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Merck · 1 day ago

Senior Director, SAP Technical Lead

Rahway, NJ

Full-time

Hybrid

Director/Executive

$187K/yr - $294K/yr

15+ years exp

Merck is a global healthcare company dedicated to improving health and well-being. The SAP Technical Lead is responsible for end-to-end technical leadership across the company's Human Health SAP global landscape, ensuring system stability, performance, scalability, and compliance while driving engineering best practices and innovation.

BiotechnologyHealth CareMedicalPharmaceutical

Comp. & Benefits

H1B Sponsored

Responsibilities

Own the technical roadmap for SAP, aligning with enterprise architecture, business strategy, and release plans

Define and enforce technical standards, development guidelines, and DevOps practices across our company's SAP technology stack

Establish governance for transport management, code review and quality, security controls, and technical change management (ChaRM/SolMan, SAP Cloud ALM and technical environment landscape)

Partner with Enterprise Architecture and Security to ensure adherence to architectural principles, Cyber guidelines and regulatory requirements (GxP, SOX, as applicable), and audit readiness

Bring innovation, new technology and modern ways of working, such as Agile

Define a technical roadmap that prioritizes AI and latest technology

Define and execute a roadmap to modernize our solutions and applications

Lead ABAP and SAP development teams (including Fiori, BTP, Mobile applications and any other technology required to support our SAP tech stack landscape)

Ensure best practices for review and approval of technical designs, ensuring standards, performance, scalability, and maintainability

Drive code quality through standards, peer reviews supported by AI, static analysis tools (e.g., ATC/SCI), unit testing, and automated pipelines

Oversee custom enhancements, interfaces (IDoc/APIs), conversions, and reports; minimize technical debt and promote clean core concepts

Guide modernization efforts: Fiori enablement, S/4HANA simplification, clean core strategy, and extensibility via BTP

Ensure reliable operations of our SAP full landscape: installation, configuration, upgrades, SPS/FPs, infrastructure updates, HANA upgrades, and patching

Oversee system performance, capacity planning, HA/DR, backup/restore, and monitoring (Cloud ALM, Onapsis)

Manage landscapes across on-premise, cloud (Hyperscaler), RISE, SaaS and hybrid environments, including transport paths, client strategy, and system refreshes

Optimize HANA database performance and housekeeping; oversee job scheduling and workload management

Ensure proper OSS notes implementation, and vendor coordination with SAP Support

Lead best in class technical operations in collaboration with SAP and RISE operations

Ensure proper SAP security architecture: role design (GRC-compliant), S/4HANA/Fiori authorization concepts and clean segregation of duties (SoD)

Oversee GRC Access Control, emergency access, and periodic access reviews

Implement and monitor security baselines, logging, and threat detection (e.g., Security Audit Log, Read Access Logging, HANA auditing, Onapsis)

Ensure remediation of audit findings, vulnerability management, and ensure compliance with regulatory standards

Establish CI/CD for SAP based on internal toolsets and standards, automated testing, and transport orchestration

Implement observability: metrics, logs, traces; define SLAs for availability and performance

Drive incident, problem, and change management, including root cause analysis and post-incident reviews

Plan and lead cutovers, releases, and environment refreshes; manage downtime windows and stakeholder communications

Collaborate with SAP functional leads, and SAP Platform operations to prioritize backlog and deliver roadmaps

Provide technical estimates, risk assessments, and resource planning; manage vendor partners and statements of work

Communicate complex technical topics in business terms; present status, risks, and mitigation plans to leadership

Build and mentor a high-performing team of SAP technical experts, including developers, Basis administrators, security analysts and Cloud Ops

Define roles, responsibilities, and career paths; foster a culture of innovation, modern technology, AI first approach, quality, accountability, and continuous improvement

Standardize documentation, runbooks, and knowledge sharing

Build internal capabilities in your Tech Hubs

Qualification

SAPS/4HANAABAPSAP Basis AdministrationSAP SecurityCloud InfrastructureStakeholder ManagementTeam LeadershipTechnical LeadershipCommunication

Required

Extensive experience in SAP and S4 HANA

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering, or a related field

15+ years of progressive SAP technical experience with demonstrated leadership in SAP related roles

Experience with various SAP systems and technologies, including but not exclusive to core ERP (ECC and S4 HANA versions), MDG, ATTP, GTS, GRC, BTP, GBT, SLT, Solution Manager, Cloud ALM, standard SAP integrations and connectors with SaaS SAP applications such as Ariba

Deep hands-on expertise with SAP Development: ABAP, Fiori/UI5, BTP (Build Zone, Automation, Services, Integration Suite), ATC, performance tuning

SAP Basis: S/4HANA/ECC administration, HANA DB, system copies/refresh, transport management, performance/HA/DR, Solution Manager/Cloud ALM

SAP Security: role/authorization design, GRC Access Control, SoD management, audit/compliance, HANA security

Experience with S/4HANA transformations or major upgrades, including cutover and data migration coordination

Experience with SAP RISE

Familiarity with cloud infrastructure (AWS), networking, and security fundamentals as they apply to SAP

Strong understanding of ITIL processes and enterprise change management

Excellent communication, stakeholder management, and documentation skills

Experience with life sciences / pharmaceutical industry