Senior Director, SAP Technical Lead

Job Description

The Opportunity
The SAP Technical Lead is responsible for end-to-end technical leadership across our company's Human Health SAP global landscape, including SAP application development, Basis administration, Cloud Ops and SAP security. This role ensures system stability, performance, scalability, and compliance, while driving engineering best practices, automation, AI aligned with business objectives and priorities. The ideal candidate combines deep SAP technical expertise with strong leadership, stakeholder management, and a pragmatic approach to governance.

What will you do in this role

Strategic Leadership and Governance

• Own the technical roadmap for SAP, aligning with enterprise architecture, business strategy, and release plans.
• Define and enforce technical standards, development guidelines, and DevOps practices across our company's SAP technology stack.
• Establish governance for transport management, code review and quality, security controls, and technical change management (ChaRM/SolMan, SAP Cloud ALM and technical environment landscape).
• Partner with Enterprise Architecture and Security to ensure adherence to architectural principles, Cyber guidelines and regulatory requirements (GxP, SOX, as applicable), and audit readiness.
• Bring innovation, new technology and modern ways of working, such as Agile.
• Define a technical roadmap that prioritizes AI and latest technology.
• Define and execute a roadmap to modernize our solutions and applications.

SAP Development Oversight

• Lead ABAP and SAP development teams (including Fiori, BTP, Mobile applications and any other technology required to support our SAP tech stack landscape).
• Ensure best practices for review and approval of technical designs, ensuring standards, performance, scalability, and maintainability.
• Drive code quality through standards, peer reviews supported by AI, static analysis tools (e.g., ATC/SCI), unit testing, and automated pipelines.
• Oversee custom enhancements, interfaces (IDoc/APIs), conversions, and reports; minimize technical debt and promote clean core concepts.
• Guide modernization efforts: Fiori enablement, S/4HANA simplification, clean core strategy, and extensibility via BTP.

Basis Administration Leadership

• Ensure reliable operations of our SAP full landscape: installation, configuration, upgrades, SPS/FPs, infrastructure updates, HANA upgrades, and patching.
• Oversee system performance, capacity planning, HA/DR, backup/restore, and monitoring (Cloud ALM, Onapsis).
• Manage landscapes across on-premise, cloud (Hyperscaler), RISE, SaaS and hybrid environments, including transport paths, client strategy, and system refreshes.
• Optimize HANA database performance and housekeeping; oversee job scheduling and workload management.
• Ensure proper OSS notes implementation, and vendor coordination with SAP Support.
• Lead best in class technical operations in collaboration with SAP and RISE operations.

SAP Security Management Oversight

• Ensure proper SAP security architecture: role design (GRC-compliant), S/4HANA/Fiori authorization concepts and clean segregation of duties (SoD).
• Oversee GRC Access Control, emergency access, and periodic access reviews.
• Implement and monitor security baselines, logging, and threat detection (e.g., Security Audit Log, Read Access Logging, HANA auditing, Onapsis).
• Ensure remediation of audit findings, vulnerability management, and ensure compliance with regulatory standards.

Operations, Reliability, and DevOps

• Establish CI/CD for SAP based on internal toolsets and standards, automated testing, and transport orchestration.
• Implement observability: metrics, logs, traces; define SLAs for availability and performance.
• Drive incident, problem, and change management, including root cause analysis and post-incident reviews.
• Plan and lead cutovers, releases, and environment refreshes; manage downtime windows and stakeholder communications.

Program and Stakeholder Management

• Collaborate with SAP functional leads, and SAP Platform operations to prioritize backlog and deliver roadmaps.
• Provide technical estimates, risk assessments, and resource planning; manage vendor partners and statements of work.
• Communicate complex technical topics in business terms; present status, risks, and mitigation plans to leadership.

Team Leadership and Development

• Build and mentor a high-performing team of SAP technical experts, including developers, Basis administrators, security analysts and Cloud Ops.
• Define roles, responsibilities, and career paths; foster a culture of innovation, modern technology, AI first approach, quality, accountability, and continuous improvement.
• Standardize documentation, runbooks, and knowledge sharing.
• Build internal capabilities in your Tech Hubs.

