We are seeking a seasoned Service Delivery Manager (SDM) to lead a high-scale SAP landscape for a luxury fashion retail brand, spanning end-to-end application development, enhancements, and 24x7 application support. The SDM will own service delivery outcomes, orchestrate multi-vendor teams, drive platform modernization, ensure process excellence, and maintain robust business continuity for core retail processes such as merchandise buying, allocation, pricing, promotions, inventory, omni-channel operations, and financial close.

Key Responsibilities

1) Service Delivery & Operations

· Own end-to-end service delivery (incident, problem, change, release, environment, knowledge) across development and support.

· Establish and enforce SLAs/OLAs, SLOs, Runbooks, KT plans, and Operational Level Agreements across vendors/teams.

· Drive root cause analysis (RCA) and permanent fixes; improve MTTR, reduce repeat incidents, optimize backlog.

· Govern batch, jobs, and interfaces (e.g., POS, eComm, WMS), ensuring cutover readiness and seasonal peak stability.

2) Program & Stakeholder Management

· Act as single point of contact (SPOC) for Business, IT, Finance, Retail Ops, and regional teams.

· Run weekly/monthly governance (release readiness, demand management).

· Translate business priorities into delivery roadmaps, release plans, and capacity forecasts.

3) Financials & Commercials

· Own budgets, forecasts, SOWs/MSAs, resource planning, and cost optimization.

· Track financial KPIs (burn-rate, cost per ticket/change, productivity, value realization) and ensure contract compliance

4) Engineering & Platform Modernization

· Champion automation (self-healing, AIOps, monitoring), CI/CD, test automation, and reusable accelerators.

· Lead CAR adoption (real-time sales, inventory visibility, POS integration), API-first integrations, and data quality improvements.

· Guide solutioning across SAP AFS, Retail Pricing/Promotions, FICO (GL, AP/AR, Asset Accounting, COPA), and cross-module touchpoints.

5) People Leadership

· Build, coach, and retain a high-performing functional + technical team (SAP Retail/AFS/FICO, integration, ABAP).

· Establish L3 expertise, shift models, and follow-the-sun support for global operations.

Mandatory Skills & Experience

· SAP Retail: End-to-end retail processes (MM/SD), buying, allocation, pricing, promotions, store operations, inventory, vendor collaboration.

· SAP AFS (Apparel & Footwear): Size/color matrix, seasonality, collections, allocation, replenishment specifics for fashion.

· SAP FICO: Financial close, AP/AR, GL, asset accounting, costing, COPA; integration with retail operations.

· Service Delivery Leadership: 15+ years, with at least 8–10 years managing large SAP programs (multi-region, multi-vendor).

· Operations Excellence: ITIL v3/v4, incident/problem/change management, RCA, Release/Environment Management.

· Retail Domain Expertise: Luxury fashion calendar cycles, markdowns, promotions, product lifecycle, peak events, omni-channel.

· Governance & Commercials: Budget ownership, vendor management, KPIs/SLAs, contractual adherence.

Preferred Skills

· SAP CAR (Customer Activity Repository): Real-time transactions, POS, forecasting, inventory visibility.

· ABAP: Ability to guide technical teams, review designs/estimates, ensure performance and code quality (no hands-on coding required).

· Enterprise Apps & Integrations: POS/OMS/eCommerce/WMS, API/Middleware (SAP PO/PI, CPI), microservices integration patterns.

· DevOps/AIOps: CI/CD pipelines for SAP transports, observability, proactive monitoring, automation.

· Analytics/Reporting: BI/BO, SAC, dashboarding for operational KPIs and business insights.

· Cloud & Infra Awareness: Hyperscaler hosting, DR/BCP, performance/scalability considerations.

Key Competencies (Behavioral)

· Executive Communication: Clear, structured updates to C-suite and senior stakeholders.

· Outcome Orientation: Bias for measurable results; balances Run stability with Change velocity.

· Ownership & Accountability: Escalation management, crisis leadership during peak seasons.

· Collaboration: Navigates multi-vendor dynamics; fosters trust with business teams.

· Adaptability: Responds quickly to retail calendar shifts and market priorities.

Education & Certifications

· Bachelor’s/Master’s in Engineering/Technology/Business (or equivalent).

· Preferred: ITIL v4, SAP certifications in Retail/AFS/FICO/CAR, PMP/Prince2, SAFE/Agile certifications.