Role Overview :

We are looking for an experienced Head SAP Applications to provide functional, technical, and leadership ownership of the organisations SAP landscape. The role will partner with business heads, plant teams, Finance, Supply Chain, Manufacturing, Procurement, Sales, and IT to ensure reliable operations, strong controls, efficient processes, and effective use of SAP.

Key Responsibilities :

- Lead SAP functional strategy and provide deep expertise in FI/CO or another core SAP module, with strong understanding of FI/CO, MM, SD, PP, QM, PM and cross-functional processes.

- Own the SAP application roadmap aligned with business strategy, digital transformation, process standardisation, automation, and operational priorities.

- Evaluate and guide SAP S/4HANA, Fiori, BTP, RISE, analytics, workflow, process mining, and AI-enabled capabilities.

- Translate business requirements into scalable SAP solutions, conduct fit-gap and process workshops, and challenge unnecessary customisation.

- Review and approve functional designs, configurations, technical specifications, integrations, and solutions covering accounting, costing, inventory, taxation, controls, audit, and operations.

- Provide technical oversight of ABAP, APIs, IDocs, BAPIs, RFCs, CDS Views, Fiori, workflows, integrations, transports, security, and system architecture.

- Lead SAP implementations, rollouts, upgrades, migrations, and major enhancement programmes across the complete lifecycle, including design, configuration, data migration, testing, UAT, cutover, go-live, and hypercare.

- Ensure effective SAP application support through structured incident, problem, change, escalation, SLA, root-cause, and knowledge-management processes.

- Lead SAP functional and technical teams, allocate resources, develop capabilities, mentor team members, and manage implementation/support partners.

- Partner with senior stakeholders and plant/business leaders on SAP priorities, risks, escalations, solution decisions, and transformation initiatives.

- Establish SAP governance covering solution design, change management, testing, transports, production access, ITGC, segregation of duties, authorisations, audit, and compliance.

- Strengthen SAP master-data governance and work with analytics/data teams to enable reliable SAP data extraction, enterprise reporting, and dashboards.

- Manage SAP vendors and partners, including scope, SLAs, deliverables, budgets, performance, knowledge transfer, and reduction of external dependency.

- Ensure adherence to clean-core principles, SAP standards, documentation, security, business continuity, and disaster-recovery requirements.

Required Experience:

- 14+ years of total professional experience with significant SAP functional/application leadership experience.

- Experience in manufacturing or process industries, preferably multi-location/plant environments.

- Leadership or participation in 34 end-to-end SAP implementations, rollouts, or major transformation programmes.

- Hands-on experience with at least one major SAP upgrade, migration, or version transition.

- Strong SAP S/4HANA experience; ECC exposure is advantageous.

- Deep expertise in SAP FI/CO or equivalent depth in another core SAP module.

- Strong understanding of integration across Finance, Procurement, Sales, Manufacturing, Quality, Maintenance, and Supply Chain.

- Experience managing SAP functional consultants, technical teams, and external implementation partners.

- Strong experience across implementation, enhancement, production support, testing, cutover, and user adoption.

- Practical knowledge of SAP controls, authorisations, ITGC, audit, and compliance.

Technical & Functional Skills:

- SAP S/4HANA architecture and application landscape

- FI/CO or another core SAP module

- Cross-module business processes: O2C, P2P, Plan-to-Produce, R2R

- Product costing, actual costing, Material Ledger, and profitability analysis

- ABAP concepts and functional specification review

- CDS Views, Fiori, APIs, IDocs, BAPIs, workflows, and integrations

- Data migration, conversion, and reconciliation

- SAP Basis, transports, performance, and upgrade concepts

- Roles, authorisations, and SoD

- SAP BTP, Signavio, RISE, or Cloud ALM exposure is advantageous

- Master-data governance and SAP analytics integration

Education & Certifications:

- Bachelors degree in Engineering, Computer Science, IT, Commerce, Finance, Business Administration, or related discipline; CA/CMA/MBA Finance is relevant for candidates with FI/CO expertise.

- SAP certification in the core module is preferred.

- SAP S/4HANA, SAP Activate, Project Management, ITSM, or Architecture certification is advantageous.

Preferred Industry Experience:

- Food Processing / CPG

- FMCG

- Chemicals / Fertilisers

- Cement / Metals / Process Manufacturing

- Automotive / Industrial Manufacturing

- Multi-plant manufacturing organisations

Key Competencies:

- Strong business orientation and commercial understanding

- Functional depth combined with technical judgement

- Strong problem-solving and root-cause analysis

- Executive communication and stakeholder management

- Ability to challenge requirements constructively

- Strong ownership and decision-making

- Team leadership, mentoring, and delivery discipline

- Control consciousness and attention to detail

- Ability to remain hands-on for critical issues

Expected Outcomes:

- Establish a clear, business-aligned SAP roadmap.

- Improve SAP enhancement quality, delivery timelines, and standardisation.

- Strengthen integration across Finance, Manufacturing, Procurement, Sales, and Supply Chain.

- Improve SAP controls, documentation, audit readiness, and change governance.

- Deliver upgrades and transformation programmes with minimal business disruption.

- Improve master-data quality and reporting reliability.

- Build stronger collaboration between business teams and the SAP function.