SR Program Manager

Job Title: SR Program Manager

Location: Remote

Duration: 06 months' contract

POSITION OVERVIEW


The Senior Program Manager will lead business-side program execution and site readiness for the Tijuana manufacturing and warehouse operation as it moves to Microsoft Dynamics 365 and prepares for the North America ERP cutover on April 1, 2027. This person will build the integrated plan, establish clarity on work completed and work remaining, and drive the cross-functional actions required across manufacturing, planning, logistics, warehousing, finance, procurement, master data, customs, local tools, testing, training, change, and cutover.
This is not a reporting-only PMO role. The successful candidate must understand the content, challenge gaps, make connections across teams, and personally move work forward. The role will work closely with the Tijuana Site Director and leadership team while connecting the site to North America, global process owners, Finance, IT, GBS, Client, EY, and other program partners.


WHY THIS ROLE MATTERS


Tijuana is a critical manufacturing and distribution site with a complex cross-border operating model. The April 1 ERP cutover is not moving, and several business functions still require design, testing, training, and readiness work. Today, ownership and planning are fragmented and the site does not have a dedicated senior program leader integrating the full picture, driving decisions, and converting the remaining work into one executable plan.



ABOUT THE ASSIGNMENT

• The primary focus is successful ERP and operational readiness for the April 1, 2027 North America cutover.
• The role will integrate ERP delivery with the site's manufacturing, warehouse, finance, procurement, customs, data, documentation, and regulatory readiness activities.
• Tijuana recently moved from JD Edwards to SAP and has meaningful lessons learned that must be converted into stronger design validation, data readiness, testing, training, and cutover controls for Dynamics 365.
• The site operates manufacturing and warehousing on a Monday-through-Thursday, 24-hour schedule. Planning and onsite support must reflect operational realities and protect continuity of supply.
• Confidentiality is essential. The role will have access to sensitive business, employee, financial, and operational information that must be handled with sound judgment.

PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITIES

Integrated Program Leadership

• Establish the baseline: rapidly determine what has been completed, what is in progress, what is missing, who owns each outcome, and what decisions are required across the site program.
• Build and own the integrated plan: create a logic-linked schedule covering ERP design through stabilization, site readiness, cross-functional dependencies, critical path, near-critical path, milestones, stage gates, decisions, and resource needs.
• Create disciplined controls: maintain a single, current view of milestones, RAID items, dependencies, decisions, actions, deliverables, and readiness status; ensure owners and due dates are explicit and followed through.
• Drive governance: prepare and facilitate working sessions and governance reviews; provide concise, fact-based status, options, recommendations, and escalations to site, regional, and global leaders.
• Connect the work: integrate site activity with the broader North America ERP plan and coordinate closely with global process owners, Finance, IT, GBS, Client, EY, and other implementation partners.

ERP and Business Readiness

• Close scope and design gaps: drive clarity and completion across manufacturing, supply planning, logistics and warehousing, and establish the required work plan for less mature areas including Finance and procurement.
• Lead business readiness: ensure process design, solution playbacks, role mapping, data readiness, local procedures, controls, work instructions, training, change impacts, and adoption activities are completed and accepted by the business.
• Support with interim process enablement: as part of the multi-phase go-live, a number of interim processes will be required to be enacted in Tijuana between delivery waves. The enablement and readiness of these processes will need to be managed, including resource hiring and communications with employees and vendors (processes and activities will be defined by the programme)
• Orchestrate testing: confirm business scenarios reflect real factory, warehouse, customs, finance, and exception processes; coordinate subject matter experts, UAT preparation and execution, defect resolution, retesting, evidence, and sign-off.
• Prepare users: identify impacted populations and super users, coordinate bilingual training and communications, verify attendance and proficiency, and ensure teams can execute Day 1 processes without reliance on undocumented workarounds.
• Apply lessons learned: translate the site's recent JD Edwards-to-SAP experience into concrete safeguards for data, scenarios, cutover, support, and stabilization.

Infrastructure/network cutover

• Oversee infrastructure migration plan: the network cutover will need to be executed in line with the ERP go-live. Coordination of network cutover activities will need to be managed with the site availability, implementation vendors, as well as with the Client infrastructure team to ensure smooth execution and tracking of cutover activities (note the execution and delivery plan will be developed by Client)
• Managing communication of infrastructure cutover: managing the communications with site employees, Client and delivery partners to ensure key milestones are achieved and required resources are available to support

Manufacturing Warehouse and Cross Border Execution

• Represent site operations: work directly with the Site Director and functional leaders to make the program executable within manufacturing, planning, logistics, warehousing, inventory, master data, and plant-finance operations.
• Integrate cross-border requirements: ensure customs documentation, truck planning, shipping documentation, tax-sensitive flows, and other maquiladora operating requirements are reflected in processes, testing, training, and cutover plans.
• Coordinate mixed-mode processes: help define and operationalize temporary manual controls and buy-sell activities while the Amsterdam hub remains on SAP and Tijuana and the United States move to Dynamics 365.
• Protect business continuity: surface capacity, inventory, staffing, data, process, and supply risks early; drive contingency plans that protect customer service and production continuity.

