Oracle is a global leader in cloud applications and database technology, helping enterprises run mission‑critical operations on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) and Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications. Within this suite, Oracle Fusion Cloud Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) enables organizations to plan, consolidate, reconcile, and report with speed and control. Oracle Consulting partners with customers worldwide to implement these solutions effectively, drawing on deep product expertise and proven delivery methods across onshore, near shore, and offshore centers.
This comprehensive guide provides essential insights into the Staff Consultant- EPM at Oracle, covering required skills, responsibilities, interview questions, and preparation strategies to help aspiring candidates succeed.
1. About the Staff Consultant- EPM Role
As a Staff Consultant in Oracle Consulting focused on EPM, you work directly with global customers to implement Oracle’s EPM cloud solutions across Planning & Budgeting, Profitability & Cost Management, Financial Consolidation & Close, Account Reconciliation, Tax Reporting, Enterprise Data Management, and related integrations. You translate business requirements into functional configurations, design reports and integrations, execute unit testing, and create documentation such as functional design documents, user training materials, and test scripts. You also conduct user training and support customers through system integration testing (SIT) and user acceptance testing (UAT), ensuring solutions align with business goals and are adopted successfully.
Positioned within Oracle Consulting’s global delivery model, the role is pivotal in bridging Oracle’s product capabilities with customer processes. You collaborate closely with project managers, technical teams, Oracle Support, and Product Development-validating builds, raising product gaps, and influencing enhancements. Your work directly impacts customer outcomes by improving forecast accuracy, accelerating close cycles, strengthening reconciliations, and standardizing data governance, making this role central to value realization on Oracle Cloud EPM.
2. Required Skills and Qualifications
The role blends finance domain knowledge with consulting discipline and cloud application execution. Below are the essential qualifications and capabilities expected for success in Oracle’s EPM consulting engagements.
Educational Qualifications
- Master's degree in Business Administration (MBA Finance) mandatory
Key Competencies
- Functional Finance Knowledge: Strong functional understanding of accounting, finance, and taxation processes
- Client Communication & Presentation: Excellent written and verbal communication skills with ability to present ideas and solutions clearly and concisely
- Problem-Solving & Initiative: Self-motivated, energetic, and driven with ability and willingness to learn quickly
- Analytical & Research Skills: Strong analytical and research capabilities for understanding customer requirements and business processes
- Stakeholder Management: Good interpersonal skills with ability to build rapport with all stakeholders including customers and project teams
Technical Skills
- Oracle EPM Products: Experience with Oracle EPM products including Planning & Budgeting, Profitability & Cost Management, Financial Consolidation & Close, Account Reconciliation, Tax Reporting, and Enterprise Data Management
- MS Office Proficiency: Excellent skills in MS Office (Excel, PowerPoint, Word)
- Application Configuration: Ability to support project teams in application configuration aligned with customer requirements
- Technical Design & Validation: Skill in supporting technical designs for integrations by providing functional inputs and validating builds
- Documentation & Training: Experience in preparing functional design documents, user training materials, test scripts, and conducting user training sessions
3. Day-to-Day Responsibilities
A typical week blends client-facing workshops, configuration and testing tasks, documentation, and cross-team collaboration to ensure on-time, quality EPM deliveries that meet business objectives.
- EPM Consulting Delivery: Perform consultant role for Oracle EPM products including Planning & Budgeting, Profitability & Cost Management, Financial Consolidation & Close, and Enterprise Data Management
- Client Requirements Analysis: Understand customer requirements, business processes, and implementation workflows
- Application Configuration Support: Support project team in configuring applications according to gathered customer requirements
- Integration Design Validation: Support technical integration designs by providing functional inputs and validating builds after completion
- Project Documentation: Prepare functional design documents, user training materials, and test scripts for project teams and customers
- User Training & Testing Support: Conduct user training and support customers during system integration testing and user acceptance testing phases
- Product Development Collaboration: Actively collaborate with Oracle Support and Product Development to address product gaps and enhancements
4. Key Competencies for Success
Beyond fundamentals, high performers combine finance fluency with consulting rigor and product depth. The following competencies consistently differentiate successful Oracle EPM consultants.
- Business Outcome Orientation: Anchor designs to measurable outcomes-faster close, better forecast accuracy, and strong reconciliations-rather than features alone.
- Structured Problem‑Solving: Break down complex requirements, prioritize MVP scope, and iterate with clear acceptance criteria and risks.
- Product Depth and Curiosity: Stay current on EPM capabilities and roadmap; know when to configure versus recommend process changes.
- Change Enablement and Training: Simplify complex topics for end users, drive adoption, and reduce go‑live risk through effective enablement.
- Collaboration Across Functions: Coordinate smoothly with client stakeholders, technical teams, Oracle Support, and Product Development to remove blockers quickly.
5. Common Interview Questions
This section provides a selection of common interview questions to help candidates prepare effectively for their Staff Consultant- EPM interview at Oracle.
Provide a concise narrative linking your finance background, consulting exposure, and EPM experience to Oracle’s role.
Connect Oracle’s EPM leadership and global delivery model to your motivation to drive measurable finance outcomes.
Choose strengths relevant to the role (e.g., stakeholder facilitation) and a genuine growth area with a plan.
Show structured self‑learning, targeted practice, and impact achieved under time constraints.
Explain clarifying questions, prototypes, and validation loops to converge on acceptance criteria.
Demonstrate empathy, data‑backed options, and agreed trade‑offs leading to alignment.
Reference business impact, dependencies, and transparent communication on timelines.
Highlight handoffs, documentation rigor, and meeting rhythms across time zones.
Mention peer reviews, checklists, traceability to requirements, and test evidence.
Cover training design, scenarios, hands‑on labs, and feedback incorporation.
