SAP Business Cutover Project Manager in Manchester

Senior SAP Business Cutover Project Manager: Lead the end‑to‑end business cutover process for an SAP S/4 global programme, ensuring smooth transition from legacy operations to new systems and safeguarding customer business activities.

Location: Birmingham, Glasgow, London, Manchester, Cardiff, and Woking.

Intake Dates: April 2026.

Cutover Planning & Governance

• Develop and own the business cutover strategy and execution roadmap, integrating technical and business activities.
• Work with the business teams to develop detailed ramp‑down/ramp‑up plans for critical business processes across all sites (e.g., production scheduling, inventory, order fulfillment, finance).
• Ensure compliance with governance, methodologies and change‑control processes.

Business Readiness

• Coordinate readiness across the five key regions including all associated plants, warehouses and distribution centres.
• Align cutover activities with seasonal demand cycles and logistics constraints.

Stakeholder Management

• Engage business leaders and operational teams to validate readiness and dependencies.
• Facilitate go/no‑go readiness reviews with leadership and PMO.

Risk & Issue Management

• Identify and mitigate risks related to downtime, data migration and operational continuity.
• Define rollback scenarios and contingency plans.

Execution & Reporting

• Drive cutover execution during trial runs, dress rehearsal and go‑live.
• Provide real‑time dashboards and executive updates on readiness and progress.

Post‑Go‑Live Stabilisation

• Lead hyper‑care activities and ensure smooth handover to operations/support teams.
• Capture lessons learned for continuous improvement.

Define KPIs & Success Metrics

• Operational Continuity
• Downtime Management
• Readiness Score
• Data Migration Accuracy
• Hyper‑care Resolution

Qualifications

• 10+ years in SAP programme delivery with proven experience in business cutover management for consumer goods and logistics.
• Expertise in ramp‑down/ramp‑up planning for large‑scale ERP transformations (ECC and S/4HANA).
• Strong understanding of supply‑chain, manufacturing, distribution, commercial and finance processes.
• Familiarity with SAP modules.
• Experience in global roll‑outs and multi‑country deployments.
• SAP or PMP certification preferred.
• Excellent communication and ability to influence C‑Level executives.
• Ability to lead teams to prepare large proposals and programme plans, facilitate leverage differentiators (e.g. specific consulting frameworks).
• Outstanding communication skills (verbal and written) and presentation skills, influencing C‑Level stakeholders within client organisations.
• Strategic thinker with strong business orientation.
• Ability to manage complex dependencies and drive decisions.
• Skilled in balancing technical and operational priorities.
• Willingness to work shifts for cutover activities.
• Willingness to travel and project‑related mobility.
• Consulting experience working with external projects and clients.
• Data management, data governance and business analytics experience.
• Roadmap implementation experience.
• Practical experience in SAP Data products for at least five years.