SAP S/4HANA AMS Service Delivery Manager

We are seeking a Japan-based Service Delivery Manager (SDM) for SAP S/4HANA Application Management Services (AMS). The Japan SDM will be accountable for stable, high-quality service delivery for Japan operations and will act as the primary interface for Japanese business and IT stakeholders. The role will work in close partnership with the Global Service Delivery Manager, regional counterpart SDMs, and the offshore AMS delivery team, ensuring that Japan priorities, risks, incidents, and service requirements are accurately represented within the global operating model.

The Japan SDM is not expected to perform hands-on configuration or development. The role requires sufficient SAP S/4HANA or enterprise ERP knowledge to understand incidents, assess business impact, challenge delivery-team analysis, and support sound prioritization and resolution decisions.

Key Responsibilities:

Incident / Request Oversight (L2/L3 Functional Judgment):

• Review and interpret SAP S/4HANA incidents and service requests at a functional level, assess business impact and priority, and direct them to the right resolver group with clear context — hands-on configuration or development is performed by the AMS delivery team.
• Apply ERP process knowledge to distinguish configuration errors, data inconsistencies, and process gaps, and validate that proposed solutions are technically and operationally sound before closure.

Root Cause Analysis (RCA) & Corrective Action:

• Drive RCA with the offshore AMS team from configuration, business process, and data perspectives; review and challenge findings, and agree interim workarounds and permanent corrective actions.
• For major incidents, perform rapid triage/prioritization and lead RCA reporting through to action closure.

Production Stability & Major Incident Management:

• Lead the response to high-severity production incidents, minimizing business impact while coordinating cross-functional resolution across regional, global, and offshore teams.

Japan–Global–Offshore AMS Coordination (Bridge Role):

• Translate Japan business needs into clear English requirements, ticket context, business impact, and acceptance criteria for the Global SDM and offshore AMS team.
• Work as the Japan delivery counterpart to the Global SDM, aligning Japan priorities with global standards and escalating cross-regional dependencies, material risks, and decisions requiring global governance.

Daily Communication & Deliverable Management:

• Run daily communication (email, calls) with the offshore AMS team to align priorities and resolve queries.
• Review deliverables submitted by the offshore team to confirm they meet regional quality standards before closure.

Global & Regional Stakeholder Management:

• Clearly explain offshore-provided solutions and deliverables to global IT leadership, regional SDMs, and business stakeholders — in Japanese for Japan-side audiences and in English for regional and offshore audiences.
• Lead requirement negotiation, alignment discussions, and global progress/performance reporting with regional counterpart SDMs and global governance forums.

ITSM Process Adherence & Quality Governance:

• Enforce ITSM process discipline (ticket categorization, SLA adherence, documentation) across Incident, Problem, and Change Management practices.
• Own quality checks at ticket closure and maintain documentation standards for audit readiness.

Ticket Trend Analysis & Continuous Improvement:

• Analyze historical ticket data to identify recurring issues and process bottlenecks.
• Propose and drive standardization, automation, and additional training initiatives to improve operational efficiency.

Parallel Go-Live Support (New Site Rollout):

• Support cutover and hypercare activities for new site go-lives across regions planned from next year, while continuing to govern steady-state AMS operations for existing live sites globally.
• Work with the responsible regional SDM on new-site user onboarding, training support, and issue triage during stabilization periods.

Compliance & Controls:

• Ensure workarounds, emergency fixes, and process changes do not create SOX/ITGC/SoD control violations.
• Maintain audit-ready documentation and evidence for all changes and approvals.

Key Requirements:

• SAP S/4HANA AMS Experience
• ERP Functional Experience (7+ years, Multi-Workstream)
• Functional Judgment & Solution Validation
• ITSM Process Knowledge
• Escalation & Governance
• Parallel Operations Capability
• Compliance & Controls
• Native Japanese or equivalent highly fluent proficiency is mandatory
• Business-Level English

Nice to Have:

• Experience with ServiceNow (or equivalent ITSM platform) and SAP Solution Manager / Familiarity with automation or AI-assisted ITSM tooling is a plus.