INSPIRE | EXHILARATE | DELIGHT

For over seven decades, Chalhoub Group has been a partner and creator of luxury experiences in the Middle East. In its pursuit to excel as a hybrid luxury retailer, the Group has curated a portfolio of over 10 owned brands and strengthened its distribution and marketing expertise for over 400 international names across luxury fashion, beauty, jewellery, watches, eyewear, and art de vivre categories.

Every step at Chalhoub Group is taken to build a future where luxury dreams become reality — bridging cultures and crafting memorable experiences for our consumers. Be it by constantly reinventing itself, committing to innovation, or embracing new technologies, the Group is shaping the future of luxury retail. It delivers seamless omnichannel experiences across more than 950 stores, online platforms, and mobile apps. Driving this innovation journey is The Greenhouse — the Group’s innovation hub, incubator, and accelerator for startups and emerging businesses, regionally and globally.

Chalhoub Group fosters a people-at-heart culture rooted in diversity, equity, and inclusion, and a workplace catalysed by forward thinking and future-proofing. Today, it brings together over 16,000 talented professionals across eight countries in the Middle East, with a presence in LATAM. Their collective efforts have earned the Group the Great Place to Work® certification in several markets.

Sustainability is at the core of the Group’s strategy, guided by a clear commitment to people, partners, and the planet. Chalhoub Group is proud to be a member of the United Nations Global Compact, a signatory of the Women’s Empowerment Principles, and to have pledged to reach Net Zero by 2040.
Role Overview

You will be responsible for providing technical leadership and ensuring the successful implementation of the Release Management, Cutover and Environment Management horizontal stream of the Transformation program

You will take the lead on planning, execution, and governance of all ERP system releases, ensuring smooth deployment across SAP environments and minimizing business disruption. In this role, the Lead will work with our System Integrator to develop and execute a detailed cutover plan, managing the transition from legacy systems to SAP ERP, including dry runs, mock cutovers, and go-live activities.

What you'll be doing  

All of the below are assumed to be in collaboration/cooperation with the System Integrator:

Release Planning & Strategy:

• Develop and manage a comprehensive release strategy and schedule for the ERP transformation, ensuring alignment with project timelines and business objectives.

• Coordinate with horizontal streams teams (e.g., integration, testing) as well as functional streams to plan, scope, and prioritize releases effectively.

• Develop and manage a strategy for handling SAP transports across different system layers (Development, Quality Assurance, Production) to ensure smooth migration of configuration changes, code updates, and other objects.

Release & Transport Planning & Governance:

• Establish and maintain governance processes for managing releases, ensuring that all changes, updates, and deployments follow approved procedures and meet quality standards.

• Ensure that release risks are identified, documented, and mitigated, including potential impacts on business operations.

• Define clear processes for transport requests, approvals, and tracking to ensure that all transports are controlled and properly documented.

• Coordinate with SAP functional and technical teams to ensure the timely and accurate movement of transports between the various SAP environments (e.g., Development, Test, Production).

• Work closely with SAP Basis teams to schedule and manage transport imports, ensuring minimal disruption to ongoing operations or testing activities.

Release Execution & Coordination:

• Oversee the execution of all ERP system releases, from development to production, ensuring smooth and timely delivery.

• Ensure all transport requests are properly tested in non-production environments (e.g., Quality Assurance) before being promoted to production, minimizing risks of errors or system disruptions.

• Collaborate with functional leads to validate that the content of each transport aligns with business requirements and does not negatively impact other system components.

• Collaborate with business and IT stakeholders to coordinate the release of new functionality, system upgrades, and patches.

Post-Release Support & Monitoring:

• Ensure effective post-release monitoring and support, identifying and resolving any issues that arise post-deployment.

• Maintain oversight of transport logs and system alerts to proactively identify and address any issues that arise during transport movements.

• Provide regular reporting on transport activities, including success rates, errors, and potential risks, to project leadership and stakeholders.

