Job Description Summary
This role is accountable for shaping and delivering the global SAP Manufacturing and Quality platforms strategy, ensuring scalable, secure, compliant and high-performing SAP solutions that enable reliable manufacturing, maintenance, batch management and quality processes. The Global Head SAP Manufacturing & Quality Applications and Services drives end-to-end ownership of solution architecture, demand governance and vendor execution to deliver measurable business value from SAP investments across BAU, transformation and M&A activities. This leadership role plays a critical part in enabling S/4HANA transformation, driving standardisation and simplification, and ensuring consistent, reliable and future-ready SAP capabilities across regions, sites and functions.
The role provides strategic and visionary leadership for the SAP Manufacturing and Quality domain by shaping the future-state roadmap, governance model, SAP CoE alignment, investment priorities and budget discipline. It ensures that manufacturing, maintenance, batch management and quality capabilities are not only stable and compliant, but also positioned as strategic enablers for simplification, standardisation, innovation, transformation readiness and measurable business value.
Job Description
Global Head SAP Manufacturing & Quality
Sandoz continues to go through an exciting and transformative period as a global leader and pioneering provider of sustainable Biosimilar and Generic medicines. As we continue down this new and ambitious path, unique opportunities will present themselves, both professionally and personally. Join us, the future is ours to shape!
Job Summary
This role is accountable for shaping and delivering the global SAP Manufacturing and Quality platforms strategy, ensuring scalable, secure, compliant and high-performing SAP solutions that enable reliable manufacturing, maintenance, batch management and quality processes. The Global Head SAP Manufacturing & Quality Applications and Services drives end-to-end ownership of solution architecture, demand governance and vendor execution to deliver measurable business value from SAP investments across BAU, transformation and M&A activities. This leadership role plays a critical part in enabling S/4HANA transformation, driving standardisation and simplification, and ensuring consistent, reliable and future-ready SAP capabilities across regions, sites and functions.
The role provides strategic and visionary leadership for the SAP Manufacturing and Quality domain by shaping the future-state roadmap, governance model, SAP CoE alignment, investment priorities and budget discipline. It ensures that manufacturing, maintenance, batch management and quality capabilities are not only stable and compliant, but also positioned as strategic enablers for simplification, standardisation, innovation, transformation readiness and measurable business value.
Your Key Responsibilities
Your responsibilities include, but are not limited to:
Major accountabilities:
Strategy, Roadmap and Business Value
- Define and deliver the global SAP Manufacturing and Quality platforms strategy and roadmap, aligned with enterprise ERP, manufacturing, maintenance, quality and digital transformation priorities.
- Ensure SAP investments are prioritised and delivered against clear business outcomes, value realisation, process simplification, compliance and enterprise-wide adoption.
- Translate complex Manufacturing, Maintenance, Batch Management and Quality requirements into scalable SAP capabilities and continuous improvements that strengthen operational reliability, compliance and decision-making across regions, sites and functions.
Solution Architecture and Platform Excellence
- Own end-to-end lifecycle accountability for SAP Manufacturing and Quality platforms, from solution concept and design through delivery, optimisation and continuous improvement.
- Provide architectural direction and governance to ensure scalable, secure, compliant and future-ready solutions across SAP Manufacturing, Plant Maintenance, Batch Management, Quality Management and related enterprise capabilities.
- Validate solution designs, technical decisions and integration approaches to ensure consistency with enterprise architecture standards, security policies, regulatory requirements and S/4HANA transformation objectives.
Governance, Risk and Operational Reliability
- Establish and enforce solution, integration, data management and interoperability standards that support stable, reliable and reusable SAP capabilities across Manufacturing and Quality processes.
- Own ERP demand governance for the Manufacturing and Quality area, ensuring demand is assessed, prioritised and delivered based on strategic relevance, business value, risk and capacity.
- Drive risk management, issue resolution, performance, reliability, security and compliance outcomes for global SAP Manufacturing and Quality platforms across BAU, transformation programmes and M&A integration requirements.
Vendor, Delivery and Team Leadership
- Lead the vendor ecosystem and delivery governance to secure high-quality outcomes across SAP Manufacturing and Quality projects, services, enhancements and transformation initiatives.
- Build and lead a high-performing team of Solution Engineers and Solution Owners, strengthening accountability, collaboration, capability development and ownership for business outcomes.
- Create a culture of ownership, continuous improvement and partnership with Manufacturing, Quality, Supply Operations and Technology stakeholders to deliver reliable, compliant and business-relevant SAP capabilities.
- Create executive-level visibility through roadmap narratives, decision papers, governance dashboards, risk insights and value realisation updates that support senior leadership decisions.
- Shape portfolio choices and architectural direction by balancing business agility, regulatory expectations, operational stability, cyber and application security, technical debt reduction and total cost of ownership.
- Provide a forward-looking point of view on future SAP Manufacturing and Quality capabilities, simplification, standardisation, automation, integration, data quality and innovation opportunities.
