The successful candidate will act as the authoritative representative and proxy for the client, taking full ownership of the SAP S/4HANA migration. This is a highly senior, strategic role where you will operate strictly "as the client," actively directing, guiding, and steering external implementation partners rather than merely coordinating them.
You will ensure that the system integrators deliver exactly to the business requirements, quality standards, and timelines. This role requires a powerful combination of deep SAP Materials Management (MM) architectural expertise, authoritative project leadership, and the gravitas to challenge vendors, drive technical decisions, and align executive stakeholders across multiple countries.
Key Responsibilities
- Strategic Migration Leadership: Take full ownership of the SAP S/4HANA migration from the client’s perspective, driving the project roadmap and ensuring the implementation strategy aligns strictly with overarching business goals.
- Vendor Direction & Governance: Actively guide, steer, and challenge external implementation partners and System Integrators (SIs). Hold vendors fully accountable for their deliverables, timelines, and solution quality.
- Business Requirements Ownership: Act as the ultimate bridge between the business and the SIs. Gather, validate, and dictate business requirements, ensuring the vendors' proposed SAP solutions do not deviate from the client’s best interests.
- SAP MM Functional Authority: Serve as the final escalation and approval point for SAP MM functional designs, solution configurations, and implementation deliverables. Validate that the vendor's architectural choices are robust and scalable.
- Executive Stakeholder Management: Act as the primary, high-level point of contact for executive business stakeholders, IT leadership, and the management teams of the implementation partners.
- Risk & Issue Mitigation: Proactively anticipate project bottlenecks, manage complex dependencies, and enforce aggressive action plans when vendors fall behind schedule.
- Cross-Country Alignment: Drive the harmonization of business processes and SAP solutions across international landscapes, firmly managing local pushback while accommodating critical local legal/fiscal requirements.
- Quality Assurance & Deployment Governance: Dictate the quality standards for functional testing, integration testing, and defect resolution. Authorize cutover activities and go-live readiness on behalf of the client.
- Change & Scope Management: Strictly control project scope, evaluating and authorizing any changes to business requirements or solution design to prevent vendor scope creep.
Required Skills and Experience
- Extensive Senior-Level Experience: 10+ years of deep SAP MM experience, transitioning from a Senior Consultant into a Lead, Solution Architect, or Program Manager role.
- Client-Side Leadership: Proven, verifiable experience acting on the client side (or as a Lead/Manager) driving and directing external System Integrators and vendors on large-scale rollouts.
- SAP S/4HANA Expertise: Strong track record leading complex SAP S/4HANA migration and implementation projects from blueprint to post-go-live.
- Deep Process Mastery: Authoritative knowledge of SAP Materials Management processes, including advanced procurement, purchasing, inventory management, and materials planning.
- International Project Governance: Significant experience governing international and multi-country project environments, with the ability to navigate diverse corporate cultures.
- Executive Communication: Exceptional stakeholder management skills with the gravitas to influence C-level executives and firmly negotiate with vendor project directors.
- Proactive Problem Solving: Unmatched ability to work independently, make definitive architectural and project decisions, and steer teams through high-pressure migration phases.
- Languages: Fluent English, both written and spoken, is mandatory. Italian language proficiency is a plus.