Prepare 2–3 STAR stories each for teamwork, ownership, problem‑solving, and customer impact.
Explain its role across planning, consolidation, reconciliations, tax, and data governance for enterprise finance.
Planning focuses on forecasting/driver models; FCC handles consolidation, eliminations, currency translation, and close tasks.
For governed master data changes-dimensions, hierarchies, and mappings-synchronized across EPM/ERP systems.
Define sources/targets, mappings, validation rules, and controls; align frequency and reconcile totals with business owners.
Identify key drivers, build calc logic, set input forms, scenarios/versions, and validation with variance analysis.
Describe cost objects, drivers, stages, rules, and tracing for transparency of costs to products or channels.
Load data, run translations/eliminations, post journals, manage intercompany, and certify with close tasks.
Automated matching, risk ratings, segregation of duties, workflows, and audit trails to ensure completeness/accuracy.
Connects provision calculations to consolidated results, aligning book‑to‑tax and compliance timelines.
Efficient sparsity handling, focused calc scope, streamlined dimensions, and disciplined security and data volumes.
Anchor answers in finance outcomes and explain trade‑offs behind your design choices.
Run a focused workshop, propose a strawman prototype, and document decisions with acceptance criteria.
Triages issues by impact, apply fixes or workarounds, extend testing windows if needed, and align sponsors on risk.
Assess alternatives, document trade‑offs, log an SR with Oracle Support, and inform Product if enhancement is warranted.
Trace mappings, filters, and periods; validate totals with finance; adjust integrations and rerun reconciliations.
Reframe to MVP, quantify effort, propose phased delivery, and obtain formal change approval.
Facilitate options with pros/cons, align to business KPIs, and secure a steering decision.
Profile calc scope, review dense/sparse settings, optimize rules, and validate with sample data volumes.
Use governed processes, workflows, segregation of duties, and maintain versioned documentation.
Address pain points, refine training, add quick‑wins, and reinforce through champions and metrics.
Time‑box tasks, delegate appropriately, and maintain a transparent RAID and status cadence.
State the problem, actions, alternatives considered, and measurable results-be explicit about trade‑offs.
Summarize scope, your role, key challenges, and quantified outcomes.
Detail steps, artifacts produced, and validation performed for each module.
Explain metrics, audience, decisions enabled, and performance considerations.
Cover sources, mappings, controls, reconciliation checks, and error handling.
Trace requirements to design, include scenarios, non‑functional needs, and sign‑off criteria.
Base on business processes and edge cases; define data, steps, expected results, and acceptance.
Describe SR creation, replication details, workaround, and feedback to stakeholders.
Discuss models/templates, executive storytelling, and precise documentation.
Relate depth in planning, close, reconciliations, or tax, and how it informed your designs.
Identify modules or domains and how that aligns with customer value.
Quantify impact (cycle time reduced, forecast accuracy improved) and link your work to business outcomes.
6. Common Topics and Areas of Focus for Interview Preparation
To excel in your Staff Consultant- EPM role at Oracle, it’s essential to focus on the following areas. These topics highlight the key responsibilities and expectations, preparing you to discuss your skills and experiences in a way that aligns with Oracle objectives.
- Oracle Cloud EPM Modules and Use Cases: Understand Planning & Budgeting, PCM, FCC, AR, Tax Reporting, and EDM capabilities and when to apply each.
- Finance and Accounting Fundamentals: Brush up on FP&A concepts, consolidation/elimination, reconciliations, and tax provision basics to speak the customer’s language.
- Requirements to Design Traceability: Practice turning business processes into configuration objects, reports, and integrations with clear acceptance criteria.
- Testing Lifecycle and Quality: Prepare to discuss unit testing, SIT/UAT approaches, defect triage, and evidence capture for auditability.
- Enablement and Change Management: Learn how to build training materials, run user sessions, and drive adoption across global stakeholders.
7. Perks and Benefits of Working at Oracle
Oracle offers a comprehensive package of benefits to support the well-being, professional growth, and satisfaction of its employees. Here are some of the key perks you can expect
- Global Project Exposure: Work with international teams and customers through Oracle Consulting’s onshore, near shore, and offshore delivery model.
- Collaboration with Product Teams: Engage with Oracle Support and Product Development on product gaps and enhancements, accelerating your product mastery.
- Cutting‑edge Cloud Experience: Hands‑on implementation of Oracle Cloud EPM modules across planning, consolidation, reconciliations, tax, and data governance.
- Structured Learning Culture: Role‑embedded learning via documentation, testing, and training responsibilities that sharpen consulting and communication skills.
- Impact at Enterprise Scale: Solve complex finance problems for global customers and demonstrate measurable business value from Oracle solutions.
8. Conclusion
The Staff Consultant- EPM role at Oracle sits at the intersection of finance and cloud technology, translating customer objectives into robust EPM configurations, reports, and integrations. Success hinges on strong finance fundamentals, clear communication, disciplined testing, and collaboration with cross‑functional teams, including Oracle Support and Product Development.
Prepare to demonstrate how your work improves forecast accuracy, accelerates the close, strengthens reconciliations, and standardizes data governance. By aligning your experience to Oracle’s EPM suite and consulting delivery model, you’ll show that you can drive adoption, manage risk, and deliver measurable outcomes for global customers.
Tips for Interview Success:
- Link to Outcomes: Tie every design choice to cycle time, accuracy, controls, or adoption metrics.
- Show Your Method: Walk through requirement elicitation, configuration, testing, and sign‑off steps.
- Demonstrate Product Depth: Explain when and why to use each EPM module and the trade‑offs involved.
- Prepare Proof Points: Bring 3–4 quantified examples of impact from past projects or internships.