SAP Project Manager - Paris [H/F/D]

Job Description
Are you an experienced SAP S/4HANA Project Manager with a strong track record of shaping and successfully delivering complex transformation projects?
We are looking for a hands-on SAP S/4HANA Project Manager who can take ownership from initial project shaping and scoping through mobilization, planning, Fit-to-Standard, execution, testing, data migration, cutover and stabilization.
The role requires strong practical knowledge of SAP Activate, Fit-to-Standard and Agile / SAFe ways of working, combined with the ability to establish an effective delivery methodology, create and manage detailed integrated project plans, orchestrate multiple SAP workstreams, establish robust governance and bring business and IT stakeholders together around common project outcomes.
In addition to delivery leadership, the Project Manager will play an important role in project shaping, proposals and pre-sales, preparation of customer offers, scope and change management and commercial tracking.
Key Responsibilities
1. Project Shaping, Scoping & Roadmap

• Shape the SAP S/4HANA project roadmap, translating business and transformation objectives into a realistic and executable delivery approach.

• Lead the effective scoping of SAP S/4HANA projects, defining scope boundaries, workstreams, deliverables, assumptions, dependencies, timelines and resource requirements.

• Structure projects into manageable work packages with clear ownership across business, functional, technical, integration, data, testing and change teams.

• Facilitate scope alignment with business and IT stakeholders and establish a robust scope and delivery baseline.

• Identify scope gaps, cross-stream dependencies and delivery risks early and drive them toward timely resolution.

• Ensure that project commitments remain realistic and aligned with available capacity, business priorities and agreed outcomes.

2. Project Mobilization & Integrated Planning

• Translate the project roadmap and scope into a detailed integrated project plan covering all major business, solution, development, integration, data, testing, change and technical activities.

• Establish milestones, dependencies, critical paths, decision points, deliverables and resource requirements.

• Define the project organization, roles and responsibilities, workstream structure, governance forums and ways of working.

• Mobilize the project team and ensure clarity of objectives, scope, responsibilities, deliverables and expected outcomes.

• Establish effective project controls for milestones, risks, issues, actions, dependencies and decisions.

• Continuously monitor progress against the agreed baseline and proactively initiate corrective actions where required.

3. SAP Activate, Fit-to-Standard & Delivery Methodology

• Establish and operationalize the project methodology based on SAP Activate, complemented by Agile and SAFe practices as appropriate.

• Define project phases, deliverables, quality gates, governance mechanisms and working practices, ensuring that methodology supports delivery rather than becoming an administrative exercise.

• Successfully anchor the preparation and planning of Fit-to-Standard workshops, ensuring appropriate workshop sequencing, business participation, prerequisites, process coverage and expected outcomes.

• Guide workstreams in applying a consistent methodology for SAP Best Practices, process validation, requirements management, backlog creation and solution decisions.

• Ensure workshop outputs are translated into clearly owned decisions, requirements, backlog items and actions.

• Drive consistency of methodology and execution across functional and technical workstreams.

4. Business & Stakeholder Engagement

• Establish a comprehensive stakeholder map across business, IT, process owners, key users, project teams and leadership.

• Bring stakeholders onto a common transformation journey through effective project kickoffs, workshops, PI Planning, demonstrations, governance forums and regular communication.

• Establish clarity around stakeholder roles, decision rights and expected business participation throughout the project.

• Build strong relationships with key customer stakeholders and ensure transparency around progress, priorities, dependencies, decisions and risks.

• Proactively manage stakeholder expectations and facilitate timely resolution of issues and competing priorities.

5. Backlog, Agile & Cross-Stream Management

• Establish effective mechanisms for backlog management, prioritization, PI Planning, demos and decision-making.

• Work closely with business stakeholders and workstream leads to continuously align and prioritize the backlog based on business value, project objectives, dependencies and delivery capacity.

• Drive resolution of cross-stream topics where decisions in one functional or technical area impact other processes or workstreams.

• Facilitate end-to-end thinking across business processes rather than allowing workstreams to operate independently.

• Maintain transparency on open requirements, decisions, dependencies and delivery progress.

6. Project, Solution & Change Governance

• Establish and operate an effective project governance model with clear responsibilities, decision rights and escalation mechanisms.

• Set up and drive solution governance, change governance and Steering Committee governance.

• Establish effective weekly and monthly operating cadences across project management, workstreams and leadership forums.

• Drive regular project reviews focused on progress, milestones, risks, issues, dependencies, decisions, quality and commercial performance.

• Define and monitor meaningful project KPIs to enable objective, fact-based performance measurement.

• Ensure transparent reporting and early identification and escalation of material deviations from plan.

7. Testing & Quality Management

• Provide project leadership in establishing the overall testing strategy and framework, working closely with testing and functional teams.

• Ensure effective planning and governance across integration testing, User Acceptance Testing, regression testing and defect management.

• Drive the appropriate use of test automation with the support of specialist teams.

• Ensure traceability and transparency between requirements, solution delivery, test scenarios, defects and business acceptance.

• Monitor testing progress, quality and readiness as integral components of overall project governance.

8. Master Data, Migration & End-to-End Readiness

• Provide the project management platform required to effectively drive master data and data migration topics.

• Bring business, functional, data and technical stakeholders together around data ownership, quality, migration scope, dependencies and readiness.

• Ensure data activities are integrated into the project plan rather than managed as stand-alone technical activities.

• Drive visibility and resolution of cross-stream and end-to-end topics, particularly where process, solution, integration and data dependencies intersect.

• Ensure integrated readiness across process, solution, data, integration, testing, change and cutover activities.

