Director I, SAP Technology Lead - Merchandising

Introduction Ahold Delhaize USA, a division of global food retailer Ahold Delhaize, is part of the U.S. family of brands, which also includes five leading omnichannel grocery brands – Food Lion, Giant Food, The GIANT Company, Hannaford and Stop & Shop. Ahold Delhaize USA associates support the brands with a wide range of services, including Finance, Legal, Sustainability, Commercial, Digital and E-commerce, Technology and more. Overview The Director, SAP Technology Lead - Merchandising serves as the senior authority for SAP merchandising solutions and plays a pivotal role in delivering ADUSA's Retail Spine ERP transformation. This position is responsible for leading the end-to-end design, delivery, implementation, and ongoing support of core merchandising capabilities, including article and master data management, assortment and listing, pricing and promotions, vendor funding, allocation, and margin optimization using SAP S/4HANA Retail and associated platforms such as SAP CAR and integrated planning and analytics solutions. A critical aspect of this role is ensuring seamless integration across merchandising, finance, supply chain, store operations, and digital commerce platforms to enable accurate pricing execution, promotional effectiveness, real-time inventory visibility, and enterprise-wide margin transparency. The Director ensures that merchandising solutions are scalable, high-performing, and commercially aligned to drive measurable business outcomes. In close partnership with merchandising and finance leadership, this role mobilizes IT teams and System Integrator partners to deliver fit‑to‑standard, clean‑core aligned solutions that support long‑term agility and innovation that are aligned with ADUSA's long‑term roadmap. This leader shapes enterprise merchandising technology standards, drives cross‑workstream alignment, and ensures disciplined execution across all phases of the transformation lifecycle. With an AI‑ and analytics‑first mindset, the Director enables data‑driven decision‑making, optimized pricing and promotion strategies, and automation across merchandising processes to maximize revenue, margin, and operational efficiency. The ideal candidate brings deep expertise in SAP S/4HANA Retail merchandising capabilities, strong executive leadership skills, and a proven track record delivering large‑scale ERP transformations in complex, high‑volume retail environments. Applicants must be currently authorized to work in the United States on a full‑time basis. Our flexible/hybrid work schedule includes 3 in‑person days at one of our Salisbury, NC location and 2 remote days. Responsibilities Strategic Leadership & Transformation Execution Provide strategic leadership and ownership of SAP Retail delivery on RISE with SAP S/4HANA Cloud, from Fit‑to‑Standard design through deployment, stabilization and post go‑live support. Act as the technical authority for SAP Order Management, SAP CAR, and availability/pricing services and Clean Core and SAP Best Practices, ensuring solutions are cloud‑compliant, upgrade‑safe, and aligned to SAP and retail standards. Partner with the Business counterpart to translate business strategy into scalable SAP functional and technical designs, governance models, and operating standards. Lead solution architecture and cross‑functional integration decisions, ensuring SAP capabilities evolve with operational needs and remain aligned to enterprise in‑store and ecommerce strategy. Develop integrations with non‑SAP solutions to deliver required business outcomes. Deliver automations through AI and other strategic solutions to optimize business processes. Design and deliver the data foundation to support the operational and reporting needs required by the business. System Integrator & Platform Alignment Own delivery outcomes across the System Integrator and SAP RISE ecosystem, holding all partners accountable for scope execution, solution quality, and business results. Establish and enforce design governance, architecture standards, and release controls, ensuring solutions align with Clean Core principles, RISE service boundaries, and enterprise cloud operating models. Drive end‑to‑end delivery accountability across internal teams and external partners, proactively managing risks, dependencies, performance metrics, and corrective actions to ensure on‑time, on‑quality execution. Ensure RISE environments, transports, and testing strategies align to SAP Activate and enterprise DevOps standards. Functional Design & Process Integration Lead the detailed SAP S/4HANA functional and technical design and configuration across relevant modules, including solution architecture, configuration workbooks (IMG), data objects, interfaces, and enhancements‑ensuring alignment to Fit‑to‑Standard and Clean Core principles. Partner with the Brand Retail Operations leads to govern Fit‑to‑Standard decisions to balance business differentiation with standardization and long‑term maintainability. Own the end‑to‑end integration across SAP and non‑SAP platforms, defining APIs, event‑driven patterns, and middleware flows (e.g., SAP BTP Integration Suite) to ensure seamless, real‑time process execution across merchandising, supply chain, and omnichannel systems. Translate business needs into SAP S/4HANA designs and configurations, and validate solutions through end‑to‑end testing. Ensure seamless upstream/downstream integration with Merchandising, Supply Chain, POS, eCommerce, and last‑mile platforms. Govern ATP / sourcing logic for BOPIS, ship‑from‑store, and DC fulfillment. Influence and adopt the enterprise mobility strategy to design and build associate facing applications that interface with SAP. Deliver reporting, analytics and AI capabilities integrated with SAP on RISE. Drive adoption of embedded