SAP Cutover Lead

Position Summary

We are seeking an experienced SAP Cutover Lead with 10+ years of SAP and enterprise transformation experience to lead and coordinate end-to-end cutover activities for a large-scale SAP implementation, migration, or transformation program.

The ideal candidate will have proven experience planning and executing complex SAP cutovers, including cutover strategy, integrated cutover planning, data migration coordination, system readiness, business readiness, go-live execution, command-center management, and hypercare transition.

Strong experience within the Healthcare / Life Sciences industry is required, with an understanding of regulated business environments, validation requirements, data integrity, business continuity, and critical supply-chain and operational processes.

The SAP Cutover Lead will work closely with SAP functional and technical teams, business stakeholders, data migration teams, infrastructure teams, testing teams, security, validation/quality teams, PMO, and third-party implementation partners to ensure a controlled and successful transition to the production environment.

Key Responsibilities

Cutover Strategy & Planning

• Own and drive the end-to-end SAP cutover strategy, planning, execution, and governance.
• Develop a comprehensive Cutover Plan / Integrated Cutover Runbook covering all technical, functional, data, business, infrastructure, and operational activities.
• Define cutover phases, milestones, dependencies, entry/exit criteria, checkpoints, and go/no-go decision points.
• Establish detailed sequencing and timing of cutover activities to minimize business disruption.
• Coordinate cutover planning across multiple SAP workstreams, business functions, geographies, sites, and third-party systems.
• Define cutover governance, escalation procedures, communication protocols, and decision-making processes.
• Conduct cutover planning workshops with business and technology stakeholders.

Cutover Execution & Command Center

• Lead the execution of dress rehearsals, mock cutovers, production cutover, go-live, and stabilization activities.
• Manage the cutover command center / war room during critical deployment periods.
• Track cutover activities against the approved runbook and proactively manage delays, dependencies, risks, and issues.
• Coordinate real-time status reporting across functional, technical, infrastructure, data, security, integration, and business teams.
• Facilitate go/no-go readiness reviews with program leadership and key stakeholders.
• Ensure appropriate contingency, rollback, and recovery plans are established and understood.
• Coordinate issue triage, escalation, resolution, and executive communication during cutover.

SAP & Technical Coordination

• Coordinate SAP technical and functional cutover activities including system configuration, transports, interfaces, batch jobs, security, roles, integrations, and production validation.
• Work closely with SAP Basis, functional, development, integration, security, infrastructure, and application teams.
• Coordinate dependencies between SAP and connected enterprise applications.
• Ensure technical activities are appropriately sequenced and validated before business operations begin.
• Coordinate system shutdown, migration, production startup, validation, and handover activities as applicable.

Data Migration & Validation

• Coordinate closely with Data Migration teams on data extraction, cleansing, transformation, loading, reconciliation, and validation activities.
• Integrate data migration activities and dependencies into the master cutover plan.
• Ensure data loads, reconciliation, validation, and business sign-offs are completed within agreed cutover windows.
• Track data-related defects and issues that could impact go-live readiness.
• Ensure appropriate controls are established for data integrity and traceability.

Business Readiness & Go-Live

• Coordinate business readiness activities required for successful SAP go-live.
• Ensure business teams understand cutover timelines, system downtime, transaction freezes, blackout periods, and post-go-live procedures.
• Coordinate business validation and critical business-process testing following production deployment.
• Ensure key business functions are operational before final go-live approval.
• Partner with Change Management, Training, Communications, and Business Process teams to align organizational readiness with technical cutover.

Healthcare / Life Sciences Compliance

• Ensure cutover activities align with applicable Healthcare / Life Sciences quality, compliance, and regulatory requirements.
• Collaborate with Quality, Regulatory, and Computer System Validation teams where applicable.
• Support appropriate documentation, approvals, traceability, and evidence collection for regulated systems.
• Ensure data integrity and controlled execution of cutover activities in validated environments.
• Understand the operational criticality of processes such as manufacturing, supply chain, inventory, order management, procurement, finance, and distribution within Healthcare / Life Sciences organizations.
• Experience working in environments governed by GxP, FDA, GMP, CSV, or similar regulatory frameworks is highly desirable.

