SAP Cutover Lead

NTT DATA Services•Plano, TX

10d

About The Position

The SAP S/4HANA Cutover Lead is responsible for leading cutover strategy, governance, and execution for SAP ECC to SAP S/4HANA transformation programs. The role oversees deployment activities across multiple countries, regions, business units, and legal entities while ensuring business continuity, operational readiness, and successful go-live outcomes. This executive-facing role supports a global SAP transformation program and requires coordination across multiple time zones and international teams. It operates in a fast-paced, highly collaborative environment with executive-level visibility and accountability. The position is based in Plano, Texas, and requires willingness to travel internationally up to 30–50% based on deployment schedules, including support for critical cutover weekends, holiday deployments, and extended go-live windows.

Requirements

Minimum 15+ years of SAP implementation and enterprise transformation experience.
Minimum 10+ years of experience leading enterprise-scale SAP programs.
Minimum 8+ years of experience leading SAP Cutover, Deployment, or Release Management organizations.
Experience leading at least three global SAP ECC to SAP S/4HANA transformation programs.
Demonstrated success delivering multi-country, multi-wave SAP deployments.
Extensive experience with SAP ECC, SAP S/4HANA, SAP Activate Methodology, and Brownfield, Greenfield, and Selective Data Transition approaches.
Experience with SAP Cloud ALM, SAP Solution Manager, SAP Basis, SAP Landscape Management, SAP Integration Suite, SAP BTP, SAP Fiori, SAP Security and GRC, Data Migration, Master Data Governance, and SAP Analytics and Reporting.
Strong executive presence, strategic planning, global stakeholder management, enterprise risk management, vendor governance, financial management, decision-making, and team leadership skills.
Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology, Engineering, Computer Science, Business Administration, or a related field.
Willingness to travel internationally up to 30–50% based on deployment schedules.
Ability to support critical cutover weekends, holiday deployments, and extended go-live windows.

Nice To Haves

Master's degree (MBA or equivalent).
SAP Certified Application Associate – SAP S/4HANA.
SAP Activate Project Manager certification.
Project Management Professional (PMP) certification.
PgMP (Program Management Professional) certification.
PRINCE2 Practitioner certification.
ITIL Foundation or Managing Professional certification.
SAFe Program Consultant (SPC) or SAFe Agilist certification.
Prosci Change Management Certification.

Responsibilities

Develop and manage the enterprise-wide SAP S/4HANA cutover strategy, governance, standards, and deployment methodology.
Define deployment principles for Greenfield, Brownfield, and Selective Data Transition programs.
Lead cutover activities across multiple implementation waves and coordinate regional Cutover Managers across the Americas, EMEA, APAC, and LATAM.
Oversee integrated deployment schedules covering production migrations, SAP transports, data migration, infrastructure readiness, security, integration cutovers, disaster recovery, and Hypercare.
Coordinate with executive sponsors, Global PMO, Enterprise Architecture, Business Transformation, Infrastructure, Cybersecurity, and System Integration partners.
Manage deployment risks, dependencies, rollback strategies, contingency plans, and business continuity preparedness.
Oversee mock conversions, dress rehearsals, data reconciliation, production migration, environment readiness, and performance validation.
Ensure organizational, business process, end-user training, operational, and Help Desk readiness.
Manage System Integrators, consulting partners, deployment budgets, resources, and contractual commitments.
Lead Hypercare governance, Command Center operations, executive incident escalations, and transition to Application Management Services (AMS).
Build and mentor regional Cutover Leads and Program Managers and promote continuous improvement.