Unilever - SAP Estate Manager

Role : SAP Estate Manager

Updated : September 2016 Function: Global SAP Infrastructure (SI)

Reports to : Director

Scope : Global Location: India

Business Context and Main Purpose of the Role :

- Unilever's business strategy, COMPASS, is on course to drive us forward from the recently achieved - 50BN turnover, onto its ultimate goal of - 80BN by 2020 & all without increasing our current carbon footprint.

- In support of that ambition the Infrastructure Services & Service Delivery function will strive to put business outcomes back at the core of our operating model and reassert our identity as a key enabler of the Compass ambition.

- ISSD will strive to improve Quality of service, speed, security & increase collaboration with Application teams. Provide enhanced System and Cloud Integrated solutions

- Develop team skills for Cloud Service Architecture & integration with on premise Hybrid Data Center facilities at the core of our solutioning provision to the business.

- Also ensuring KPI- s/metrics for Business Outcomes are in place and will drive Service Performance & optimisation of Costs.

- The Global SAP Infrastructure (SI) is integral to this strategy, working in alignment with the ISSD functions, Innovate, Activate and Operate to provide Enterprise Solutions, Infrastructure and Geography IT with a unified gateway to the Unilever SAP Private Cloud platform in a high quality, cost and time efficient manner whilst activating world class integrated capabilities in collaboration with Innovate, Activate & Operate and in full support of Infrastructure and Service Delivery ambitions.

- The SAP Estate Manager will report into a the Director, and will be expected to be autonomous and to attend all relevant LT meetings and Director reviews (as applicable).

- The role holder is expected to hold significant experience, having specialist knowledge of SAP and all underlying infrastructure, the destination architecture across a broad spectrum of core technologies and further expected to stay abreast with technology advances across the core SAP hosting infrastructure Landscape.

- The role holder will lead by example, being able to influence at a senior level, and play a key role in setting the strategy for the SIC in agreement with the SIC LT and in alignment with Innovate, CTO, Operate and the future forward demand within Activate.

- The SAP Estate Manager is expected to engage with others, both within and outside their own team, to question the consumer impact of actions/ decisions and build consumer-centric thinking

- The SAP Estate Manager will combine quick decision making with technical assurance to all aspects of the SAP hosting infrastructure platform and play a lead role in support of Projects, KEC and Capabilities destined for the SAP estate.

Main Accountabilities :

- Sets out and drives SI strategy in alignment with and in support of overall ES strategy

- Overall responsibility for Estate and Capacity Management for all SAP services hosted on the SAP infrastructure.

- Ultimate responsibility for work of others and allocation of resources in support of SI Architecture and Estate Management activities

- Manage the team from career perspective, ensure appropriate training is received, conduct performance review of personnel, drive recruitment against known demands.

- Ensure team documentation is maintained to highest quality.

- Ensure appropriate governance/controls in place for team regards risk & issue mgmt., team reviews, demand and work assignment forums

- Keep current with core vendor technologies, act /provide consultancy to SI team members (individually or through team)

- Maintain alignment to key stakeholders internally and externally ie SI LT members, KEC/Project delivery, Capabiltiies, Solutioning. Externally - IBM, SAP, HP, Microsoft (as part of agreed strategy with SIC LT)

- Always ensure where inefficiency or simplications opportunities exist, catalogue and propose changes to drive change

- Ensure cost efficieny, simplification and standards approach to all delivery activities

- Selects appropriately from applicable standards, methods, tools and applications and use.

- Demonstrates analytical and systematic approach to problem solving.

- Communicates fluently orally and in writing and can present complex technical information to both technical and non-technical audiences.

- Maintains awareness of developing technologies and their application and takes responsibility for personal development.

- Prepared to take on challenging work outside own comfort zone

- Injects a sense of pace and urgency into the workplace, expediting decisions and getting stuff done in double-quick time; willing to address sensitive blockages without delay

- Responsible for providing holistic Architecture governance for SI

- Responsible for ensuring alignment to & actively driving Innovate and CTO strategy

- Escalation point for SI technical issues

- Responsible for the timely sign-off of all documents generated from the IAA (Infrastructure Architecture Authority).