Cutover and Stabilization

• Own site cutover readiness: build and drive the Tijuana cutover plan, including prerequisites, mock cutovers, business validation, go/no-go criteria, command-center coverage, escalation paths, and hypercare exit criteria.
• Manage readiness contingencies: maintain an executable April 1 plan and drive contingency actions for any dependency, decision, data issue, or resource constraint that could affect site readiness.
• Integrate cross-functional dependencies: track and connect manufacturing, logistics, finance, customs, data, local documentation, regulatory, and compliance requirements without duplicating specialist ownership.
• Define the post-go-live roadmap: clarify deferred scope, open risks, support requirements, timing, and ownership through stabilization; recommend whether ongoing senior support is needed beyond April.
• Lead stabilization: coordinate rapid issue triage and resolution after go-live and ensure operational handoff is supported by clear ownership, controls, and documentation.

Local Tools Documentation and Change

• Own the business-side inventory: identify local spreadsheets, Word-based tools, templates, shipping documents, truck-loading aids, and other non-integrated solutions that must be retained, changed, replaced, or retired.
• Deliver fit-for-purpose changes: coordinate updates to local business tools and documentation so master data, names, controls, and outputs are accurate and ready for go-live.
• Maintain controlled documentation: establish clear repositories, version control, approval status, and handoff for plans, decisions, processes, training materials, cutover deliverables, and evidence.
• Perform other duties: take on related transformation and readiness work as assigned where it is necessary to deliver a safe, controlled implementation.

LEADERSHIP EXPECTATIONS

• Operate as a trusted partner to the North America Regional PM Leader, the Tijuana Site Director, and functional leaders; bring issues forward early with facts, options, and a recommended path.
• Be highly hands-on. Create the plan, work through the content, chase decisions, facilitate resolution, and close actions rather than waiting for others to make the program move.
• Combine urgency with diplomacy. Influence across cultures, functions, vendors, and reporting lines without sacrificing accountability.
• Simplify complex processes and messages for leaders, site teams, and frontline users while preserving the details needed for safe execution.
• Protect sensitive information and exercise excellent judgment regarding business, employee, financial, legal, and operational matters.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

• 10 or more years of progressive project or program leadership experience, including ownership of complex, cross-functional business transformation in manufacturing environments.
• Demonstrated end-to-end ERP implementation experience at a manufacturing and warehouse site, including design validation, testing, training, cutover, hypercare, and business adoption.
• Strong working knowledge of manufacturing, production planning, inventory, logistics, warehousing, procurement, plant finance, master data, and operational controls.
• Experience building and managing logic-linked integrated plans, critical paths, RAID and decision governance, executive reporting, and cross-functional accountability.
• Ability to understand detailed business processes, identify missing work, and translate ambiguity into an executable plan without a large support team.
• Professional fluency in both English and Spanish, with the ability to facilitate meetings, training, and issue resolution in both languages.
• Advanced skills in Microsoft Project or an equivalent scheduling tool, Excel, PowerPoint, Teams, and SharePoint.
• Bachelor's degree in business, engineering, supply chain, operations, information systems, or a related field.
• Ability to travel internationally to Tijuana approximately once per month and more frequently during onboarding, critical workshops, testing, cutover, or stabilization; valid passport required.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Microsoft Dynamics 365 implementation experience; experience with SAP, JD Edwards, Kinaxis, or mixed-ERP environments is also valuable.
• Experience in a maquiladora, cross-border manufacturing, or customs-intensive site environment.
• Experience with complex cross-border manufacturing, regulatory, compliance, or carve-out environments.
• PMP or comparable program-management certification; Prosci or other formal change-management certification is an additional asset.
• MBA or relevant master's degree.

SUCCESS MEASURES

• Within the first 30 days, leaders have one credible baseline of scope, status, ownership, gaps, decisions, critical path, and resource requirements.
• Manufacturing, planning, logistics and warehousing remain on track, while Finance, procurement, local-tool, and cross-border gaps are converted into owned, time-bound plans.
• Tijuana is ready for the April 1, 2027 ERP cutover with accepted processes, validated data, realistic test coverage, trained users, completed cutover activities, and clear hypercare support.
• Manual mixed-mode and buy-sell processes are documented, controlled, tested, and executable until the Amsterdam hub transitions from SAP.
• Critical regulatory, compliance, customs, data, and operational dependencies are visible and escalated early enough to protect business continuity.
• practical post-go-live roadmap and ownership recommendation are in place before the end of the initial assignment.

Compensation:


The hourly rate for this position is $100.00 per hour.
Factors which may affect starting pay within this range may include [geography/market, skills, education, experience and other qualifications of the successful candidate].



Benefits:


Sunrise offers ACA compliant medical coverage/dental insurance/vision insurance to all employees. We also offer Sick time benefits as required per State regulations.



Contact:
Jaya Balaji: View email address on click.appcast.io | View phone number on click.appcast.io | URL: