SAP Platform Owner in Colchester

Linklaters is a global law firm, providing legal services in 20 countries and through 30 offices. Linklaters is a people business. Being best in class in the eyes of our clients means that our people must be exceptional. We look not only for brilliant minds, but for people who will thrive in our environment: people who love working collaboratively and demonstrate the innovative, efficient, agile, entrepreneurial, and responsible mind-set we aim to bring to every interaction. Ours is an environment of outperformance. We achieve this not with targets and incentives, but by fostering a positive, supportive, fair, and open atmosphere. We respect and value difference but insist on inclusivity. We celebrate all aspects of diversity and challenge any form of bias. This is vital to our ability to work as one team, with a common goal.

The SAP Platform Owner takes end-to-end strategic responsibility for the stability, security, and performance of the firm's SAP platforms, spanning existing SAP ECC systems and future S/4HANA landscapes, both hosted on Microsoft Azure with SAP HANA databases. They lead a technical team, providing mentoring and direction, and collaborate closely with support, service management, audit, and security functions, as well as business stakeholders and vendors.

Key duties include:

• Defining and implementing platform lifecycle management practices, including system upgrades, migrations, patch management, and disaster recovery.
• Establishing and maintaining robust security controls and access governance, ensuring full compliance with relevant internal and external standards.
• Monitoring platform health, driving operational excellence through service metrics, automation, and continual improvement.
• Central involvement in SAP-related transformation and modernisation initiatives, ensuring platform readiness and alignment with business goals.
• Ensuring the platform supports evolving business requirements, guards against risks, and continuously enhances value from SAP investments.
• Developing, articulating, and driving the long-term SAP platform strategy, ensuring continuous alignment with organisational goals, technology advancements, and industry best practice.
• Leading the SAP technical operations team to deliver robust, secure, and high-performing SAP platforms across both ECC and S/4HANA environments.
• Driving SAP system security and authorisations, covering user management, role design, and access controls, ensuring compliance with organisational and regulatory requirements.
• Overseeing SAP transport management processes, ensuring efficient and controlled promotion of configuration and development objects across environments.
• Managing all aspects of platform lifecycle—patching, upgrades, enhancements, capacity planning, and routine maintenance—for Azure-hosted and HANA-based systems.
• Developing, implementing, and maintaining operational standards, processes, and controls to maximise platform reliability, integrity, and security in environments.
• Leading or supporting SAP conversion and migration projects (e.g. ECC to S/4HANA), providing technical oversight, governance, risk management, and post-conversion optimisation (including testing and go-live support).
• Driving operational ownership and oversight for additional SAP systems, including BW/4HANA, BusinessObjects (BOBJ), and SAP Customer Relationship Management (CRM).
• Partnering with information security and audit teams to align operations with best practices, supporting audits, incident response, and regulatory compliance.
• Collaborating with enterprise architects, project managers, business stakeholders, and external providers to ensure platform capabilities and security align with organisational objectives—including S/4HANA migration and cloud optimisation.
• Contributing to SAP transformation projects by focusing on security, compliance, automation, and operational readiness.
• Providing technical leadership in incident and problem management, driving effective root cause analysis and resolution.
• Proactively identifying risks and implementing continuous service improvements, particularly in system security and authorisations.
• Ensuring comprehensive governance and maintaining up-to-date documentation for SAP operations, including security and access management tailored for Azure and HANA environments.
• Managing vendor and partner relationships, including SAP support, managed services, and specialist consultancy engagements.
• Leading, motivating, and developing SAP technical and Basis team members, championing high standards in operations and security.
• Overseeing budgets for SAP operations and reporting regularly on key metrics and performance indicators.

About you

• Extensive experience managing complex SAP platforms (ECC and S/4HANA) hosted on cloud infrastructure—preferably Microsoft Azure—with SAP HANA databases, including direct responsibility for system security and authorisations.
• Direct, hands-on experience in technical conversions or migrations from SAP ECC to S/4HANA, including assessment, execution, troubleshooting, and post-conversion optimisation.
• Proven ability in operating, administering, and troubleshooting complex SAP landscapes with multiple concurrent systems (e.g. ECC and S/4HANA in parallel, multiple development or project tracks).
• Solid understanding of SAP transport management processes, tools, and best practices for moving configuration and custom developments between environments.
• Demonstrable expertise in operating, administering, and optimising SAP systems within Azure environments.
• Strong record of team leadership within SAP technical operations.
• Proven proficiency in SAP security, authorisations, user and access management, compliance, and role design principles.
• Significant experience in the lifecycle management of cloud-based SAP systems, including upgrades, patching, migrations, and enhancements.
• Direct experience operating or supporting additional SAP platforms such as BW/4HANA, BusinessObjects (BOBJ), or SAP Customer Relationship Management (CRM) (desirable).
• Familiarity with ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library) or equivalent service management frameworks (desirable).
• Ability to manage diverse stakeholders and communicate complex technical subjects to both technical and non-technical audiences clearly.
• Strong understanding of SAP architecture, Basis administration, automation, and current security best practices, particularly in Azure cloud platforms.
• Evidence of delivering service improvements, operational excellence, and continuous enhancement of security and controls.
• Experience managing external vendors and service providers, including contract and service performance management.

Our benefits

Joining Team Linklaters will see you qualify for a range of benefits designed to reward the vital contribution you'll be making to our success. These include:

• Health & Wellbeing: Private Medical Insurance, Free in-house fitness centre and subsidised health club memberships, Free onsite GP service and periodic health assessments.
• Finance: Pension and flexible savings options, Income protection and life assurance, Mortgage advice and will-writing services.
• Family & Lifestyle: Electric car and cycle to work schemes, Emergency family care, Additional holiday/birthday leave, Maternity/paternity/shared parental leave, Travel insurance and season ticket loan, Option to join sports and social clubs, as well as our employee networks groups (such as our Gender Equality Network, With Pride, or Social Mobility Networks).

This list of duties and responsibilities above is not exhaustive. It is intended to describe the general content of, and requirements for, the performance of this job. As such, the role may also include the undertaking of additional tasks as required.