Description

The Senior Manager is responsible for ensuring strong delivery outcomes and effective people management within the team. The role focuses on capacity and workload planning, delivery quality, performance management and development, hiring support, and acting as the first escalation point.
In addition, the position requires senior-level SAP project management expertise to lead and oversee complex SAP implementation or enhancement projects, ensure methodological compliance, manage risks, and act as a senior advisor to project teams and stakeholders.

Responsibilities
People & Performance

• Conduct regular 1:1 meetings to provide feedback, coaching, and support.
• Monitor consultant performance (quality and quantity) throughout the year.
• Contribute to quarterly and annual performance discussions and propose development or HR-related actions.
• Support annual evaluation processes as requested by management.
• Act as a day-to-day point of contact for team-related topics (e.g. administrative matters, travel, sick leave).
• Maintain awareness of individual circumstances where relevant for planning and support.
• Mentor SAP consultants and act as a senior expert for SAP delivery topics.

Capacity, Workload & Resource Planning

• Maintain a clear and up-to-date overview of consultant capacity and workload.
• Proactively prepare workload and capacity planning for upcoming periods.
• Propose suitable candidates for staffing requests and recommend team adjustments where needed.
• Support resource planning activities and independently use the planning tool.
• Support SAP project resource planning, including role definition, profiling, and demand forecasting.

Delivery Quality & Estimation

• Review and approve effort and man-day estimations prepared by the team.
• Ensure proposal quality in alignment with sales and appropriate delegation of subtasks.
• Manage smaller delivery or professional escalations independently; support HR-related escalations as required.
• Collaborate with management and HR on complex or recurring escalations.
• Lead SAP project delivery from initiation to closure, including scope, timeline, budget, and quality control.
• Ensure compliance with SAP Activate or other relevant project methodologies.
• Drive issue and risk management across SAP workstreams.
• Support design reviews and overall solution quality assurance.

Hiring, Onboarding & Internal Training Programs

• Participate in interviews and the overall hiring process.
• Define required junior headcount and skill profiles; contribute to onboarding and development concepts.
• Support and coordinate internal training programs in collaboration with trainers and mentors.
• Evaluate SAP candidate profiles with regard to functional/technical fit and consulting capabilities.

Communication, Governance & Reporting

• Cascade organizational and management communications to the team.
• Ensure timely and complete time reporting on a monthly basis.
• Provide regular status updates to management on team performance and deliveries.
• Collaborate with other functional and professional teams to remove blockers and align ways of working.
• Provide senior-level SAP project reporting (milestones, risks, dependencies).

Planning & Budget Support

• Support yearly budget planning by providing input on capacity, role mix, and development needs.
• Contribute to SAP project budgeting, cost forecasting, and effort planning.