9. Commercial & Change Control

• Maintain transparency of project commercials, including effort consumption, budget, forecast, staffing and financial performance against the agreed commercial baseline.

• Establish disciplined scope and change control, ensuring deviations from the agreed baseline are identified early and assessed for impact.

• Lead the timely preparation and coordination of change requests, including definition of scope, effort, timeline and resource impacts.

• Coordinate inputs from relevant functional, technical, delivery and commercial stakeholders to develop complete change requests.

• Ensure additional requirements are appropriately prioritized and either managed within the agreed baseline or formalized through change control.

• Maintain alignment between contractual commitments, project scope, project plan and actual execution.

10. Proposals, Offers & Pre-Sales

• Contribute actively to SAP S/4HANA proposals and pre-sales engagements, bringing practical project delivery experience into the solution and commercial shaping process.

• Lead the timely creation of project offers, coordinating inputs from functional, technical, delivery and commercial stakeholders.

• Translate customer requirements into clearly defined scope, assumptions, project approach, timelines, staffing requirements and delivery plans.

• Support effort estimation and ensure consistency between the proposed scope, effort, schedule and delivery model.

• Participate in customer workshops, proposal presentations and solution discussions, articulating the proposed project approach with confidence.

• Ensure a smooth transition from proposal and offer creation into project mobilization and execution.

11. Team Leadership & Distributed Delivery

• Lead a diversely located SAP project team, establishing one integrated delivery organization across customer-facing, on-site, nearshore and offshore teams.

• Maintain strong client proximity while effectively leveraging specialist skills and delivery capacity available from remote teams.

• Establish clear accountability across workstream leads and ensure effective collaboration across geographic and organizational boundaries.

• Facilitate the resolution of delivery impediments and cross-team dependencies.

• Foster collaboration between business, IT, functional, technical, data, testing and partner teams while maintaining focus on overall project outcomes.

• Create a working environment characterized by ownership, transparency, collaboration and delivery discipline.

12. Integrated Project Tool Chain

• Drive effective adoption of an integrated project tool chain supporting planning, requirements and backlog management, solution documentation, testing, defects, change management and reporting.

• Promote disciplined and consistent usage of relevant platforms such as SAP Cloud ALM / SAP Solution Manager, Jira, Azure DevOps, SAP Signavio and applicable test automation solutions, depending upon the customer landscape.

• Drive end-to-end traceability between business requirements, solution decisions, backlog items, build activities, testing, defects and readiness.

• Use integrated tooling and project data to increase transparency, strengthen governance and enable fact-based management decisions.

Knowledge & Skills Required

• Strong experience managing complex SAP S/4HANA implementation projects with multiple functional and technical workstreams.

• Proven ability to shape and scope SAP projects, define delivery boundaries, establish assumptions and translate customer objectives into an executable project setup.

• Strong hands-on knowledge of SAP Activate, Fit-to-Standard and SAP S/4HANA implementation methodology.

• Practical experience applying Agile and SAFe principles, including backlog management, PI Planning, prioritization and demonstrations within SAP projects.

• Demonstrated ability to create and manage detailed integrated project plans, including milestones, dependencies, resources and critical paths.

• Strong experience in planning and governing Fit-to-Standard workshops and converting workshop outcomes into controlled project deliverables and backlog.

• Experience establishing and operating project, solution, change and Steering Committee governance.

• Strong understanding of project controls, RAID management, KPI-based performance management and management reporting.

• Experience with project commercial management, including effort and budget tracking, forecasting, scope control and change requests.

• Experience contributing to SAP proposals, offers and pre-sales, including scoping, estimating, planning and shaping delivery approaches.

• Good understanding of SAP testing approaches, including integration testing, UAT, regression testing, defect management and test automation.

• Good understanding of master data, data migration, integration and cross-functional end-to-end process dependencies within SAP S/4HANA projects.

• Demonstrated experience leading multi-location and culturally diverse teams, including effective collaboration across on-site, nearshore and offshore locations.

• Strong client-facing capabilities with the ability to work effectively with business stakeholders, IT leadership, project teams and senior management.

• Strong analytical and problem-solving capabilities combined with a pragmatic, delivery-oriented mindset.

• Excellent facilitation, negotiation, communication and documentation skills.

• Ability to operate independently, manage competing priorities and bring structure and transparency to complex project environments.

• Fluent in French and English, with the ability to lead customer workshops, project governance meetings, Steering Committees and commercial discussions in a client-facing environment.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience delivering SAP S/4HANA transformations within manufacturing, automotive, discrete manufacturing or other complex industrial environments.

• SAP Activate certification or strong demonstrable practical experience applying SAP Activate.

• PMP, PRINCE2, SAFe, Scrum Master or comparable project / Agile certification.

• Experience working with SAP delivery and project-management platforms such as SAP Cloud ALM, SAP Solution Manager, SAP Signavio, Jira or Azure DevOps.

• Experience participating in customer proposals and successfully transitioning projects from pre-sales and shaping into execution.

What We Are Looking For
We are looking for someone who combines the discipline of an experienced project manager with the practical mindset of an SAP delivery leader.
The successful candidate should be able to shape and scope the project, establish the roadmap and methodology, build a credible integrated plan, mobilize the right stakeholders, anchor Fit-to-Standard, govern execution, control scope and commercials, and drive the project toward successful business outcomes.
This is therefore not purely a coordination role. It requires someone who can provide structure and direction, challenge constructively, make complex dependencies transparent and create the environment in which business and delivery teams can successfully execute an SAP S/4HANA transformation.