Enterprise Director - SAP Deployment and Advisory

Position Summary

Role Summary

We are seeking a Director, SAP S/4 Deployment & Advisory (Enterprise Director, Digital & IT), to lead enterprise-wide SAP S/4HANA deployments and provide strategic advisory across business and technology teams. This role owns delivery governance, program execution, and stakeholder alignment for SAP S/4 initiatives. The Director partners with key stakeholders to standardize processes, ensure compliance and controls, reduce customization, and enable scalable, value-driven digital capabilities across the enterprise.

Key Responsibilities

SAP S/4 Program Leadership & Delivery

• Lead end-to-end SAP S/4HANA deployment programs (greenfield, brownfield, or hybrid), from strategy through go-live and hypercare.
• Establish and manage program governance (steering committees, status reporting, risk/issue management, RAID logs).
• Drive integrated plans across workstreams (Finance, Supply Chain, Manufacturing, Sales, Data, Integration, Security).
• Oversee cutover planning, readiness assessments, testing strategies, and release management.
• Establish guiding principles for standardization, template adoption, and clean-core practices.

Advisory, Business Partnership & Value Realization

• Serve as a trusted advisor to senior leaders on SAP S/4 roadmap, operating model, and transformation strategy.
• Translate business priorities into SAP-enabled capabilities and measurable outcomes (cost, cycle time, compliance, customer impact).
• Sponsor fit-to-standard workshops and ensure decisions are documented, traceable, and auditable.
• Provide guidance on standardization vs. customization, fit-to-standard workshops, and process harmonization.
• Ensure strong testing discipline (SIT/UAT/regression), cutover planning, hypercare readiness, and stabilization.
• Drive schedule, budget, resourcing, benefits realization, and risk management across various teams.

Solution Governance & Architecture Alignment

• Partner with Enterprise Architecture and platform teams to ensure alignment with target-state architecture.
• Guide decisions on SAP modules and capabilities (e.g., FI/CO, MM, SD, PP, EWM, TM, Central Finance, RISE with SAP-based on scope).
• Ensure integration strategy alignment (SAP BTP, middleware, APIs/EDI, data platforms) and non-SAP ecosystem interoperability.

Data, Analytics, and Reporting Enablement

• Sponsor data governance and migration strategy (master data, transactional data, data quality).
• Ensure reporting and analytics approach is aligned (SAP Analytics Cloud, BW/4HANA, data lake/warehouse integrations as applicable).

Vendor / SI Management

• Manage System Integrator (SI) and SAP partner relationships, including SOWs, deliverables, budget, and performance.
• Drive accountability for milestones, quality, and adherence to standards.
• Build internal capability and reduce long-term dependency on external partners.

People Leadership & Change Enablement

• Lead, mentor, and grow a high-performing SAP delivery/advisory team.
• Partner with Change Management and Training teams to support adoption, communications, and role-based enablement.
• Ensure business ownership of process outcomes and post-go-live support models.

Risk, Compliance, and Controls

• Ensure controls, security, and compliance requirements are met (SOX, auditability, segregation of duties, regulatory needs, and GRC alignment).
• Promote disciplined documentation, testing evidence, and operational readiness.
• Govern change management and release controls to protect production stability.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Information Systems, Business, Engineering, or related field (Master's preferred).
• 10+ years of SAP experience with significant leadership in SAP S/4HANA deployments.
• 10+ years enterprise IT and digital transformation experience with deep knowledge of ERP end-to-end processes.
• 5+ years leading complex SAP S/4 or ECC-to-S/4 programs in global/multi-entity environments.
• Proven experience leading large, cross-functional programs with executive-level stakeholder management.
• Strong understanding of core end-to-end business processes (Record-to-Report, Procure-to-Pay, Order-to-Cash, Plan-to-Produce).
• Strong program governance, executive communication, and stakeholder management skills.
• Demonstrated success managing SI partners, budgets, timelines, and quality metrics.
• Proven experience with vendor management, large budgets, and multi-year portfolios.
• Experience with governance frameworks, SDLC/Agile delivery models, and enterprise change initiatives.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with RISE with SAP, cloud hosting strategies, SAP operations models, and template-based global rollouts.
• Background in manufacturing, distribution, or industrial enterprise environments.
• Knowledge of SAP BTP, Fiori, integration platforms, and modern data architecture patterns, and clean-core models.
• Experience with MDG/master data, large-scale data migration, and enterprise analytics modernization.
• Familiarity with GRC, SOX controls, and regulated industry requirements.

Core Competencies

• Executive communication and influencing skills
• Program governance and disciplined delivery leadership
• Strategic thinking with strong business acumen
• Ability to drive alignment across business, IT, and external partners
• Pragmatic decision-making (fit-to-standard mindset) and risk management
• Team building and talent development across internal partners.
• Strong customer orientation with measurable outcomes.

What Success Looks Like (First 6-12 Months)

• Established clear SAP S/4 deployment governance, metrics, and reporting cadence.
• Delivered key program milestones on time with controlled scope and managed risk.
• Improved business stakeholder confidence through strong advisory partnership.
• Implemented repeatable delivery standards for templates, testing, cutover, and hypercare.
• Demonstrated measurable progress toward process standardization and value realization with adherence to clean-core standards.
• On-time/on-budget delivery across releases and deployments.
• Data quality and migration success; minimal critical defects post-go-live.
• Audit and compliance outcomes; SoD and access control effectiveness.

Working Model & Travel

• Based in Cleveland, OH with regular in-person collaboration. No remote option available.
• Travel up to 25-40% depending on site footprint and program phase.

Parker Hannifin

Parker Hannifin is a Fortune 250 global leader in motion and control technologies. For more than a century, we've enabled engineering breakthroughs that make energy cleaner, transportation safer, medical treatments more effective, and manufacturing more efficient.

With empowered team members in more than 40 countries, Parker serves customers across aerospace & defense, energy, HVAC & refrigeration, in-plant & industrial equipment, off-highway and transportation.

Our scale is global, but our purpose is personal. We enable breakthroughs that improve lives, strengthen communities and create a brighter future.

Our Purpose - Enabling Engineering Breakthroughs that Lead to a Better Tomorrow - comes to life through our people-first culture where teamwork drives performance, inclusion fuels innovation and growth is encouraged. This environment fosters collaboration and empowers team members from engineering and manufacturing to finance, supply chain, human resources, information technology and beyond.

By combining deep expertise with an entrepreneurial spirit, we help customers succeed in markets that demand performance, reliability, and sustainability.

As we look to the future, Parker is advancing initiatives in energy efficiency and sustainability while developing the next generation of talent and leaders to engineer a better tomorrow.

Equal Employment Opportunity

Parker is an Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action Employer. Parker is committed to ensuring equal employment opportunities for all job applicants and employees. Employment decisions are based upon job related reasons regardless of race, ethnicity, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, age, national origin, disability, gender identity, genetic information, veteran status, or any other status protected by law. However, U.S. Citizenship, Permanent Residency or other appropriate status is required for certain positions, in accord with U.S. import & export regulations.

("Minority / Female / Disability / Veteran / VEVRAA Federal Contractor")

If you would like more information about Equal Employment Opportunity as an applicant under the law, please go to Employees & Job Applicants | U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission