SAP Technical Operations & Lifecycle Management Consultant

Job Description

About the Company

We are seeking an experienced SAP Technical Operations & Lifecycle Management Consultant to govern, coordinate, and continuously improve the technical operation of client's SAP landscape. The role serves as the central technical governance function between SAP application teams, business stakeholders, hosting providers, implementation partners, and external SAP Basis service providers. Unlike a traditional SAP Basis Administrator role, this position is not focused on performing day-to-day Basis administration tasks. Instead, the consultant will ensure that technical services are delivered effectively, platform risks are managed proactively, and future platform capabilities are aligned with client's SAP transformation strategy. A key objective of this role is to drive client's future SAP technical operating model, including lifecycle management, monitoring strategy, transport governance, operational readiness, and the evolution from SAP Solution Manager towards future tools and approaches such as SAP Cloud ALM and integrated enterprise service management

solutions. Hands-on experience with SAP Solution Manager ChaRM, SAP Cloud ALM, transport governance, release management, and evaluation of future SAP lifecycle management solutions is highly desirable.

Key Responsibilities:

SAP Technical Service Governance

• Act as the primary technical contact for SAP Basis, platform operations, hosting,

and managed service providers.

• Govern external SAP service partners and oversee service quality.

• Monitor SLAs, operational KPIs, compliance metrics, and platform risks.

• Lead escalations for critical incidents and major service disruptions.

• Facilitate regular operational review meetings and continuous service

improvement initiatives.

• Ensure adequate documentation, transparency, and knowledge transfer across

suppliers and internal teams.

SAP Platform Operations

Ensure stability, performance, availability, and resilience of the SAP landscape.

Coordinate:

• System maintenance.

• System refreshes and copies.

• Upgrades and release activities.

• Kernel updates.

• Security note implementation.

• Technical remediation activities.

• Support capacity planning and platform lifecycle activities.

• Coordinate disaster recovery and business continuity planning.

• Drive root cause investigations and recurring problem resolution.

SAP Lifecycle, Change & Transport Management

This is a strategic responsibility for the role.

• Own governance of SAP transport and change processes.

• Oversee quality-controlled movement of changes across development, test, and

production environments.

• Manage technical release planning and deployment coordination.

• Participate in CAB and enterprise change governance processes.

• Ensure successful transition of projects into production support.

• Define future-state practices for SAP lifecycle management.

Specific Responsibilities

• Maintain and improve SAP transport governance processes.

• Support ongoing use and optimisation of SAP ChaRM processes while

applicable.

• Evaluate future lifecycle management capabilities, including SAP Cloud ALM,

Change Enablement processes, monitoring solutions, and service management

integration approaches.

• Advise on future operating models and tooling decisions for change and release

management.

• Establish standards that ensure secure, auditable, and high-quality

deployments.

This area was specifically highlighted as a priority by the SAP leadership team and is

considered an important future capability for client

SAP Architecture & Transformation Support

• Support the evolution of client's SAP platform strategy.

• Participate in S/4HANA, BTP, cloud, and transformation programmes.

• Evaluate operational implications of new technical architectures.

• Ensure alignment with Clean Core principles.

• Support platform roadmap discussions and operational readiness planning.

• Act as the operational representative within SAP transformation projects.

Monitoring, Observability & Operations Excellence

• Define and evolve SAP monitoring standards.

• Evaluate and implement future monitoring approaches.

• Support migration from legacy monitoring approaches towards modern SAP

operational monitoring capabilities.

• Drive transparency of platform health, service performance, and technical risks.

• Develop operational dashboards and governance reporting.

This reflects Angela's emphasis on monitoring being a significant area of responsibility

moving forward.

Security, Compliance & Audit

• Coordinate technical compliance requirements.

• Support internal and external audits.

• Ensure adherence to security policies and governance standards.

• Manage vulnerability remediation activities.

• Track technical risks and mitigation plans.

• Ensure audit readiness across the SAP platform landscape.

Required Experience

Experience

• 8–15 years of SAP technical experience.

• Minimum five years in SAP Basis, SAP platform operations, or SAP technical

consulting.

• Experience governing outsourced SAP Basis and hosting services.

• Experience managing SAP releases, upgrades, and operational transitions.

• Experience working with transport management and SAP change governance

processes.

• Experience supporting enterprise-scale SAP environments.

Highly Desirable

• SAP Cloud ALM.

• SAP Solution Manager / ChaRM.

• SAP Release Management.

• SAP Change Enablement.

• SAP S/4HANA.

• SAP BTP.

• RISE with SAP.

• ServiceNow change management integration.

• Hybrid and cloud SAP landscapes.

Personal Competencies

• Strong ownership mindset.

• Ability to challenge service providers constructively.

• Excellent stakeholder management skills.

• Strong communication with both technical and business audiences.

• Analytical and structured problem-solving approach.

• Comfortable operating in international and matrix organisations.

• Ability to drive decisions in situations where technology and tooling are evolving

rapidly.