Summary
HCLTech is seeking a Senior SAP MES Lead for an on-site role in Abu Dhabi supporting a defence-sector organization. The role leads SAP application management services, production support, SAP–MES integration, incident and change governance, and service improvement for a manufacturing environment. Applicants should have 15–18 years of SAP experience, including at least 7 years with MES, and a relevant bachelor’s degree; professional English is required and Arabic is advantageous. The role requires availability for scheduled or emergency support outside standard hours and eligibility for customer security screening and access authorization.
The posting
As published on hcltech.com. Pulled from the employer's site and shown as they wrote it.
Job Summary
Experience: 15–18 years Engagement: SAP Application Management Services (AMS) Customer: Defence-sector organization Location: United Arab Emirates (UAE) Role Type: Senior Technical-Functional Leadership Role Summary We are seeking an accomplished Senior SAP Lead with deep Manufacturing Execution System (MES) expertise to lead application management, production support, technical governance, and continuous improvement for a mission-critical SAP landscape. The role will own stable and secure integration between SAP S/4HANA or ECC and SAP or third-party MES platforms, ensuring production continuity, traceability, data integrity, controlled change, and measurable service performance within a highly regulated defence environment. Key Responsibilities Lead end-to-end SAP AMS delivery for manufacturing and MES-integrated processes, covering incidents, service requests, problems, changes, minor enhancements, releases, and operational improvements. Act as the senior design authority for integration across SAP S/4HANA or ECC, MES, shop-floor equipment, middleware, quality systems, warehouse systems, and other operational technology applications. Own critical incident resolution and major incident management, including business impact assessment, technical triage, stakeholder communication, workaround definition, root-cause analysis, and prevention plans. Direct Level 2 and Level 3 support teams; establish support procedures, knowledge articles, escalation paths, shift coverage, resource plans, and technical quality standards. Ensure reliable exchange of production orders, routings, bills of material, work instructions, confirmations, material consumption, goods movements, quality results, equipment status, labor data, serialization, and genealogy records. Review and approve solution designs, functional and technical specifications, integration mappings, custom developments, interfaces, test evidence, deployment plans, and rollback procedures. Lead proactive monitoring, performance tuning, interface reconciliation, batch-job governance, defect elimination, problem management, and automation of repetitive support activities. Coordinate with production, engineering, quality, supply chain, warehouse, cybersecurity, infrastructure, Basis, development, integration, and vendor teams. Maintain SLA and KPI performance, including availability, response and resolution time, backlog aging, change success rate, repeat-incident reduction, interface reliability, and service improvement benefits. Support disaster recovery, business continuity, audit readiness, access reviews, segregation of duties, vulnerability remediation, patching, and evidence retention. Manage service reviews, risk and issue registers, capacity planning, demand prioritization, release calendars, and executive reporting. Mentor consultants, improve cross-functional capability, and serve as the primary escalation point for complex SAP manufacturing and MES issues. SAP and MES Expertise Strong expertise in SAP manufacturing processes, with hands-on knowledge of SAP PP, PP-PI, MM, QM, PM, EWM or WM, and their integration with MES. Deep experience with SAP Manufacturing Execution, SAP Digital Manufacturing, SAP MII, or leading third-party MES products. Proven design and support experience for discrete, repetitive, or complex manufacturing processes, including production execution, work-in-progress, quality inspection, nonconformance, rework, traceability, serialization, and as-built records. Strong knowledge of SAP–MES integration using IDocs, BAPIs, RFCs, APIs, web services, OData, event or message-based interfaces, SAP Integration Suite, SAP Process Integration or Process Orchestration, or equivalent middleware. Ability to diagnose failures across SAP application, middleware, MES, databases, network, and shop-floor or operational technology layers. Working knowledge of custom ABAP developments, enhancements, forms, workflows, Fiori applications
Key Responsibilities
Experience with IT service management and monitoring platforms such as ServiceNow, SAP Solution Manager, SAP Cloud ALM, or equivalent tools.
Defence-Sector and Security Responsibilities
Operate in accordance with customer security policies, approved data-classification rules, least-privilege access, secure administration, and need-to-know principles.
Ensure all changes are traceable, authorized, tested, documented, and supported by complete audit evidence.
Support compliance with applicable UAE Information Assurance, data-protection, cybersecurity, export-control, and customer-mandated defence requirements.
Apply secure-development and secure-integration practices, including privileged-access controls, encryption, logging, monitoring, vulnerability management, and controlled movement of data between enterprise and operational technology zones.
Respect restrictions on data residency, remote access, removable media, offshore support, production-system connectivity, and disclosure of sensitive information.
Be willing and eligible to undergo customer background verification, security screening, and access authorization as required.
Required Qualifications and Experience
Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Computer Science, Information Systems, Manufacturing, or a related discipline.
15–18 years of SAP experience, including substantial leadership responsibility in manufacturing-focused implementation, support, or AMS engagements.
At least 7 years of strong MES-related experience, including SAP–MES architecture, integration, production support, and improvement programs.
Demonstrated experience leading complex, business-critical SAP AMS services with distributed teams and multiple vendors.
Strong understanding of ITIL practices, service governance, major incident management, problem management, change control, release management, and continual service improvement.
Experience supporting high-availability manufacturing operations and working directly with plant, engineering, quality, and operational technology stakeholders.
Excellent analytical, communication, documentation, negotiation, and senior stakeholder-management skills.
Professional proficiency in English; Arabic capability is advantageous.
Ability to work on-site in the UAE and provide scheduled or emergency support outside standard business hours when required.
Preferred Credentials
SAP certification in S/4HANA Manufacturing, Production Planning, Digital Manufacturing, Manufacturing Execution, or a related area.
ITIL 4 Foundation or higher certification.
Certification or practical exposure in architecture, integration, project management, information security, or operational technology security.
Prior experience with defence, aerospace, aviation, regulated engineering, or critical-infrastructure customers in the UAE or wider GCC.
Experience with controlled manufacturing, configuration management, serial-number governance, product genealogy, maintenance, calibration, and stringent quality documentation.
Key Success Measures
Stable and secure SAP–MES operations with minimal production disruption.
Consistent achievement of agreed SLA, availability, incident, problem, and change-management targets.
Reduction in repeat incidents, interface failures, manual reconciliations, and support backlog.
Improved production traceability, transaction accuracy, audit readiness, and stakeholder satisfaction.
Timely delivery of approved enhancements and measurable continual-service-improvement outcomes.