Project Architect - SAP S/4HANA for Utilities

Job Description

Job Description

This job is posted on behalf of Steve Ackley by Top Echelon.

Project Architect - SAP S/4HANA for Utilities Location:

• Hybrid: Onsite Tuesday–Thursday; remote other days
• Preferred locations: Minneapolis, MN or Denver, CO
• Some travel required (quarterly)
• Core hours: 9 AM – 4 PM CST
• 40-hour work week

Role Overview

Our client is undertaking a major Customer Information System (CIS) modernization initiative , transitioning from a legacy billing environment to SAP S/4HANA for Utilities (IS-U) and Salesforce Energy and Utilities Cloud for customer service and CRM capabilities.

This is a large-scale, multi-year transformation program . The Project Architect will design and govern end-to-end solutions across SAP, Salesforce, and other enterprise systems, ensuring alignment with enterprise architecture standards and SAP Clean Core principles.

The ideal candidate brings a strong architecture background and experience designing solutions across complex hybrid cloud and on-premises environments. Experience with SAP S/4HANA functionality and technologies, SAP BTP, SAP data platforms, Salesforce, and AWS is highly desirable.

Project Context

• Major CIS modernization and digital transformation initiative
• Transition from a legacy customer information environment to SAP S/4HANA Utilities and Salesforce Energy and Utilities Cloud
• Long-term engagement with potential for conversion
• Work as part of the client's Enterprise Architecture team
• Blueprinting, solution architecture, governance, and implementation validation

Key Responsibilities

• Develop and maintain end-to-end solution architecture for key financial, payment, collections, and customer-related business processes across enterprise systems including SAP S/4HANA, Salesforce, and supporting platforms
• Minimize customizations and enforce SAP Clean Core principles
• Identify emerging technology capabilities and architectural patterns that may support business requirements
• Align solutions with enterprise architecture standards and guidelines
• Govern architectural standards and best practices
• Lead solution design and implementation activities to ensure development aligns with approved architecture
• Collaborate with functional and technical teams across the organization
• Ensure solutions provide appropriate resiliency, scalability, security, and performance
• Conduct architecture reviews and present solutions to architecture governance teams
• Validate implementations against approved architectural designs

Required Qualifications

• 10+ years of architecture experience
• 2+ years of SAP S/4HANA Utilities (IS-U) experience
• 2+ years of SAP BTP and Integration Suite experience
• 4+ years of AWS experience
• Expertise in enterprise-level solution architecture across multiple systems, including hybrid cloud environments
• Strong architectural governance and solutioning experience

Preferred Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Science, or equivalent experience
• SAP Certified Solution Architect or Technology Professional
• Experience with DevOps, CI/CD, TOGAF, and LeanIX
• Utility industry experience

Technical Skills

• Integration and data architecture, including SAP BTP, AWS, and IBM ACE
• Cloud and hybrid architecture, with AWS preferred
• End-to-end solution architecture across complex enterprise ecosystems
• Architecture option analysis, including developing alternatives and making recommendations
• Strong understanding of security, scalability, observability, resiliency, and performance design

Non-Technical Skills

• Ability to clearly articulate complex technical concepts to executives, business stakeholders, and technical teams
• Strong business acumen and ability to align architectural decisions with strategic objectives
• Independent, accountable, and collaborative
• Comfortable working across organizational teams, partners, and vendors

This is an opportunity to play a key architectural role in a significant enterprise technology transformation involving SAP, Salesforce, cloud, integration, and modern enterprise architecture practices.