S/4 Cutover Manager

Unipart; Oxford; On-site; GBP 77,000 - 94,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

33 days holiday

Pension

Bonus

Life assurance

Employee assistance programme

Wellbeing support

Cycle to work scheme

Job summary

Unipart is seeking a Senior SAP S/4HANA Cutover Manager to orchestrate end-to-end go-live execution for large-scale SAP programs. You will drive cutover, hypercare, and risk management across business, data, and technical streams to ensure a smooth transition from legacy systems.

The role requires leading cross-functional teams, defining go/no-go criteria, and coordinating with vendors and executives to minimize disruption while achieving business readiness and quality.

Qualifications

• Experience leading cutover management for SAP S/4HANA go-lives.
• Strong knowledge of deployment lifecycles, cutover sequencing, and data migration considerations.
• Ability to lead multi-vendor teams and communicate with executive sponsors.

Responsibilities

• Formulate and own end-to-end Cutover Strategy, including go-live criteria and runbooks.
• Build and refine a minute-by-minute Cutover Plan across deployment, data migration, and interface switching.
• Lead Cutover Rehearsals and Mock Cutovers to validate time estimates and resolve bottlenecks.
• Define Go/No-Go criteria and present status to steering committees and exec sponsors.
• Establish and lead the Cutover Command Centre during trial and live events, managing escalation and tracking.

Skills

Cutover management

SAP S/4HANA

Go-live orchestration

Cross-functional leadership

Vendor management

Education

SAP Certification / PMP / PRINCE2 / ITIL

Tools

ChaRM

SolMan

Cloud ALM

Job description

S/4 Cutover Manager

Location: Field Based

Salary: £85,000 per annum plus 33 days holiday (including bank holidays), pension, bonus, life assurance, employee assistance programme, wellbeing support, and flexible benefits including cycle to work scheme

About the Role

As a Senior SAP S/4HANA Cutover Manager, you will be responsible for orchestrating the complete end-to-end go-live execution strategy for large-scale enterprise SAP S/4HANA programs. This role drives the orchestration, sequencing, and operational control of all pre-cutover, cutover, and post-cutover activities across business, technical, data, infrastructure, and third-party vendor streams, transitioning the organisation smoothly from legacy systems to SAP S/4HANA with minimal business disruption and managed risk.

Key Responsibilities

• Formulate and own the end-to-end Cutover Strategy, including go-live criteria, operational runbooks, business dress rehearsal plans, hypercare models, and fallback plans.
• Build, manage, and continuously refine a detailed minute-by-minute Cutover Plan integrated across technical deployment, data migration, business catch-up, and interface switching.
• Lead multiple Cutover Rehearsals and Mock Cutovers to validate time estimates, sequence dependencies, test team handoffs, and resolve bottlenecks prior to go-live.
• Define clear Go/No-Go decision frameworks and metrics, facilitating readiness assessments and presenting operational status to steering committees and executive sponsors.
• Establish and lead the Cutover Command Centre (War Room) during trial and live cutover events, managing rotation schedules, issue escalation paths, and operational tracking.
• Coordinate activities across cross-functional teams, including S/4HANA functional leads, technical architects, data migration, infrastructure/basis, business operations, and third-party vendors.

About You

• Experience in IT program/project delivery, including experience focused specifically on leading cutover management.
• Demonstrated experience as Lead Cutover Manager on at least 2 full-lifecycle, large-scale SAP S/4HANA go-lives.
• Expert knowledge of SAP deployment lifecycles, cutover sequencing, and system dependency mapping for SAP S/4HANA (Greenfield, Brownfield, or Selective Data Transition).
• Proven ability to maintain calm and decisive leadership under pressure in 24/7 environments.
• Strong skills in directing matrixed and multi-vendor teams, alongside executive-level status communication.
• Proficiency with cutover management tools and familiarity with SAP transport landscapes (ChaRM, SolMan, or Cloud ALM).
• A relevant degree or certifications (PMP, PRINCE2, ITIL, or SAP Certification) are desirable.

About Unipart

We are a supply chain performance improvement partner. We Design, Make, Move, and Improve components in our customers’ supply chains, keeping their operations and assets moving and working better, for longer. Through our commitment to continuously driving operational efficiencies, we improve performance - saving time, cost, and carbon. Our ambition is to be the driving force behind efficient, resilient, and sustainable supply chains.

Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion

We believe that a great workplace is one where you can bring your whole self to work. Our recruitment process is designed to be accessible, inclusive, and based entirely on merit. We define merit through a combination of technical skills and the core behaviours that help our people thrive at Unipart. We welcome applications from everyone, regardless of background or circumstances. We are committed to a policy of equal opportunity that exceeds our statutory obligations under the Equality Act 2010 and subsequent legislation. Whether it’s your age, disability, neurodiversity, gender identity, family status, or any other characteristic that makes you ‘you’ - it is your talent and potential that we value most. Adjustments for you: We want you to perform at your best. If you require any reasonable adjustments or have specific accessibility needs at any stage of the application or interview process, please let us know. We are here to support you.

You may have experience in the following: SAP Cutover, Cutover Manager, Go-Live, Hypercare, S/4HANA, Programme Management, Project Management, Release Management, Mock Cutover, Runbook, ChaRM, Cloud ALM, PMP, PRINCE2