SAP S/4HANA Functional Lead

Overview

This role is based out of our Leicester office. We operate a hybrid working policy.
On-site presence will be required to support stakeholder meetings, team meetings and programme phases such as workshops, testing, and go-live.
Travel to other Dunelm sites and partner locations may be expected depending on programme needs.

About us

Home. There’s no place like it. And there’s no feeling like helping people create the joy of feeling truly at home.

At Dunelm, that’s what we do.

We’re the UK\’s number one choice for homewares because we make home life lovelier for our customers. And the caring and supportive culture we\’ve created makes this a place you\’ll feel right at home too.

Dunelm SAP Landscape

Dunelm’s SAP solutions underpin many of Dunelm’s operations including Finance, Manufacturing, Inventory management, Order management, Warehouse management, HR and Payroll. These SAP solutions will be coming out of mainstream support in Dec 2027 and at the end of their operational life in Dec 2030. Over the next few years, we are planning to replace these legacy SAP solutions with the latest SAP solutions starting with the replacement of SAP ECC with SAP S/4HANA. Our People systems landscape consists of SAP HCM/Payroll and several other 3rd party solutions. Our plan is to replace this with SAP SuccessFactors as an integrated HCM Enterprise Suite solution. We will also be replacing our SAP EWM solution with SAP EWM HANA and SAP PO with SAP BTP Integration Services.

What you\’ll be doing

We are seeking an experienced SAP S/4HANA Functional Lead to spearhead our SAP S/4HANA transformation programme. This role is crucial in driving the modernisation of our business processes across finance, supply chain, HR, stores, warehouse operations, manufacturing, ecommerce and HR & Payroll. You’ll be responsible for shaping and guiding the integrated SAP solution across multiple workstreams, while coordinating and leading a team of internal & external functional experts. You’ll act as a trusted Functional expert, internal design authority and work in close partnership with internal stakeholders, delivery teams and 3^rd party partners to land a solution that’s robust, scalable, and business-ready. The ideal candidate will have a deep understanding of SAP S/4HANA\’s advanced functional capabilities and a proven track record in a Functional, Cloud Applications and solutioning lead role in SAP S/4HANA implementations.

Key Responsibilities:

Own the Functional Expertise and Design Across Domains

• Provide SAP S/4HANA functional expertise across key business areas – including Sales & Distribution (SD), Finance (FI/CO), Procurement (MM), Logistics (WM/EWM), Retail Operations, and HR
• Collaborate with business stakeholders and BAs to understand requirements and translate them into functional specifications.
• Ensure design decisions are coherent, scalable, and aligned with business needs and SAP best practice.
• Oversee the configuration, customisation, unit testing, NFR and deployment of SAP S/4HANA modules, ensuring best practices and standards are followed.
• Drive “fit-to-standard” design – avoiding unnecessary customisation while enabling required business outcomes. Champion simplicity, sustainability, and reuse in the solution design
• Review and approve key design decisions, functional specs, RICEFW objects, and integration scenarios.
• Ensure all design artefacts meet quality standards and follow agreed governance processes.
• Architectural Understanding of SAP cloud applications like SF, BTP, Datasphere etc
• Appreciation of AI to identify opportunities for Dunelm SAP applications and process transformations

Lead and Coordinate Functional Team

• Lead/line manage a matrixed team of functional leads, supporting their domain-specific responsibilities while ensuring consistency across the Programme.
• Facilitate collaboration between functional analysts, technical teams and external SI partners.
• Act as the primary decision-maker and escalation point for functional solution issues and cross-stream dependencies.
• Work with technical and business teams to ensure all business processes flow across modules and systems as intended.
• Manage functional dependencies and integration points – particularly where third-party systems interface with SAP.
• Proactively identify and resolve gaps, conflicts, or risks that could impact business continuity or delivery confidence.
• Responsible for handover of support of SAP functional changes to 3^rd party AMS partner

Support Programme Delivery

• Align functional deliverables with the programme’s timeline, testing strategy, and cutover plan.
• Support test planning, business readiness, training, and post-go-live adoption.
• Provide input into data migration strategy and validate key process scenarios.

Engage the Business

• Partner with business process owners to validate designs and ensure they meet operational needs.
• Translate complex SAP concepts into clear, actionable insights for business stakeholders.
• Act as a visible, credible voice of solution integrity within the programme.

What we\’ll look for in you

Essential

• Extensive experience in SAP S/4HANA functional leadership roles including team/line management on several S/4HANA implementations.
• Extensive hands-on experience delivering SAP solutions across several core domains (e.g. FI/CO, MM, SD, WM, HR)
• Experience with SAP Fiori, SAP Cloud Platforms and other SAP technologies
• Strong understanding of SAP best practices, data models, configuration, and integration points
• A practical approach to balancing business requirements with SAP standard functionality
• Experience guiding functional design teams and acting as a solution authority in major transformation programmes.
• Strong collaboration and stakeholder engagement skills, with the ability to influence peers, vendors, and senior stakeholders.
• Clear understanding of the SAP Activate methodology and fit-to-standard approach.
• Familiarity with cross-stream topics such as data migration, testing, cutover, and security/authorisations

Desirable

• Experience working in a retail, consumer goods, or multi-site operational business.
• Exposure to SAP on RISE or public cloud deployments
• Experience of SAP Signavio
• Experience of SAP BTP, EWM HANA and SAP SuccessFactors
• SAP certification in relevant modules
• Experience managing external SI teams and validating vendor deliverables.
• Understanding of Agile and hybrid project delivery environments

Behaviours/Values

Our shared values of \’act like owners\’, \’keep listening and learning\’, \’long term thinking\’, and \’stronger together\’ help ensure we are always finding better ways of doing things and spending our time focusing on what’s important.

This is your chance to shape our future – not just through systems and architecture, but by helping our teams to work smarter, serve customers better, and unlock growth. You’ll bring deep SAP S/4HANA knowledge and practical delivery experience to help our transformation.

As Functional Lead, you will be empowered to take the lead on functionality and solutioning for our SAP S/4HANA implementation ensuring long term transformative change. You will bring:

• A strategic mindset, strong on clarity – you bring structure to complexity.
• Ability to lead, inspire, and manage functional teams.
• A natural collaborator – comfortable navigating ambiguity, challenging constructively, and building consensus.
• Focused on outcomes, not activity.
• Calm under pressure, with a reputation for getting things done.

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