ERP Project Manager

ERP Project Manager - £850/day inside IR35

15-18 months – hybrid working north Lancs.

My forward-thinking manufacturing client is undertaking an ERP Implementation across their group businesses based mainly in the UK.

We are seeking an experienced ERP Project Leader /Project Manager to set up and lead the programme. The role is hybrid working from north Lancs offices although the successful candidate will naturally need to spend more time on-site in setting up the programme.

Reporting directly to the Project Sponsor you will matrix-manage cross-functional teams made up of temporary specialist and permanent resources seconded from across the business.

What will you be responsible for?

Leading the end-to-end implementation of the ERP solution, you will initially be translating approved business outcomes into a controlled, deliverable programme.

The role is accountable for integrated planning, governance and execution across business process design, solution configuration, data migration, integrations, testing, organisational change, training, cutover, go-live and transition to support.

Working across business functions, sites and external partners, the role establishes clear ownership, maintains pace and transparency, and ensures that scope, quality, cost, risk and benefits remain actively managed throughout the implementation lifecycle.

• Programme leadership: Develop, own and maintain the integrated ERP implementation plan, milestones, critical path, dependencies, resources and delivery controls from initiation through to post-deployment.
• Governance and assurance: Establish the project and team charters, governance cadence, decision rights, stage gates, documentation standards and sign-off responsibilities, providing concise reporting to the Steering Committee and senior leadership.
• Scope and change control: Protect the agreed scope and solution principles through a disciplined change-control process that assesses impacts on cost, time, quality, risk and business readiness before decisions are taken.
• Commercial and vendor management: Act as the primary delivery interface with the ERP vendor, implementation partner and specialist third-parties, managing deliverables, resourcing, quality, budgets, acceptance and escalation in line with contracts.
• Stakeholder and team leadership: Build and lead a collaborative cross-functional team of process owners, subject-matter experts, ISD colleagues and partners, clarifying roles, securing resource commitments and maintaining engagement across all sites and functions.
• Business process and solution design: Coordinate discovery, process definition, fit-to-standard decisions, design reviews and formal approvals, ensuring requirements are traceable and customisation is controlled and justified.
• Data and integrations: Drive the data migration strategy, cleansing, ownership, rehearsals and reconciliation, and coordinate interface design, development and validation across dependent applications, devices and reporting solutions.
• Testing and quality: Own the testing strategy and entry and exit criteria across functional, end-to-end, user acceptance and performance testing, ensuring defects are prioritised, resolved, retested and evidenced.
• Change, communications and training: Coordinate impact assessment, communications, training and business-readiness activity so that users, managers and support teams are prepared for new processes and ways of working.
• Cutover, go-live and stabilisation: Develop and rehearse the detailed cutover plan, readiness assessment and go/no-go recommendation, then lead hypercare, first period-end support and transition to business-as-usual support.
• Risk and issue management: Maintain active RAID and decision logs, assign accountable owners, drive timely mitigation and escalate based on clear tolerances and evidence.
• Benefits and closure: Maintain alignment to the business case, confirm benefit measures and ownership, coordinate legacy-system decommissioning, and lead post-implementation review and lessons learned.

What experience and skills are we looking for?

Naturally you must bring substantial experience in leading implementations of Gartner recognised leading ERP platforms, preferably in the manufacturing product sector. Your ability to manage teams and key stakeholders should be evidenced alongside your knowledge of programme and project governance and delivery.

• Extensive experience of successfully leading full lifecycle ERP implementations in complex organisations.
• Strong command of ERP delivery disciplines including governance, integrated planning, scope, resources, risk management, testing, data migration, cutover and transition to support.
• Proven leadership of cross-functional business and technical teams, with the credibility to challenge constructively and secure decisions at senior level.
• Demonstrable third-party, contract and commercial management experience, including delivery assurance and escalation.
• Excellent communication skills; both written and verbal, with the ability to convert complex delivery information into clear decisions and actions.
• Strong analytical judgement, problem solving and prioritisation under pressure; comfortable managing concurrent workstreams and conflicting demands.
• Experience of organisational change, stakeholder engagement, training and business-readiness planning.
• Previous experience of dealing with sensitive information, with high standards of documentation and control.

Highly Desirable:

• ERP implementation experience within a manufacturing, supply chain and/or multi-site environment.
• Experience of finance, procurement, order-to-cash, plan-to-produce, inventory, warehouse and reporting processes.
• Appropriate industry-recognised project or programme management qualifications and methodology experience (e.g. PRINCE2, MSP, PMP, AGILE).
• Practical experience of blending stage-gated or Waterfall governance with Agile delivery where appropriate.
• Experience of cloud ERP, systems integration, data governance, operational technology interfaces or legacy-platform decommissioning.
• Degree level qualifications or equivalent.

If you feel that this is something you can excel in delivering, then please get in touch for an informal discussion.