Senior Manager – Business Transformation & Operational Excellence (Projects)

The Organisation

Our client is a global sourcing and procurement enterprise of significant scale, with operations spanning the principal manufacturing markets across Asia — including China, India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Cambodia, Indonesia, and Vietnam. The organisation manages an annual sourcing capability in excess of US $3 billion and delivers a full suite of procurement services: sourcing, merchandising, packaging, quality assurance, quality control, and international supply chain management.

With sustainability and ethical sourcing as foundational commitments, the organisation partners with some of the world's most recognisable consumer brands, translating complex global supply chain demands into consistent, high-quality outcomes. It operates with the speed of a specialist boutique and the infrastructure of a global enterprise — a combination that creates unusual opportunity for leaders who thrive in dynamic, purpose-driven environments.

This is a business at an inflection point: investing in the systems, processes, and people required to lead its next phase of growth. The Director — Business Transformation & Operational Excellence is a direct product of that ambition.

The Role

Reporting to senior leadership, the Senior Manager will serve as the organisation's lead executor of operational change — responsible for designing, driving, and embedding a transformation agenda across its India operations. This is a hands-on mandate of genuine scope, carrying end-to-end accountability for a portfolio of strategic initiatives spanning process standardisation, digital transformation, and agile programme governance.

Four domains define the scope of the role:

Operational Standardisation. The Senior Manager will conduct a comprehensive review of existing processes, identify systemic gaps, and design and implement standardised SOPs across the business. Sustained adoption — through structured training, change management, and continuous feedback loops — is as important as the initial design.

Digital Transformation & SAP Implementation. A critical priority is the digitisation of the Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) function. The Senior Manager will identify transformation opportunities, lead the deployment and integration of SAP systems across relevant business units, and drive the cross-functional change required to ensure adoption. Post-go-live optimisation — not simply go-live — is the measure of success.

Agile Programme Governance. The Senior Manager will build capability within the project management community: enabling leads on agile methodologies, facilitating OKR-setting and sprint planning, supporting milestone governance, and coaching teams through delivery reviews. The objective is to raise the organisation's collective project maturity, not merely to manage individual workstreams.

End-to-End Project Ownership. The Senior Manager will personally own a portfolio of strategic projects — from business case development through to completion. This includes building project plans (scope, budget, timeline, stakeholder mapping), maintaining governance and communication disciplines, and escalating risks with structured mitigation strategies. Progress reporting to senior leadership will be a regular accountability.

The Candidate

The organisation seeks an experienced transformation professional with fifteen or more years of progressive experience in operations, programme management, or operational excellence — ideally within a sourcing, supply chain, or manufacturing environment of multinational complexity. The following profile describes the successful candidate:

– SAP Implementation Experience. Demonstrated experience leading SAP implementations end-to-end, including cross-functional deployment, system integration, and post-go-live stabilisation. Candidates without this experience will not be considered.

– Sourcing Process Expertise. Deep, hands-on familiarity with end-to-end sourcing processes, including costing methodologies, capacity planning systems, and day-to-day supplier operations.

– PLM & Digital Transformation. Proven track record of leading PLM digitisation programmes, with the ability to manage change across functions and geographies simultaneously.

– Methodology Rigour. Formal certification in project and process methodologies — PMP, Agile, Lean, or Six Sigma Green Belt — with evidence of applied organisational impact, not credential alone.

– Financial & Analytical Capability. Financial acumen sufficient to develop, defend, and communicate business cases; analytical rigour to translate complex operational data into actionable strategy.

– Communication & Influence. The ability to design and manage complex, multi-stakeholder projects, write compelling strategy papers and proposals, and communicate with credibility at both operating and executive levels.

In terms of personal character, the organisation is looking for someone who leads through influence as much as authority — someone who can build genuine capability in others, hold ambiguity with confidence, and bring both the discipline of a systems thinker and the pragmatism of an operator.

This is a role for a builder: someone who sees process not as constraint but as infrastructure, and who takes genuine satisfaction in the discipline of making complex, fast-moving organisations work better.