The LUCA program
LUCA is METRO’s strategic SAP S/4HANA Finance transformation program. It safeguards business continuity and addresses security and compliance risks while enabling greater standardization, harmonization and centralization across Finance. Alongside new-country rollouts, the program continuously evolves and supports the productive solution used by countries already live on LUCA.
Purpose of the role
Based in Düsseldorf, Germany, the SAP Finance Project Manager will lead the delivery of change projects for LUCA countries already operating on the productive SAP S/4HANA Finance solution. Typical assignments include the implementation of new electronic-invoicing mandates, other legal and regulatory requirements, and business-driven changes that affect Finance processes, integrations, data, controls and operational procedures.
The role is designed for an experienced SAP Financials professional who has moved into project coordination and delivery management. The Project Manager must understand Finance requirements and SAP solution implications well enough to structure work, challenge plans, connect the correct experts and drive decisions, while remaining accountable for scope, schedule, budget, quality, risk and stakeholder alignment in a large international SAP landscape.
Your responsibilities
End-to-end project delivery
- Own the delivery of assigned SAP Finance projects for LUCA live countries from initiation and scoping through design, build, testing, deployment, hypercare and closure.
- Translate legal, regulatory and business change requests into structured projects with clear objectives, scope boundaries, deliverables, milestones, governance, resource needs and acceptance criteria.
- Develop and maintain integrated project plans covering functional design, technical implementation, interfaces, data, testing, cutover, communication, training and operational readiness.
- Manage scope, schedule, budget, quality, risks, issues, dependencies, assumptions and change control, ensuring that deviations are visible and addressed early.
- Prepare concise status reporting, decisions and recommendations for LUCA governance, country stakeholders and management.
Regulatory and business change delivery
- Coordinate the implementation of country-specific electronic-invoicing mandates and other legal or tax-driven changes, working with Finance local, central, system implementors, and partner-system specialists.
- Lead business-change projects that enhance or adapt live SAP Finance processes, ensuring alignment with the LUCA global template and the needs of productive operations.
- Ensure requirements are sufficiently clear, approved and traceable, and that legal effective dates and business deadlines are translated into realistic delivery plans.
- Coordinate impact assessments across SAP Finance, SAP Ariba where relevant, master data, reporting, authorizations, interfaces and non-SAP partner systems.
- Protect productive operations by ensuring controlled releases, appropriate regression testing, cutover planning, support readiness and post-go-live monitoring.
Functional and technical coordination
- Use prior SAP Financials experience to understand end-to-end process impacts, ask informed questions and facilitate productive alignment between business and technology teams.
- Coordinate solution architects, functional consultants, developers, integration teams, test teams, release management, AMS, country organizations and external partners.
- Identify interdependencies across processes, systems, countries and concurrent initiatives, assign ownership and drive decisions and actions to closure.
- Challenge delivery proposals, estimates and solution approaches constructively, while relying on accountable architects and specialists for detailed design authority.
- Ensure project outputs are documented, supportable and handed over effectively to the relevant live-country and service-management organizations.
Testing, deployment and stakeholder management
- Work with LUCA Test Management to define the test approach, business participation, environments, data, entry and exit criteria, defect governance and acceptance evidence for each project.
- Coordinate country UAT and business acceptance, ensuring the right stakeholders are mobilized and that open defects and residual risks are transparent before deployment.
- Plan and govern cutover and production deployment activities with clear responsibilities, sequencing, readiness checks, fallback considerations and management communication.
- Act as the central project contact for country Finance stakeholders, LUCA teams, METRO Digital, the System Integrator and other delivery partners.
- Build trust across cultures and time zones through transparent communication, dependable follow-up, pragmatic issue resolution and timely escalation.