Role Overview:This role is for a Senior SAP Release Manager focused on managing end-to-end SAP S/4HANA Finance release planning, scheduling, deployment, and post-release support. The individual will coordinate release activities across various SAP teams, oversee transport management, and ensure proper sequencing of transports across Development, QA, UAT, and Production environments, while adhering to change management and ITIL processes.
Key Responsibilities:- Manage end-to-end SAP S/4HANA Finance release planning, scheduling, deployment, and post-release support.
- Coordinate release activities across SAP Finance, Basis, Security, Middleware, Integration, and Infrastructure teams.
- Oversee SAP transport management and ensure proper sequencing of transports across Development, QA, UAT, and Production environments.
- Validate release readiness, deployment plans, rollback procedures, and cutover activities.
- Collaborate with Finance business users and functional teams to prioritize and deploy enhancements, fixes, and compliance-related changes.
- Facilitate release governance meetings, CAB reviews, and stakeholder communications.
- Identify release risks and implement mitigation strategies to minimize business disruption.
- Coordinate UAT execution, defect triage, and production deployment sign-offs.
- Monitor post-production performance and ensure timely resolution of release-related issues.
- Support month-end, quarter-end, and year-end financial close activities during release windows.
Required Skills:- 8+ years of SAP experience with at least 3+ years in Release Management or Deployment Management.
- Hands-on experience in SAP S/4HANA Finance (FI/CO), including GL, AP, AR, Asset Accounting, Treasury, and Financial Closing processes.
- Experience managing SAP transport landscapes and release cycles in large enterprise environments.
- Strong understanding of Change Management, ITIL processes, and CAB governance.
- Expertise in managing SAP release cycles and transport migration processes.
- Strong understanding of Financial Accounting processes and SAP S/4HANA Finance architecture.
- Experience coordinating cross-functional teams in production support and enhancement releases.
- Strong troubleshooting and incident management capabilities.
- Experience with SAP security and compliance requirements for financial systems.
- Excellent stakeholder management and communication skills.
- Proficiency in SAP S/4HANA Finance (FI/CO), SAP Transport Management System (TMS), ChaRM (Change Request Management) / Solution Manager, SAP Fiori and Launchpad deployments, SAP Transport and Release Lifecycle Management, SAP Basis fundamentals, Integration monitoring (SAP CPI/PO/PI), Jira, ServiceNow, Azure DevOps, or equivalent tools, and ITIL Change and Release Management processes.
Qualifications:- 8+ years of SAP experience with at least 3+ years in Release Management or Deployment Management.
Preferred Skills:- SAP S/4HANA Finance Certification.
- SAP Solution Manager/ChaRM experience.
- Experience with SAP Central Finance.
- Knowledge of automation tools for deployment and testing.
- Agile/Scrum and DevOps experience.
- Preferred domain experience in Banking and Financial Services, Auto Finance / Leasing, Insurance, or Large-scale ERP Transformation Programs.
- Key expectations include ensuring zero or minimal business disruption during releases, improving release predictability and deployment quality, driving standardization and automation of release processes, maintaining compliance with audit, SOX, and change management controls, and partnering effectively with Finance business stakeholders and technical teams.