What Should you have:

• Extensive experience in SAP and S4 HANA
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering, or a related field.
• Master's degree in business or technology is preferred.
• 15+ years of progressive SAP technical experience with demonstrated leadership in SAP related roles
• Experience with various SAP systems and technologies, including but not exclusive to core ERP (ECC and S4 HANA versions), MDG, ATTP, GTS, GRC, BTP, GBT, SLT, Solution Manager, Cloud ALM, standard SAP integrations and connectors with SaaS SAP applications such as Ariba.
• Deep hands-on expertise with:
• SAP Development: ABAP, Fiori/UI5, BTP (Build Zone, Automation, Services, Integration Suite), ATC, performance tuning.
• SAP Basis: S/4HANA/ECC administration, HANA DB, system copies/refresh, transport management, performance/HA/DR, Solution Manager/Cloud ALM.
• SAP Security: role/authorization design, GRC Access Control, SoD management, audit/compliance, HANA security.
• Experience with S/4HANA transformations or major upgrades, including cutover and data migration coordination.
• Experience with SAP RISE.
• Familiarity with cloud infrastructure (AWS), networking, and security fundamentals as they apply to SAP.
• Strong understanding of ITIL processes and enterprise change management.
• Excellent communication, stakeholder management, and documentation skills.
• Experience with life sciences / pharmaceutical industry.

Required Skills:
Asset Management, Benefits Management, Consulting, Leadership, Management System Development, Product Management, Requirements Management, Role Design, SAP Basis Administration, SAP Development, SAP HANA Administration, SAP Management, SAP S/4HANA, SAP Security Administration, SAP Systems, Security Controls, Stakeholder Communications, Stakeholder Relationship Management, Strategic Leadership, Strategic Planning, System Designs, Team Management, Technical Leadership

Preferred Skills:

Current Employees apply HERE

Current Contingent Workers apply HERE

US and Puerto Rico Residents Only:

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As an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer, we provide equal opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibit discrimination on the basis of race, color, age, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, protected veteran status, disability status, or other applicable legally protected characteristics. As a federal contractor, we comply with all affirmative action requirements for protected veterans and individuals with disabilities. For more information about personal rights under the U.S. Equal Opportunity Employment laws, visit:

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We are proud to be a company that embraces the value of bringing together, talented, and committed people with diverse experiences, perspectives, skills and backgrounds. The fastest way to breakthrough innovation is when people with diverse ideas, broad experiences, backgrounds, and skills come together in an inclusive environment. We encourage our colleagues to respectfully challenge one another's thinking and approach problems collectively.

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U.S. Hybrid Work Model

Effective September 5, 2023, employees in office-based positions in the U.S. will be working a Hybrid work consisting of three total days on-site per week, Monday - Thursday, although the specific days may vary by site or organization, with Friday designated as a remote-working day, unless business critical tasks require an on-site presence.This Hybrid work model does not apply to, and daily in-person attendance is required for, field-based positions; facility-based, manufacturing-based, or research-based positions where the work to be performed is located at a Company site; positions covered by a collective-bargaining agreement (unless the agreement provides for hybrid work); or any other position for which the Company has determined the job requirements cannot be reasonably met working remotely. Please note, this Hybrid work model guidance also does not apply to roles that have been designated as "remote".

The salary range for this role is
$187,000.00 - $294,400.00

This is the lowest to highest salary we in good faith believe we would pay for this role at the time of this posting. An employee's position within the salary range will be based on several factors including, but not limited to relevant education, qualifications, certifications, experience, skills, geographic location, government requirements, and business or organizational needs.

The successful candidate will be eligible for annual bonus and long-term incentive, if applicable.

We offer a comprehensive package of benefits. Available benefits include medical, dental, vision healthcare and other insurance benefits (for employee and family), retirement benefits, including 401(k), paid holidays, vacation, and compassionate and sick days. More information about benefits is available at ;br>
You can apply for this role through (or via the Workday Jobs Hub if you are a current employee). The application deadline for this position is stated on this posting.

San Francisco Residents Only: We will consider qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records for employment in compliance with the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance

Los Angeles Residents Only: We will consider for employment all qualified applicants, including those with criminal histories, in a manner consistent with the requirements of applicable state and local laws, including the City of Los Angeles' Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance

Search Firm Representatives Please Read Carefully
Merck & Co., Inc., Rahway, NJ, USA, also known as Merck Sharp & Dohme LLC, Rahway, NJ, USA, does not accept unsolicited assistance from search firms for employment opportunities. All CVs / resumes submitted by search firms to any employee at our company without a valid written search agreement in place for this position will be deemed the sole property of our company. No fee will be paid in the event a candidate is hired by our company as a result of an agency referral where no pre-existing agreement is in place. Where agency agreements are in place, introductions are position specific. Please, no phone calls or emails.

Employee Status:
Regular

Relocation:
Domestic

VISA Sponsorship:
Yes

Travel Requirements:
10%

Flexible Work Arrangements:
Hybrid

Shift:
Not Indicated

Valid Driving License:
No

Hazardous Material(s):
n/a

Job Posting End Date:
01/31/2026
*A job posting is effective until 11:59:59PM on the day BEFORE the listed job posting end date. Please ensure you apply to a job posting no later than the day BEFORE the job posting end date.