Program Manager

Position Summary:

Title: Project Manager Premium III

Duration: 6 Months Possible Extension

Location: Washington, DC 20433

Hybrid Onsite: 4 days per week from Day 1, with a full transition to 100% onsite anticipated soon

Role Overview

The Project Manager will be responsible for leading the planning, coordination, governance, execution, and successful delivery of the BW Upgrade and Business Objects (BO) Exit Program. The program includes the upgrade of SAP BW to BW/4HANA, rationalization and retirement of Business Objects reporting components, migration and modernization of reporting capabilities, infrastructure readiness activities, testing coordination, and alignment with the SAP ERP Upgrade roadmap.

The Project Manager will work closely with Product Management, Architecture, Infrastructure, Reporting, Finance, Treasury, Corporate teams, and external vendors to ensure successful delivery of program objectives. While this is primarily a project management role, prior experience delivering SAP BW, BW/4HANA, SAP HANA, Business Objects, Enterprise Data Warehouse, or similar analytics modernization initiatives will be a significant advantage.

Given the client adoption of the SAFe Agile framework, the Project Manager is expected to have strong experience working in Agile Release Trains (ARTs), coordinating cross-functional Agile teams, facilitating Program Increment (PI) planning, and managing enterprise-scale delivery within a SAFe environment.

Preferred Candidate Profile:

A seasoned enterprise Project Manager with strong stakeholder management, governance, and delivery leadership skills who combines project execution expertise with practical knowledge of SAP BW/BW4HANA modernization initiatives and a proven track record delivering large-scale programs within a SAFe Agile environment.

Objectives:

• Successfully deliver the BW Upgrade and BO Exit Program within approved scope, timelines, and quality expectations.
• Coordinate execution across multiple technology and business workstreams.
• Establish strong governance, risk management, dependency management, and reporting mechanisms.
• Facilitate alignment among business, product, architecture, infrastructure, and delivery teams.
• Enable successful transition to BW/4HANA while minimizing business disruption and preserving critical reporting capabilities.
• Ensure compliance with CLIENT PMO, SDLC, and SAFe Agile delivery standards.

Key Responsibilities:

Program Planning & Delivery:

• Develop and maintain the integrated project roadmap covering BW/4HANA upgrade, Business Objects Exit, migration activities, testing, deployment, and stabilization.
• Manage project scope, timelines, milestones, dependencies, and critical-path activities.
• Coordinate execution across multiple delivery teams, vendors, and stakeholders.
• Manage project risks, issues, assumptions, and dependencies (RAID) throughout the project lifecycle.
• Ensure successful planning and execution of project deliverables in accordance with agreed objectives.

SAFe Agile Leadership:

• Operate within the client s SAFe Agile framework and ensure delivery activities align with SAFe principles and practices.
• Coordinate with Product Owners, Release Train Engineers (RTEs), Scrum Masters, Architects, and Delivery Teams.
• Facilitate and support Program Increment (PI) Planning activities.
• Manage cross-team dependencies and execution risks across Agile teams.
• Drive transparency through Agile reporting, milestone tracking, and delivery metrics.
• Support continuous improvement initiatives and Agile maturity objectives.

Governance & Stakeholder Management

• Establish and maintain project governance structures and decision-making frameworks.
• Facilitate Steering Committee meetings and governance forums.
• Prepare executive-level project updates, milestone reports, and status communications.
• Manage stakeholder expectations and ensure alignment across business and technology organizations.
• Escalate critical issues, decisions, and risks to the appropriate governance bodies.

Delivery Coordination

• Coordinate requirements, architecture reviews, design activities, testing cycles, deployment planning, and release readiness activities.
• Manage project interdependencies with:

• SAP ERP Upgrade initiatives
• Enterprise reporting modernization efforts
• Infrastructure modernization activities
• Cloud analytics platform initiatives
• Business Objects Exit workstreams

• Ensure effective collaboration between business and technical teams throughout project delivery.
• Track project deliverables and support issue resolution activities.

Risk & Change Management:

• Maintain project RAID logs and dependency tracking mechanisms.
• Identify, assess, and proactively mitigate project risks.
• Coordinate change requests and scope adjustments.
• Support organizational change management, communication planning, and business readiness activities.
• Ensure appropriate mitigation plans are developed for high-risk activities such as cutovers, upgrades, and report migrations.

Testing & Deployment Readiness:

• Coordinate System Integration Testing (SIT), User Acceptance Testing (UAT), performance testing, and release validation activities.
• Support deployment planning, cutover planning, and go-live readiness assessments.
• Coordinate stabilization and hypercare planning following implementation.

Reporting & Compliance:

• Produce regular project status reports and executive communications.
• Track progress against milestones, deliverables, and key performance indicators.
• Ensure compliance with PMO governance standards, SDLC processes, audit requirements, and SAFe delivery practices.
• Maintain complete project documentation and decision records.

Preferred BW/4HANA & Analytics Knowledge: Although this is not a technical delivery role, experience in the following areas is highly desirable:

• SAP BW and BW/4HANA platforms
• SAP Business Objects environments
• Analysis for Office (AO) and BEx reporting
• SAP HANA architectures
• Data warehouse modernization programs
• Enterprise reporting ecosystems
• Databricks and modern analytics platforms
• SAP upgrade and transformation programs
• Data migration and reporting rationalization initiatives

This experience will enable the Project Manager to effectively manage technical dependencies, challenge delivery assumptions, assess implementation risks, and communicate effectively with architects and technical leads.

Deliverables:

The Project Manager will be responsible for producing and maintaining:

• Integrated Project Management Plan
• Program Roadmap and Milestone Schedule
• Program Increment (PI) Planning Deliverables
• Governance and Steering Committee Materials
• Weekly and Monthly Status Reports
• RAID Logs
• Dependency Tracking Matrix
• Project Communication Plan
• Testing and Deployment Readiness Assessments
• Cutover and Release Coordination Plans
• Executive Status Dashboards
• Lessons Learned and Project Closure Documentation

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in Information Technology, Engineering, Business Administration, or a related field.
• Minimum 10 years of experience leading enterprise technology programs or large-scale transformation initiatives.
• Demonstrated experience managing complex cross-functional programs involving multiple stakeholders and delivery teams.
• Strong risk, dependency, stakeholder, and vendor management capabilities.
• Excellent communication, facilitation, negotiation, and leadership skills.
• Experience managing enterprise reporting, ERP, data, analytics, or platform modernization initiatives.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience leading SAP BW, BW/4HANA, SAP HANA, Business Objects, Data Warehouse, or Analytics modernization programs.
• Experience supporting Finance, Treasury, Corporate, or ERP-related initiatives.
• Project Management Professional (PMP) certification.
• SAFe Agilist (SA), SAFe Scrum Master (SSM), SAFe Release Train Engineer (RTE), or equivalent SAFe certification is strongly preferred.
• Demonstrated experience working in SAFe Agile delivery organizations and Agile Release Trains (ARTs).
  
  
  Mindlance is an Equal Opportunity Employer and does not discriminate in employment on the basis of Minority/Gender/Disability/Religion/LGBTQI/Age/Veterans.