• Work with technical teams to implement roll-back strategies if needed, minimizing disruption to the business.

Cutover Strategy Development:

• Lead the development of a detailed cutover plan to transition from legacy systems to the new SAP ERP system.

• Define clear roles, responsibilities, and timelines for all stakeholders involved in the cutover process.

Cross-System Coordination:

• Collaborate with functional leads, IT teams, and external vendors to ensure that all systems and data are properly aligned during the cutover.

• Ensure that key integration points between legacy and SAP systems are identified and effectively managed.

Testing & Simulation:

• Manage dry runs and mock cutovers to validate the cutover plan, ensuring the team is prepared for the live cutover.

• Identify potential risks or issues during testing and work with relevant teams to implement solutions ahead of the actual cutover.

Go-Live Cutover Execution:

• Oversee the live cutover process, ensuring that all systems are transitioned smoothly with minimal disruption to business operations.

• Coordinate with data migration teams, technical teams, and business units to ensure data integrity and system functionality during and after the cutover.

Environment Strategy & Planning:

• Develop and maintain an environment management strategy, ensuring that all system environments (e.g., development, testing, staging, production) are properly managed and aligned with the project timeline.

• Plan and manage the provisioning, configuration, and maintenance of environments required for the ERP system.

Environment Setup & Configuration:

• Oversee the setup, configuration, and management of test environments, ensuring they mirror production systems and are connected to external testing systems as required.

• Ensure environments are updated with the correct data and configurations in preparation for testing, integration, and release.

Environment Monitoring & Maintenance:

• Monitor the usage and performance of all ERP environments to ensure they are functioning as expected and are available for testing and development activities.

• Troubleshoot any environment-related issues, ensuring minimal disruption to testing and release schedules.

Environment Access Management:

• Manage user access to the various ERP environments, ensuring that only authorized personnel have access to development, testing, and production environments.

• Ensure proper audit trails and controls are in place to manage access, changes, and usage across environments.

Stakeholder Communication:

• Act as the central point of communication between technical teams, business stakeholders, and external vendors regarding releases, cutover activities, and environment management.

• Provide regular status updates and reports on release readiness, cutover progress, and environment status to project leadership and stakeholders.

• Identify and manage risks and issues related to releases, cutover, and environment management, ensuring timely resolution or escalation as needed.

• Develop and implement mitigation plans to minimize the impact

What you’ll need to succeed  

• Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology, Business Administration, or a related field.

• Relevant certifications (e.g., PMP, ITIL, ERP certifications) is a plus

• Minimum of 8-10 years of experience in technology implementation and management.

• Strong understanding of business processes and how they are supported by ERP systems.

• Experience working with ERP and enterprise systems is mandatory, in design, deployment, Release Management, Cutover and Environment Management and support

• Experience working with SAP is MANDATORY, and ideally with S/4 HANA versions

• Prior demonstrated experience of working with SAP Basis / Transports and Environment Management

• Experience managing large hybrid teams comprised of internal and external resources

• Experience managing external vendors to a budget / target and ensuring close scope management

• Strong stakeholder management

• Ability to manage resistance and operational disruption

• Solution-oriented mindset

• Strong communication and negotiation skills

What we can offer you  

With us, you will turn your aspirations into reality.  We will help shape your journey through enriching experiences, learning and development opportunities and exposure to different assignments within your role or through internal mobility. Our Group offers diverse career paths for those who are extraordinary, every day.  

We recognise the value that you bring, and we strive to provide a competitive benefits package which includes health care, child education contribution, remote and flexible working policies as well as exclusive employee discounts.  

We Invite All Applicants to Apply

It Takes Diversity Of Thought, Culture, Background, Differing Abilities and Perspectives to truly Inspire, Exhilarate and Delight our customers. At Chalhoub Group, we are committed to inclusion and diversity.

We welcome all applicants to apply and be part of our exciting future. We ensure equal opportunity for all our applicants without regard to gender, age, race, religion, national origin or disability status.