SAP S/4HANA Solution Architect

Role : SAP S/4HANA Solution Architect (Aerospace/Aviation Domain)

Location: Cardiff (Nantgarw), Wales UK

Years of Experience: Min. 10+ Years

Type of Hiring: 6 Months Fixed Term or 6 Months Contract (Any) (High possibility of conversion to a permanent position based on performance and business requirements.)

Onsite/Offsite: Hybrid Remote. 3 days a week in office. 2 days remote.

Key Responsibilities

Business Transformation & Strategic Roadmap

• Target Roadmap Design: Define the end-to-end target business architecture and long-term blueprints for hybrid cloud and on-premises landscapes.
• Target Architecture: Review the current systems and architecture to reduce the technical debt by eliminating systems, integrating systems that are compatible with target architecture.
• Current-State Business Assessment: Evaluate the Wales ECC EHP8 landscape to identify custom code, workarounds, and deviations from standard SAP processes, focusing heavily on operational impacts within Plant Maintenance, Production (PP), Material/Supply Chain (MM, WM), and Finance (FI/CO).
• Migration Strategy: Formulate conversion paths, phased rollouts, and coexistence frameworks between legacy systems and S/4HANA that minimise operational downtime and business risk.
• Business-Value Blueprinting: Design a high-level target-state S/4HANA blueprint built on standard/vanilla SAP best-practice processes. Champion standard-first governance to eliminate core modifications, simplify future upgrades, and protect business continuity.
• Minimum Viable Architecture (MVA): Instead of trying to fix the entire legacy ERP or build the perfect, massive MES footprint on day one, define the absolute thinnest slice of architecture needed to run a single production line or a single warehouse process. Get it live, prove the value, and iterate.
• Value Stream Mapping (VSM) for IT: Before writing code, map out the data and physical flows on the shop floor. Identify "waste" in the architecture—such as manual data re-entry, unnecessary synchronous middleware hops, or complex screen navigation on hand-held devices.
• Decoupled Agile Sprints: Separate the frontend/edge deployment (hand-held device layouts, MES operator screens) from the heavy backend configuration. Use SAP Fiori elements and low-code/no-code tools on SAP BTP to prototype and deploy user-facing improvements in days or weeks, rather than months.

Functional Alignment & Value Delivery

• Functional Process Orchestration: Align all architectural decisions with core business operations across Manufacturing, Supply Chain, Production, and Finance.
• Process Optimisation: Actively identify opportunities to eliminate manual workarounds during the assessment phase. Build organizational credibility by delivering tangible business value alongside the blueprinting work, ensuring the project delivers operational improvements—not just static documentation.
• Ecosystem Connection: Ensure core SAP functional processes seamlessly integrate with critical non-SAP enterprise platforms (e.g., PLM, CAD, MES, MRO) to create a unified, cross-functional digital thread.
• Operational Validation: Work together with site production, supply chain, and finance leaders to validate existing pain points and stress-test target designs against daily operational realities.

Stakeholder Management & Executive Leadership

• Executive Communication: Translate highly complex architectural choices, technical debt remediation strategies, and ecosystem topologies into clear, actionable business value for senior leadership.
• Decision-Grade Deliverables: Produce effort, timeline, and risk-benefit analyses across realistic, Wales-specific migration options (Greenfield vs. Brownfield S/4HANA upgrades). Present findings in a high-impact format suitable for Global Enterprise-level executive decision-making.
• Autonomous Delivery: Operate comfortably as an individual expert with high senior-stakeholder visibility. You must be able to independently drive consensus and produce executive-ready deliverables without relying on a large supporting team beneath you.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Serve as a trusted advisor, aligning global delivery teams, functional analysts, business process owners, and development partners around a unified business vision.

Domain, Industry & Compliance Governance

• Aerospace Regulations: Ensure all designed solutions strictly adhere to aerospace quality standards (AS9100), internal/external regulatory audit controls, ITAR, and global export control laws.
• Asset Tracking & Logistics: Embed complex industry logic into the core design to handle high-consequence operational data, including engine part serialization, genealogy, and life-limited component tracking.

Required Skills and Qualifications

• Experience: Minimum 8–10+ years of SAP architecture and business consulting experience in large enterprise settings. Must possess strong functional process knowledge with a proven track record of delivery in Materials, Supply Chain, and MRO.
• Blueprint Leadership: Required experience owning or majorly contributing to an SAP blueprint or fit-gap design exercise. Pure system execution or support experience without exposure to target-state design work will not be sufficient.
• ERP Lifecycle Mastery: Proven delivery of full-lifecycle implementations for both SAP ECC and SAP S/4HANA, with deep experience standardizing highly customized landscapes toward global templates.
• Senior Stakeholder Presence: Exceptional communication skills with a proven ability to interface with, influence, and present to senior corporate leadership.
• Aviation/MRO Context: Proven experience within Aerospace & Defence, aviation engine overhaul and component repair operations, or high-precision industrial manufacturing and MRO sectors.
• Strategic Technology Awareness: Strong functional understanding of how to leverage SAP BTP for application extensions (Clean Core principles) and SAP CPI / Integration Suite for secure, scalable integration topologies.
• Delivery Methodologies: Solid grasp of modern delivery frameworks, specifically SAP Activate and Agile practices, to structure the blueprinting lifecycle.