Hudson IT and Manpower is seeking an experienced SAP Project Manager to lead a large-scale SAP S/4HANA manufacturing transformation across multiple plants and business divisions. The role oversees end-to-end program delivery across multiple workstreams, including planning, manufacturing execution, quality management, costing, governance, cutover, hypercare, and organizational change.

Responsibilities:

Own the integrated program plan, budget, resource planning, critical path, and dependencies across multiple workstreams and platforms
Lead program activities across Explore, Realize, Deploy, plant-wave rollout, cutover, and hypercare
Enforce formal scope governance and ensure custom development is appropriately evaluated and approved
Promote standard SAP functionality and clean-core principles
Manage the WRICEF backlog, including requirements, prioritization, sizing, governance, and scope validation
Challenge enhancement requests where standard SAP functionality can meet business requirements
Lead steering committee and executive governance meetings
Prepare decision requests and drive resolution of critical program and design decisions
Provide executive-level reporting on program status, risks, issues, dependencies, and benefits realization
Coordinate delivery across business SMEs, IT teams, corporate/global SAP teams, and implementation partners
Manage program risks, issues, assumptions, actions, and dependencies
Govern key risks related to: Over-customization; Lot and batch design; Machine and system integration; Actual costing accuracy; Key-person dependency; Equipment and PLC readiness; Master data governance
Plan and govern finished-goods Actual Costing parallel runs for plant deployment waves
Lead shop-floor cutover, multi-shift hypercare, legacy tool retirement, and transition to operational support
Drive organizational change management and adoption activities
Support training, documentation, knowledge capture, and transition from paper and spreadsheet-based processes
Enforce delivery standards for design sign-offs, testing strategies, defect governance, and auditable documentation
Ensure compliance with applicable financial controls, including SOX and J-SOX documentation requirements

Requirements:

Work Authorization: U.S. Citizens Only
Travel Requirement: Requires 2–3 weeks of onsite travel to Japan per quarter
Experience leading multi-workstream, multi-plant manufacturing SAP implementations from Explore through Realize, Deploy, cutover, and hypercare
Strong experience enforcing standard-first and clean-core delivery, managing enhancement governance, preventing unnecessary customization, and maintaining scope discipline
Experience managing executive and steering committee governance across business stakeholders, IT organizations, global teams, time zones, and cultures
Experience supporting shop-floor transformation, MES integration and cutover, plant-wave rollouts, costing parallel runs, and organizational change initiatives transitioning operations away from paper and spreadsheet-based processes
Batch Management and traceability experience is preferred but not required
- 12+ years of IT program and project management experience.
- 5+ full-lifecycle SAP implementations as a Project Manager or Delivery Lead
- At least 2 SAP S/4HANA implementations
- Demonstrated experience leading large-scale SAP manufacturing or supply chain transformation programs
- Experience managing multiple functional workstreams and multiple plant deployments
- Strong experience with scope governance and preventing unnecessary customization
- Proven ability to enforce standard-first delivery under business and stakeholder pressure
- Strong expertise in:
- Integrated program planning
- Critical path management
- Dependency management
- Resource planning
- Budget management
- RAID management
- Executive reporting
- Steering committee governance
- Experience leading distributed and multi-party delivery teams across multiple time zones
- Experience coordinating business teams, IT teams, global teams, and system integration partners
- Experience leading operational cutovers and multi-shift hypercare
- Organizational Change Management experience supporting the transition from paper and spreadsheet-based processes to system-driven operations
- Experience supporting training strategy and user adoption measurement
- Excellent written and verbal English communication skills
- Formal Project Management certification such as PMP, PRINCE2, or equivalent
- Strong working knowledge of SAP Activate methodology
Fluent professional English is required.
- Business-level proficiency in Japanese and English
- Previous experience delivering SAP programs in Japan or with Japanese manufacturing organizations
- Familiarity with Japanese business culture and consensus-building practices
- Experience deploying global SAP templates into country-specific operations
- Experience balancing global standards with legitimate local business requirements
- Familiarity with:
- SAP Digital Manufacturing
- SAP BTP
- Clean-core governance
- SAP Analytics Cloud
- Discrete manufacturing industry experience, including:
- Electronics
- Automotive
- Precision components
- Experience in traceability-driven manufacturing and quality environments
- PMI-ACP, SAFe, or SAP Activate certification
Business-level Japanese is strongly preferred but not mandatory
Japanese language skills are beneficial because many process owners, shop-floor personnel, and legacy-system stakeholders may primarily communicate in Japanese, and some current-state documentation may be maintained in Japanese

SAP Project Manager

Key skills

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