Risk, Issue & Dependency Management

• Identify and maintain cutover-specific risks, issues, assumptions, and dependencies.
• Develop mitigation and contingency plans for high-risk cutover activities.
• Proactively identify potential schedule conflicts and critical-path dependencies.
• Escalate critical issues to program leadership with clear impact assessments and recommended actions.
• Ensure owners and resolution timelines are established for all critical cutover issues.

Hypercare & Transition

• Coordinate transition from cutover into go-live support and hypercare.
• Establish clear handoff processes between implementation teams and production/support organizations.
• Track post-go-live issues and ensure appropriate ownership and prioritization.
• Define exit criteria for hypercare and transition to steady-state operations.
• Conduct post-cutover lessons-learned sessions and document recommendations for subsequent deployments or waves.

Required Skills & Experience

• 10+ years of overall SAP / ERP transformation experience, with significant experience leading complex SAP cutover activities.
• 7+ years of proven experience as an SAP Cutover Lead / Cutover Manager / Deployment Lead on large-scale SAP implementations, migrations, or transformation programs.
• 5+ years of strong experience with SAP S/4HANA and/or SAP ECC environments.
• 3 to 5 years of experience managing at least one or more full lifecycle SAP go-lives in a Cutover Lead or equivalent leadership capacity.
• Strong knowledge of SAP implementation and deployment methodologies.
• Hands-on experience creating and managing detailed cutover plans, runbooks, checklists, dependency maps, and readiness dashboards.
• Strong understanding of SAP data migration, integrations, transports, infrastructure, testing, security, and production deployment dependencies.
• Experience managing mock cutovers / dress rehearsals and production cutovers.
• Strong experience with go/no-go governance, command centers, hypercare, and production stabilization.
• Experience working with globally distributed business and technical teams.
• Excellent stakeholder management and executive communication skills.
• Strong risk, issue, dependency, and critical-path management capabilities.
• Ability to operate effectively in high-pressure environments during critical go-live periods.

Healthcare / Life Sciences Experience

Healthcare / Life Sciences industry experience is required.

Candidates should have experience supporting SAP programs within one or more of the following environments:

• Pharmaceutical
• Biotechnology
• Medical Devices
• Diagnostics
• Healthcare
• Clinical / Laboratory environments
• Life Sciences manufacturing and distribution

Experience with regulated systems, GxP environments, Computer System Validation (CSV), data integrity, quality processes, and regulatory compliance is strongly preferred.

SAP Functional Exposure

Broad understanding of SAP business processes and dependencies across modules such as:

• SAP Finance FI/CO
• Materials Management MM
• Sales & Distribution SD
• Production Planning PP
• Warehouse Management / EWM
• Quality Management QM
• Plant Maintenance PM
• Supply Chain processes
• SAP integrations and interfaces
• SAP Master Data

Deep functional configuration expertise across all modules is not required; however, the Cutover Lead must understand cross-functional process and system dependencies sufficiently to manage an integrated enterprise cutover.

Tools & Methodologies

Experience with one or more of the following is preferred:

• SAP Activate
• SAP Solution Manager / Cloud ALM
• Jira / Confluence
• ServiceNow
• Microsoft Project
• Smartsheet
• Excel-based integrated cutover planning
• RAID management
• Agile / Waterfall / Hybrid delivery methodologies

Preferred Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, Engineering, Business, or related discipline.
• SAP certification is preferred but not mandatory.
• PMP, PRINCE2, or equivalent project/program management certification is advantageous.
• Experience with SAP S/4HANA transformation or migration programs is strongly preferred.
• Experience with global or multi-site SAP deployments is highly desirable.
• Previous experience supporting SAP deployments within FDA-regulated / GxP-controlled Life Sciences environments is a strong advantage.