cause analysis and corrective actions.
• Establish development standards, technical documentation, data lineage, and model dependency documentation.
• Implement appropriate access controls and protect sensitive commercial and financial information in accordance with company security policies.
• Participate in testing, release management, change control, and production deployment activities.
• Work with cross-functional SAP, data engineering, BI, and business teams to deliver reliable analytical solutions.

9. ThoughtSpot Analytics and AI Reporting (Not mandatory, good to have)

• Develop and optimize SAP HANA data models for consumption by ThoughtSpot analytics and AI-driven reporting capabilities.
• Structure business-friendly analytical datasets with intuitive dimensions, measures, naming conventions, and relationships.
• Collaborate with ThoughtSpot developers and business users to support search-based analytics, interactive dashboards, and self-service reporting.
• Troubleshoot data discrepancies and performance issues between HANA models and ThoughtSpot results.
• Enable consistent business definitions and metrics across ThoughtSpot and WebI reporting environments.
• 7+ years of relevant experience in SAP HANA modeling, analytical development, or enterprise data engineering, with substantial hands-on experience in complex production environments.
• Strong experience developing and optimizing SAP HANA calculation views.
• Advanced SQL skills, including complex joins, unions, aggregations, subqueries, and performance troubleshooting.
• Strong understanding of SAP ECC or SAP S/4HANA data structures across Production Planning (PP), Sales and Distribution (SD), and Financial Accounting (FI).
• Practical experience integrating SAP manufacturing, sales, and financial data into unified reporting models.
• Knowledge of production orders, BOMs, routings, material movements, production confirmations, and manufacturing cost analysis.
• Knowledge of SD order-to-cash processes, billing, pricing, and revenue reporting.
• Knowledge of FI accounting documents, general ledger postings, financial reconciliation, and COGS.
• Hands-on experience with SAP SLT replication or comparable SAP table replication architecture.
• Experience supporting SAP BusinessObjects Web Intelligence reporting and its underlying data models.
• Experience supporting ThoughtSpot or comparable self-service analytics platforms.
• Experience with SAP BODS or comparable ETL technologies.
• Strong analytical, troubleshooting, communication, and documentation skills.
• Ability to work independently and collaborate effectively across technical and functional teams.

 Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with SAP HANA Sidecar architectures and real-time or near-real-time operational analytics.
• Experience with SAP PP production order costing and integration with SAP CO.
• Knowledge of product costing, standard costing, actual costing, WIP, production variances, and order settlement.
• Familiarity with SAP tables associated with production orders, BOMs, routings, material documents, billing, accounting, and controlling.
• Experience with SAP CO-PA or S/4HANA Margin Analysis and integrated commercial profitability reporting.
• Experience with SAP HANA performance analysis tools, including SQL Plan Cache, Explain Plan, and PlanViz, where supported by the installed HANA version.
• Experience supporting complex manufacturing environments with high-volume transactional data.
• Familiarity with data quality controls, data lineage, regression testing, and enterprise data governance.
• Knowledge of ITAR-related data handling and controlled-access environments.

Success Criteria

The successful candidate will be expected to:

• Improve the performance and maintainability of existing complex HANA calculation views.
• Deliver accurate manufacturing, sales, financial, and profitability reporting across SAP PP, SD, and FI.
• Integrate production quantities and manufacturing costs with sales revenue and financial postings.
• Improve reconciliation between SAP source transactions and analytical reporting results.
• Maintain reliable integration of SLT-replicated SAP data and BODS-loaded external information.
• Support consistent reporting through WebI and ThoughtSpot.
• Reduce recurring production issues through effective root-cause analysis, documentation, and preventative improvements.

Ideal Candidate Profile

The ideal candidate is a hands-on SAP HANA technical specialist with a strong understanding of manufacturing operations, commercial transactions, and financial accounting. This individual can trace data from SAP source tables through SLT replication and complex HANA calculation views, understand how production costs flow into inventory and financial postings, and connect those costs with sales revenue to produce accurate commercial profitability reporting.

The candidate should be equally comfortable debugging a complex SQL join, analyzing production-order cost discrepancies, reconciling SD billing with FI postings, and collaborating with WebI and ThoughtSpot teams to deliver reliable business analytics.