Contract- Project Transition & Change Management Manager

International Paper•Atlanta, GA

2d•Hybrid

About The Position

Procurement is executing a multi-phase transition of in-scope processes to a Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) partner, while Procurement Innovation continues to build out and deploy a connected S2P. The Project Transition & Change Management Manager owns both: leading end-to-end BPO transition planning and execution to a smooth, low-risk migration and sustained service levels post go-live, and serving as the change management partner who pairs every platform release with a deliberate adoption plan (i.e. documentation, training, communications, and change management), so the organization always knows what changed, why, and how to do the job the new way. This individual will be the key accountable party for a successful transition for BPO and go-live adoption for S2P. It is the connective tissue between the teams that build, configure, and transition procurement processes and systems, and the people who use them every day.

Requirements

Proven experience leading large-scale transitions, BPO/outsourcing migrations, or enterprise change management and adoption initiatives.
Excellent verbal and written communication skills, with strong stakeholder management and cross-functional collaboration; able to translate technical or methodological change into plain language for a non-technical audience.
Strong analytical and problem-solving skills; able to manage multiple complex workstreams simultaneously across geographies.
Working knowledge of change management principles; knowledge of procurement operations and sourcing, contracts and SLAs, and Global Procurement and Financial Policies and Procedures.
Experience with project/transition management tools and methodologies (e.g., MS Project, Smartsheet, Visio).
A BS/BA degree in Business, Supply Chain, Management, or a related field is required; equivalent related experience will be considered.

Nice To Haves

5–10 years of project/program, transition, or process transformation management experience.
PMP, Lean Six Sigma, or Change Management certification, and prior BPO/shared services transition experience.
Experience with SAP or other ERP/procurement systems; familiarity with procurement platforms such as LevelPath (P2P) and Sirion (CLM).
Experience with MyLearning or an equivalent enterprise LMS

Responsibilities

Own, manage, and execute end-to-end implementation plans for Gen 1 BPO scope consisting of Containerboard and Mexico Operations; and transition plans for Gen 2 Converting Business, including parallel run, cutover, and hypercare processes.
Partner with process owners, SMEs, and BPO resources to capture, document, and validate SOPs and knowledge-transfer materials for in-scope processes, including shadowing and reverse-shadowing sessions between IP teams and BPO resources to confirm go-live readiness.
Develop and maintain the transition governance model — steering committee reporting, RAID (risks, actions, issues, decisions) logs, milestone tracking, go-live readiness criteria, SLAs, transition KPIs, and financial impact — reported to Procurement Operations and Program leadership on a regular cadence.
Manage multiple concurrent transition workstreams across processes and geographies, balancing scope, schedule, and budget; escalate and resolve risks or gaps that threaten timeline, scope, or quality.
Manage the post-go-live hypercare period, monitoring SLA performance and driving issue resolution with the BPO provider and impacted business.
Coordinate with Legal, HR, IT, Finance, and Security to ensure data security, system access, and compliance requirements are met throughout the transition.
Own the ongoing create, update, retire cycle for SOPs across the procurement platform landscape, maintaining a single source of truth with a review cadence tied to each system's release schedule.
Act as primary contact and administrator for MyLearning; build and maintain role-based learning paths (onboarding, refresher, release-driven modules); run live sessions and office hours, track completion, and follow up on gaps.
Serve as the connective point of contact between IP stakeholders, the BPO provider, and internal leadership across the platform landscape and BPO transition alike, maintaining strong working relationships with each.
Create communication plans for all major system and process rollouts (LevelPath, Sievo, Sirion, SAP/S4HANA); publish change notices ahead of go-live and sequence SOPs, training, and communications so they land before a change takes effect.
Produce the Procurement Innovation Newsletter end to end; carry communication between corporate procurement and the enablement/execution teams in both directions.
Collect and triage reporting ideas from the field, maintain the backlog, and hand off prioritized requests to the reporting owner.
Identify and raise continuous improvement opportunities surfaced across the BPO transition and platform rollouts to strengthen the target operating model.