S/4HANA and RISE innovations. Team Leadership & Ways of Working Provide inspirational leadership and direction for a purpose‑driven team, with direct accountability for talent management activities including recruiting and leading a high performing team, developing technical and functional capabilities through targeted upskilling programs, conducting performance management, and retaining critical expertise throughout the multi‑year transformation journey. Upskill and coach internal IT teams and SMEs on cloud mindset, Clean Core, and SAP Best Practices. Establish clear roles, responsibilities, governance structures, decision‑making frameworks, and engagement cadences across key stakeholders within and outside the transformation program. Foster a culture of inclusion, collaboration, innovation, and continuous improvement while actively modeling ADUSA's core values and partnership behaviors to drive engagement, knowledge sharing, and shared success across the transformation ecosystem. Requirements Change Management & Communication Partner with transformation change management and communications leads to develop and execute targeted messaging strategies addressing organizational change impacts. Actively engage with business leaders to co‑create transition roadmaps, align on deployment wave sequencing, define stabilization success criteria, and establish realistic expectations for capability rollout timelines and business benefits realization. Serve as the primary escalation point and trusted advisor for operational risk identification throughout each deployment wave, proactively proposing mitigation strategies. Lead executive and governance committee presentations and business readiness assessments, translating complex technical concepts into business value narratives that resonate with C‑suite stakeholders. Performance Monitoring & Post‑Go‑Live Support Define and track functional success metrics (e.g., system adoption and operational continuity). Lead cutover planning, stabilization governance, and lessons‑learned cycles following deployment. Ensure successful implementation and DC/store go‑live, including training, SOPs, and escalation procedures. Qualifications Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering, or related discipline required; Master's degree in Business, Technology, or Retail Management preferred. 12‑15+ years of progressive SAP experience with deep focus on retail domains, including senior leadership roles on large‑scale SAP S/4HANA Retail transformation programs within grocery, mass retail, consumer goods, or multi‑brand retail environments. Demonstrated hands‑on architecture and functional expertise across SAP S/4HANA Retail, including article and master data management, merchandising, assortment and allocation, pricing and promotions, SD, CAR, and omnichannel integration, with proven experience designing end‑to‑end retail processes spanning procure‑to‑sell and order‑to‑cash. Proven track record leading full‑lifecycle SAP transformations (strategy through stabilization), including blueprinting, fit‑to‑standard design, clean‑core alignment, build governance, testing oversight, cutover execution, and post‑go‑live optimization. Experience operating in complex, high‑volume retail environments with strong understanding of merchandising economics, promotional funding, margin optimization, inventory visibility, and omnichannel capabilities such as BOPIS and ship‑from‑store. Demonstrated leadership of large cross‑functional teams in a modern IT operating model that includes System Integrators, SaaS platforms, digital commerce solutions, and federated IT structures; ability to drive accountability across internal and external partners. Experience leading post‑implementation SAP Retail operations, including production support governance, release management, performance monitoring, and continuous improvement. Proven capability delivering data‑driven retail insights, including embedded analytics, self‑service reporting, pricing and promotion analytics, KPI dashboards, and integration of advanced analytics or AI/automation use cases within SAP‑enabled retail processes. Strong financial and business acumen with experience managing transformation budgets, investment prioritization, margin‑impact analysis, and value realization tracking. Exceptional executive presence with the ability to influence senior stakeholders, facilitate complex trade‑off decisions (standard vs. custom vs. best‑of‑breed), and align business and technology leadership around retail transformation outcomes. Strategic yet hands‑on leadership style with demonstrated success building, mentoring, and scaling high‑performing retail technology teams. Willingness to travel as required to support program execution, stakeholder engagement, and multi‑brand deployment alignment. Preferred Qualifications Experience in grocery or big‑box retail with high SKU velocity, complex DC networks, and store fulfillment models. Direct experience with RISE with SAP or SAP S/4HANA Cloud operating models. Strong understanding of SAP Clean Core strategy, SAP BTP extensibility, and cloud governance. Proven experience integrating SAP S/4HANA with best‑of‑breed platforms such as Manhattan and RELEX. Demonstrated success driving Fit‑to‑Standard and reducing technical debt/custom code. SAP certifications in S/4HANA Retail or related modules. Compensation & Benefits Located at the ADUSA regional headquarters which are located just outside Charlotte, North Carolina (Salisbury). Competitive benefits package. Salary Range: $160,000 - $240,000 Actual compensation offered to a candidate may vary based on their unique qualifications and experience, internal equity, and market conditions. Final compensation decisions will be made in accordance with company policies and applicable laws. #J-18808-Ljbffr ViziRecruiter