Role: SAP Cutover Lead

Location: Canada, Remote

Type: Contract

Position Summary

- We are seeking an experienced SAP Cutover Lead to lead the end-to-end planning, coordination, and execution of cutover activities for a complex SAP transformation program.
- The SAP Cutover Lead will be responsible for managing the transition from legacy systems to SAP, including cutover strategy, detailed runbook development, cutover rehearsals, go-live readiness, production cutover, command-center coordination, and post-go-live stabilization.
- This role requires strong coordination across business, SAP functional teams, technical teams, data migration, integrations, infrastructure, security, testing, reporting, change management, and third-party vendors to ensure a controlled and timely go-live while minimizing disruption to critical business operations.
- The ideal candidate will have significant experience managing complex SAP deployments and strong knowledge of SAP cutover planning, data migration, integrations, production readiness, go/no-go governance, and hypercare. Experience with SAP S/4HANA and large-scale, multi-site or multi-country deployments is highly desirable.

Key Responsibilities

Cutover Strategy & Planning

- Develop and maintain the overall SAP cutover strategy, integrated cutover plan, detailed schedule, and execution runbook.
- Translate deployment requirements into detailed cutover activities with clearly defined owners, timelines, dependencies, prerequisites, and completion criteria.
- Establish entry and exit criteria, decision points, escalation paths, rollback procedures, and contingency plans.
- Identify critical-path activities and ensure dependencies across business and technology workstreams are properly sequenced.
- Maintain a single integrated view of all activities required before, during, and immediately after SAP go-live.
- Cross-Functional Coordination
- Coordinate cutover activities across:
- SAP functional modules and workstreams
- Business functions
- Data migration and conversion
- Interfaces and integrations
- Infrastructure and environments
- Security and user access
- Reporting and analytics
- Testing and validation
- Batch jobs and scheduling
- Third-party applications and vendors
- Business readiness and operational support
- Work closely with the IT Technical Lead, SAP functional and technical leads, business stakeholders, project managers, and implementation partners.
- Ensure ownership and accountability are clearly established for every cutover activity.
- Cutover Rehearsals & Readiness
- Plan and lead cutover rehearsals, mock cutovers,



dress rehearsals, and production-readiness exercises.
- Facilitate cutover planning workshops and readiness-review meetings.
- Capture rehearsal results, identify gaps and bottlenecks, and incorporate lessons learned into subsequent cutover plans.
- Validate that critical activities can be completed within the required production cutover window.
- Lead readiness assessments and ensure open issues are resolved or formally accepted before go-live.
- Go-Live Governance
- Establish and manage go/no-go criteria and governance checkpoints.
- Facilitate go/no-go meetings with business and technology leadership.
- Ensure critical risks, dependencies, defects, data issues, infrastructure readiness, and support requirements are clearly understood before production deployment.
- Maintain clear decision, action, risk, issue, and dependency logs.
- Provide concise status reporting and escalate blockers or critical risks promptly.
- Production Cutover Execution
- Lead execution of the approved cutover plan during the production deployment window.
- Coordinate technical and business teams through each stage of the cutover.
- Track activities against the integrated cutover runbook in real time.
- Manage deviations from the approved plan and coordinate corrective actions.
- Facilitate command-center or war-room meetings during critical cutover periods.
- Ensure decisions, exceptions, issues, and resolutions are accurately documented.
- Data Migration & Technical Coordination
- Coordinate data extraction, transformation, loading, reconciliation, and business validation activities.
- Ensure data migration activities are properly sequenced with SAP configuration, integrations, interfaces, and business processes.
- Coordinate system access, security provisioning, interface transitions, batch schedules, and technical validation.
- Ensure critical integrations and business processes are validated before and after go-live.
- Coordinate closely with technical teams to resolve cutover-related defects and dependencies.
- Post-Go-Live Stabilization & Hypercare
- Coordinate early-life support and hypercare activities following SAP go-live.
- Ensure incidents, defects,



outstanding cutover activities, and operational issues have clear ownership and resolution timelines.
- Monitor stabilization progress and escalate critical production issues.
- Coordinate handover from the project/cutover organization to application support and operational teams.
- Ensure operational procedures, support coverage, documentation, and escalation processes are established.
- Continuous Improvement
- Conduct post-cutover reviews and document lessons learned.
- Identify opportunities to improve cutover methodologies, governance, templates, controls, and execution practices.
- Develop reusable cutover frameworks and best practices for future SAP releases and deployments.

Required Qualifications

- 10+ years of overall IT/SAP experience, with significant experience in enterprise application deployment, cutover, or go-live management.
- 7+ years of proven experience serving as a Cutover Lead, Deployment Lead, Go-Live Lead, or similar role for complex SAP programs.
- 5+ years of hands-on experience supporting SAP implementations, upgrades, migrations, or major releases.
- Strong experience creating and managing detailed cutover plans, schedules, runbooks, dependency maps, and readiness checklists.
- Demonstrated experience leading cutover rehearsals, production deployments, command centers, go/no-go meetings, and hypercare activities.
- Solid understanding of:
- SAP implementation lifecycle
- Data migration and reconciliation
- Enterprise integrations and interfaces
- Testing and validation
- Infrastructure and production environments
- Security and access management
- Change management
- Production support and hypercare
- Proven ability to coordinate complex activities across business, IT, implementation partners, and third-party vendors.
- Strong RAID management, governance, and executive-status reporting capabilities.
- Excellent facilitation, communication, organizational, and stakeholder-management skills.
- Ability to make sound decisions, manage escalations, and coordinate large teams under significant time pressure.
- Preferred Qualifications
- Experience with SAP S/4HANA implementations or migrations.
- Experience leading multiple mock cutovers or cutover rehearsals before production deployment.
- Experience with large-scale multi-site, multi-country, or global SAP deployments.
- Experience coordinating SAP deployments involving multiple legacy applications and complex integration landscapes.
- Experience with highly regulated or complex enterprise environments is an advantage

📌 SAP Cutover Lead (Canada)
🏢 VDart
📍 Canada