- Provide leadership for technical innovation

- Encourage excellence in design and implementation

- Maintain all SI architectural design documentation

- Undertake cross project design reviews

- Be responsible for all SI architectural decisions and sign off for each milestone

- Manage the SAP Technical Infrastructure Leads and Solutions Designers technically

- Provide leadership and management support for the SI Estate Management Function

- Influence strategies for SAP Infrastructure solutions and innovations by providing in-depth knowledge of SAP

- Support Innovate on Roadmaps, POC, Capability Delivery and Building Block Development and evolution

- Support Innovate in realising target architecture

- Support Operate on resolution of critical issues & problems

- Providing technical leadership to all elements of COE deliverables.

- POC and Capability requirements and technical management and leadership

- Providing a KEC focus across all work streams of COE

- Cost effective and aware stewardship of the SAP hosting infrastructure platform

- Drive standardisation of the SAP hosting infrastructure Cloud Infrastructure

- Core members of the SIAA (SAP Infrastructure Architecture Authority)

- Ensuring alignment to Vendor good practice through regular interaction, driving outside perspectives into the SIC strategy.

Direct Reports Key Interfaces :

- SI Director

- ES Directors

- Innovation Directors

- SI LT

- CTO

- Innovate SME- s/Architects

- IBM & SAP (Vendors)

Critical success Factors for the Role

KPIs Relevant Experience :

- Maintain plan of work assignments across team

- Training requirements aligned to future technology and capabiltiies (technology roadmaps)

- Capacity thresholds identified and managed to across all elements of infrastructure and hosted services.

- All decisions, standards, policies and architecture documented and stored centrally to the agreed, tech author defined, standard.

Essential :

Team Management :

- 10-14 Years plus experience of SAP Infrastructure deployment, managing the estate and development of Architecture standards and methodologies in support of an Enterprise Architecture model.

- Broad and deep knowledge of IBM Infrastrucutre.

- Extensive experience of ITIL Service Management

Desirable :

- TOGAF

- Prince / PMI

- Degree or equivalent in related subject

Key Skills

Analytical Thinking : Acquiring a proper understanding of a problem or situation by breaking it down systematically into its component parts and identifying the relationships between these parts, selecting the appropriate method/tool to resolve the problem and reflecting on the result, such that learning is identified and absorbed.

Conceptual Thinking : Acquiring understanding of the underlying issues in complex problems or situations by correctly relating these to simpler or better understood concepts, models or previous experiences.

Customer Focus : Understanding the needs of the internal or external customer and keeping them in mind when taking actions or making decisions.

Planning and Organisation : Determining a course of action by breaking it down into smaller steps and by planning and resourcing each of these, making allowance for potential problems.

- Ability to influence at Director level downwards, both internally and externally.

- Good organisational awareness, able to execute correct and proper escalation when appropriate.

- Very strong desire to keep up-to-date with technical developments/vendor products & tooling

- High levels of self-motivation and focus to work with the minimum of supervision and deliver against agreed targets.

- Ability to communicate at all levels in technical and business language, written and verbal

- Good communications skills to ensure that technical issues and recommendations are clearly conveyed and understood by key stakeholders

- Ideally educated to degree standard, with related vocational qualifications e.g. ITIL, TOGAF

- Is able to plan, schedule and monitor work activities in order to meet time and quality targets.

- Is able to absorb rapidly new technical information and apply it effectively.

- Practices the - art of the possible-, thinking outside the box in order to turn problems into opportunities

- Initiates and influences relationships with and between key stakeholders, in, management and implementation, acting as a primary point of contact for senior stakeholders and influencers.

Leadership Behaviours :

- Employee should "meet expectations" on the Standards of Leadership behaviours relevant to the WL of this role. Details on the Standards of Leadership can be found by clicking here.

Skills Profile :

N/A : Not Applicable BA: Basic Appreciation WK: Working Knowledge FO: Fully Operational LE: Leading Edge

IT Professional Skills :

(As Defined in the IT Skills Dictionary) Level Comments

N/A BA WK FO LE

- Account Management

- Business Modelling

- Business Process Improvement

- Business Risk Management

- Change implementation planning & management

- Consultancy

- Continuity management

- Emerging technology monitoring

- Enterprise Architecture

- Financial Management for IT

- Information Assurance

- Information management

- Information security

- Information Systems Coordination

- Innovation

- Methods & Tools

- Network Planning

- Portfolio Management

- Procurement

- Research

- Software Development Process Improvement

- Solution architecture

- Technical Specialism

General Skills Level Comments :

N/A BA WK FO LE :

- Working at Unilever

- General Functional knowledge

- Thinking and Planning

- Communication and Teamwork

- Managing People

- Execution and Delivery

- Self Management

- Select only the skills that are relevant for this job and mark with an - X- the required level for each one of them

- Other Comments