SAP S/4HANA Manufacturing Planning Solution Architect

Exp. Required: 10+ Year’s

Must Have Technical/Functional Skills

- 12+ years of SAP Manufacturing and Supply Chain experience with deep expertise in SAP S/4HANA Manufacturing Planning and embedded PP/DS.

- Minimum three end-to-end SAP planning implementations, including solution architecture ownership on at least one global SAP S/4HANA transformation.

- Expertise in demand management, PIRs, MRP Live, MRP areas, planning strategies, lot sizing, safety stock, lead-time scheduling, and exception management.

- Strong experience with embedded PP/DS covering product heuristics, production planning runs, detailed scheduling, finite capacity planning, optimization, pegging, and alert monitoring.

- Experience designing planning for Discrete, Process, Repetitive, Make-to-Stock, Make-to-Order, Engineer-to-Order, configurable, batch-managed, and subcontracting scenarios.

- Deep knowledge of BOMs, recipes, routings, work centers/resources, production versions, PDS generation, quotas, source determination, calendars, shifts, and setup matrices.

- Experience with capacity evaluation, bottleneck management, sequencing, setup optimization, campaign planning, model-mix planning, and alternate resources or sources of supply.

- Strong integration experience with Sales and Operations Planning, SAP IBP, aATP, Procurement, EWM, Manufacturing Execution, Quality, Plant Maintenance, Product Costing, and Transportation.

- Experience defining planning master-data governance, segmentation, planning horizons, freeze periods, time fences, planning policies, and planner work practices.

- Experience with SAP Fiori planning applications, analytics, alerts, background jobs, workflows, interfaces, enhancements, and SAP BTP integration patterns.

- Experience with planning-data migration, simulation, reconciliation, performance tuning, SIT, UAT, cutover, go-live, and hypercare.

- Strong knowledge of SAP Activate, global template governance, clean-core principles, and complex multi-plant manufacturing networks.

Roles & Responsibilities

- Own the end-to-end SAP S/4HANA Manufacturing Planning architecture for the Helix program and align the solution with enterprise architecture and the global process template.

- Lead fit-to-standard workshops with Supply Planning, Production Control, Manufacturing, Procurement, Sales, Logistics, Finance, Engineering, and IT stakeholders.

- Define the target planning architecture across SAP S/4HANA MRP Live, embedded PP/DS, SAP IBP, aATP, execution systems, and reporting platforms.

- Design demand management, planning strategies, MRP areas, net requirements planning, source determination, lot sizing, safety stock, lead-time scheduling, and exception processes.

- Define PP/DS scope and planning procedures for critical products, bottleneck resources, long lead-time materials, and constraint-based planning scenarios.

- Design heuristics, production planning runs, finite scheduling, optimization, sequencing, setup reduction, campaign planning, alerts, and interactive planner processes.

- Define planning master data for products, BOMs, recipes, routings, resources, production versions, PDS, calendars, shifts, quotas, and sources of supply.

- Design planning processes for Discrete, Process, Repetitive, Make-to-Stock, Make-to-Order, Engineer-to-Order, batch-managed, and subcontracting manufacturing.

- Own cross-functional integration with IBP, aATP, Procurement, EWM, Manufacturing Execution, Quality, Maintenance, Project Systems, Product Co sting, and Transportation.

- Establish planning governance, KPI definitions, planning calendars, freeze windows, escalation paths, exception ownership, and operational support models.

- Guide WRICEF, interfaces, forms, workflows, security, Fiori, analytics, background processing, and BTP designs while protecting clean-core objectives.

- Lead planning simulations, volume and performance validation, end-to-end testing, defect resolution, data migration, mock cutovers, deployment readiness, and hypercare.

- Identify schedule, capacity, material, data, and integration risks early; develop mitigation plans and drive cross-ART decisions.

- Mentor functional teams, challenge unnecessary customization, and communicate architecture decisions and business impacts to Helix leadership.

Generic Managerial Skills, If any

- Strong solution leadership, ownership, stakeholder management, and executive communication skills.

- Ability to translate complex manufacturing constraints into scalable planning processes and SAP architecture.

- Ability to lead cross-functional teams across planning, manufacturing, procurement, logistics, finance, data, integration, and change management.

- Experience coordinating onshore and offshore teams in a large global transformation program.

- Strong governance, risk management, decision facilitation, conflict resolution, and escalation skills.

- Proactive, outcome-oriented approach with the ability to challenge assumptions and drive standard, sustainable solutions.