Change And Release Manager

Mohammed Al Barwani LLC (MB LLC) is a multinational group of companies with operations and subsidiaries in more than 20 countries across the Middle East, Europe, Africa, Asia, Asia-Pacific, and Australia. Established in 1982, MB LLC operates across diverse sectors including drilling & oilfield services, exploration & production of oil & gas, marine engineering, mining, manufacturing & trading, and strategic investments.

Today, MB Group employs more than 5,000 professionals representing 51 nationalities across four continents. Our continued growth and operational excellence are driven by strong governance, digital transformation, and our commitment to the highest standards of integrity, safety, and performance.

As part of our Group-wide SAP S/4HANA transformation journey, we are seeking a highly capable Change and Release Manager to join our SAP Centre of Excellence (CoE) and play a key role in strengthening operational excellence across the Group.

Purpose of the Position

The SAP Change & Release Manager governs the end-to-end change lifecycle across the Group-wide SAP S/4HANA single-instance environment.

The role ensures that all enhancements, configurations, technical developments, integrations, and fixes are properly controlled, tested, approved, and deployed in a structured and risk-managed manner.

Acting as the central control point for release planning, transport management, and production readiness, this position safeguards system stability while aligning business priorities with technical execution across a complex ERP landscape.

Key Responsibilities & Accountabilities

• Govern the full lifecycle of SAP change requests from initiation to production deployment, ensuring structured control and risk-managed execution.
• Lead and coordinate Change Advisory Board (CAB) processes, ensuring proper review, prioritization, and approval of all changes.
• Ensure compliance with documentation standards, testing protocols, risk assessments, and internal control requirements, including segregation of duties.
• Define and manage structured release cycles (monthly, quarterly, and emergency), aligning business priorities with technical readiness.
• Consolidate cross-module changes into controlled release bundles, coordinating transport sequencing and dependency alignment across the SAP landscape.
• Manage production cutover planning and ensure full go-live readiness for all deployments.
• Oversee SIT, UAT, and regression testing governance to safeguard quality before production movement.
• Coordinate transport management across DEV, QA, and PROD environments, ensuring proper version control and release traceability.
• Validate rollback strategies and contingency plans to protect system stability during critical deployments.
• Communicate release scope, risks, and business impact to stakeholders, publishing structured release notes and deployment summaries.
• Act as the central coordination point between functional, technical, integration, and business teams.
• Continuously enhance change governance maturity, monitor release KPIs, and support automation initiatives to improve efficiency and reduce operational risk.

Principal Challenges

• Managing complex cross-module dependencies within a single-instance SAP landscape serving multiple operating companies
• Balancing urgent business demands with system stability and governance controls
• Coordinating parallel enhancements across Finance, SCM, Operations, HR, and Analytics
• Preventing release conflicts and minimizing production disruption
• Maintaining audit compliance and strong internal controls while ensuring agility

Qualifications & Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Information Systems, Supply Chain, Operations Management, or related field
• Strong hands-on experience in structured SAP change and release governance frameworks
• Solid understanding of SAP S/4HANA landscape architecture (DEV/QA/PROD)
• SAP Activate certification and proven experience across fit-to-standard, testing, and deployment phases
• ITIL knowledge preferred; experience with SAP Cloud ALM or Solution Manager is an advantage
• 10+ years of SAP experience, with 3–5 years in Change/Release Management or ERP governance roles
• Proven experience managing releases in complex single-instance SAP environments
• Experience engaging with senior stakeholders and governance forums (CAB, SteerCo)
• Exposure to S/4HANA Private Cloud, CPI/BTP integrations, and major implementations is a plus