- Define and continuously evolve the multi-year SAP Manufacturing and Quality strategy and roadmap in alignment with enterprise SAP strategy, S/4HANA transformation priorities, SAP CoE direction and business value objectives.
Strategic and Visionary Leadership
- Identify cost optimisation and value realisation opportunities across licenses, services, vendors, solution design, delivery models and operating practices.
- Prioritise demand and investments based on strategic fit, SAP roadmap alignment, business value, compliance needs, risk reduction, capacity and affordability.
- Partner with Finance, Procurement and vendor management to ensure SOWs, invoices, purchase orders, accruals and cost allocations are transparent, accurate and aligned with approved scope and business value.
- Own budget planning, forecasting and financial governance for the SAP Manufacturing and Quality portfolio, including change, project, vendor and transformation spend where applicable.
Investment Prioritisation and Value Realisation
- Contribute to SAP CoE capability building by coaching Solution Owners, Solution Engineers and partner teams on governance expectations, decision quality and value-led delivery.
- Drive cross-domain alignment with other SAP platform leads to manage dependencies, integration risks, master data impacts, release priorities and transformation sequencing.
- Translate SAP CoE principles into practical delivery guardrails, reusable patterns, quality gates and operating routines for projects, enhancements and BAU services.
- Represent the SAP Manufacturing and Quality domain in SAP CoE governance forums, ensuring that domain roadmaps, architecture decisions, delivery standards and risk positions are transparent and aligned with the broader SAP strategy.
SAP CoE Governance and Cross-Domain Leadership
- SAP Manufacturing and Quality strategy and roadmap approved through SAP CoE governance and progressed against agreed milestones, priorities and value outcomes.
- SAP CoE standards, architecture guardrails, methodology and governance routines adopted consistently across the domain portfolio.
- Budget performance managed against approved plan, including forecast accuracy, cost transparency, SOW and invoice governance, and timely escalation of financial risks.
- Portfolio prioritisation decisions demonstrably aligned to SAP strategy, business value, compliance, risk reduction, capacity and affordability.
- Strategic risks, architectural dependencies, technical debt and transformation readiness items identified early, governed transparently and managed through active mitigation plans.
- Value realisation from SAP investments tracked through business outcomes, simplification, standardisation, adoption, service quality and measurable improvement actions.
- Cross-domain collaboration effectiveness within the SAP CoE, including dependency management, reusable design patterns, shared standards and timely decisions.
Minimum Requirements
What you’ll bring to the role:
- Minimum 15+ years of experience in relevant field and 10+ years of experience in SAP Manufacturing and Quality platforms, including large-scale transformation, S/4HANA program or full-cycle SAP implementations.
- Demonstrated expertise in SAP Manufacturing and Quality capabilities, including Production Planning, Manufacturing Execution integration, Plant Maintenance, Batch Management, Quality Management and related integration areas.
- Strong knowledge of SAP S/4HANA Manufacturing, Maintenance and Quality process design, integration patterns, data structures and master data dependencies.
- Proven track record of leading global teams and large-scale SAP Manufacturing, Quality, ERP or enterprise platform programs in complex, regulated environments.
- Experience in solution architecture ownership, demand governance, risk management and platform lifecycle management in complex enterprise environments.
- Strong capability in stakeholder management across Manufacturing, Quality, Supply Operations, business process owners and Technology leadership layers.
- Experience managing external vendors, system integrators and multi-partner delivery landscapes across projects, services and transformation initiatives.
- Deep understanding of end-to-end Manufacturing, Maintenance, Batch Management and Quality processes, integration with supply chain, regulatory and enterprise functions, and the role of SAP platforms in enabling standardisation, simplification, compliance and business value.
- Experience shaping SAP domain strategy, roadmap governance and future-state capability direction in alignment with SAP CoE and enterprise transformation priorities.
- Proven ability to manage technology budgets, forecasts, vendor financials, SOWs, invoices and value realisation in complex global environments.
- Strong understanding of SAP CoE operating models, cross-domain governance, architecture guardrails, methodology adoption and executive stakeholder management.
Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, Manufacturing, Quality, Business Administration or related field; Master’s degree preferred.
- Relevant SAP Manufacturing, Quality Management, Plant Maintenance, S/4HANA or enterprise architecture certifications strongly preferred.
Why Sandoz?
Generic and Biosimilar medicines are the backbone of the global medicines industry. Sandoz, a leader in this sector, provided more than 900 million patient treatments across 100+ countries in 2024 and while we are proud of this achievement, we have an ambition to do more!
With investments in new development capabilities, production sites, new acquisitions, and partnerships, we have the opportunity to shape the future of Sandoz and help more patients gain access to low-cost, high-quality medicines, sustainably.
Our momentum is powered by an open, collaborative culture driven by our talented and ambitious colleagues, who, in return for applying their skills experience an agile and collegiate environment with impactful, flexible-hybrid careers, where diversity is welcomed and where personal growth is supported!
Join us!
#Sandoz
Skills Desired
Budget Management, Business Acumen, Performance Management, Risk Management, Service Delivery Management, Stakeholder Management, Strategic Planning, Talent Development, Waterfall Project Management
