SAP Project & Release Manager

Soufiane Nourredine

S/4HANA transformation, release governance and production readiness — 20+ years of getting enterprise systems into production without losing the plot.

20+years in IT delivery

12major programmes

~40people coordinated

S/4HANARISE migration readiness

Profile

A project manager who stays until the system is actually running

IT Project Manager with 20+ years of experience leading projects, application deployments and coordinating business, functional and technical teams. Operational knowledge of SAP in international environments, with hands-on involvement in planning, deliverables tracking, risk and dependency management, testing/UAT, cutover, Go/No-Go decisions, production deployment and hypercare.

Acts as the bridge between business stakeholders, IT, SAP teams and system integrators. Pragmatic and results-oriented, focused on delivery milestones and deployment risk control. Contributed to preparation for the migration of an SAP environment to S/4HANA under RISE.

How I work

Pragmatic and delivery-focused

Anticipates risks and dependencies, facilitates decisions and protects key milestones with functional and technical teams.

Operational understanding of SAP cycles

Release governance, production readiness, testing/UAT, cutover, Go/No-Go and post-deployment follow-up.

Coordination at scale

Business, IT/SAP teams and offshore service centres; delivery organisations of up to ~40 people, and 200+ at BNP CIB.

Participative leadership

Defines objectives collaboratively with business teams, encourages contributor engagement and recognises collective achievements.

Core expertise

What I actually run

Project managementScoping, planning, milestones, deliverables, cross-team coordination, reporting, steering committees

SAP deployment & S/4HANA / RISEDeployment readiness, dependencies, cutover, Go/No-Go, go-live, hypercare, post-release stabilisation

Release & change governanceWeekly, monthly and urgent releases; release calendars; transport sequencing; change validation; production controls

Testing & readinessIntegration testing, UAT, defect tracking, pre-production and production readiness, approvals and evidence

Business / IT coordinationBusiness stakeholders, SAP teams, Basis, technical and integration teams, system integrators, offshore delivery

SAP & platformsSAP HR, SAP SD/MM, Solution Manager / ChaRM, Cloud ALM, Jira, Confluence, ServiceNow, CAB, Talend, Azure, BI, Agile/Scrum

Track record

Missions and what each one produced

Each entry lists the deliverables and artefacts the role was responsible for — not a list of job titles.

Kering France — SAP Project & Release Manager Lead

Feb 2025 — present

Coordinate SAP, project, Basis and integration teams; track changes in Jira and SAP Solution Manager / ChaRM and make risks, dependencies and actions visible.
Coordinate testing approvals and readiness across UAT, pre-production and production; contribute to cutover planning, incident follow-up and post-release stabilisation.
Contribute to preparation for the SAP-to-S/4HANA migration under RISE, tracking prerequisites, readiness, dependencies and cutover / go-live activities.
Produce readiness and delivery-quality KPIs and dashboards; facilitate communication with French and international stakeholders.
Lead SAP release governance, coordinating production preparation, readiness checks and Go/No-Go validations.
Orchestrate weekly, monthly and urgent releases, including content validation, transport sequencing, dependency checks and deployment coordination.

Release governanceRelease calendar, Go/No-Go pack, CAB decisions

S/4HANA RISEPrerequisites tracker, cutover & go-live runbook

ReadinessKPI dashboard, UAT & production sign-off evidence

StabilisationHypercare plan, incident follow-up log

Ahold Delhaize — SAP Project & Release Manager — HR / Integration

Feb 2023 — Dec 2024

Managed releases for SAP HR platforms (SuccessFactors, Payroll, LMS and Onboarding), coordinating project, IT and business teams.
Contributed to PI Planning and the release roadmap; coordinated build, testing and deployment activities with international and offshore teams.
Prepared production releases by validating deliverables, dependencies and readiness, and coordinating incident follow-up and post-release stabilisation.
Improved change governance and reporting through dashboards, KPIs, Confluence, lessons learned and CAB checkpoints.

Release roadmapPI plan, dependency map, release calendar

GovernanceCAB checkpoints, change validation rules

ReportingKPI dashboards, lessons-learned register

StabilisationPost-release review, incident trends

Dior — LVMH — Delivery & Release Manager — Dior.com

Sep 2021 — Feb 2023

Managed the release roadmap for an e-commerce replatforming programme covering approximately 35 application components; coordinated Front, Middle and Back teams and contributed to PI Planning.
Defined delivery and testing strategy; coordinated UAT, production readiness, cutover, communications, KPIs and incident retrospectives.

Delivery strategyTest strategy, UAT plan, acceptance criteria

CutoverGo-live plan, communication kit, rollback procedure

ProgrammeRoadmap for ~35 components, Front/Middle/Back coordination

Post-mortemIncident retrospectives, KPI reporting

CHANEL — IT Project Manager / Release Manager

Oct 2018 — Sep 2021

Led a Digital Asset Management IT project within the European digital ecosystem, coordinating deliveries, testing, production monitoring and rollouts.
Contributed to data migrations and mappings using Talend, Azure monitoring and API integrations.

Project deliveryDelivery plan, test plan, rollout schedule

DataMigration mappings (Talend), reconciliation controls

OperationsProduction monitoring (Azure), API integration spec

BEL Fromageries — IT Project Manager — Trade Promotion Management

Nov 2016 — Oct 2018

Led integration of a performance management solution with SAP SD/MM, JDA and CRM, coordinating business requirements and IT teams.
Tracked plans, deliverables, UAT, risks and changes, then coordinated go-live and post-deployment support.

IntegrationInterface spec SAP SD/MM · JDA · CRM, dependency map

RequirementsBusiness requirements catalogue, scope baseline

Go-liveUAT plan, cutover checklist, support model

Saint-Gobain — Agile Project Manager / Product Owner

Sep 2016 — Dec 2017

Managed an application project and acted as Product Owner for a Web / Mobile / SAP application, defining business workflows, coordinating IT and tracking KPIs.

ProductBacklog, user stories, business workflows

DeliverySprint plan, acceptance criteria, KPI tracking

SNCF — Project Manager / Scrum Master — BI / EPM

Jan 2015 — Sep 2016

Facilitated functional workshops, managed the backlog, scoped requirements and contributed to a proof of concept and implementation of a BI/EPM solution.

DiscoveryFunctional workshops, scoping note, POC

DeliveryBacklog, sprint ceremonies, implementation plan

Voyages-SNCF.com — Agile Project Manager / Release Manager

Apr 2014 — Dec 2015

Managed Web and Mobile releases (iOS / Android), coordinated cross-functional deliveries and led a team of more than 20 people.

ReleasesWeb & mobile release plan (iOS / Android), store submission calendar

TeamTeam of 20+, delivery rituals, cross-team coordination

BNP CIB — Release Manager / Project Manager — SWIFT / SEPA

May 2011 — Feb 2014

Managed releases and production deployments for Trade & Cash Management flows; coordinated a delivery organisation of more than 200 people.

ReleaseSWIFT / SEPA release calendar, production deployment plan

OrganisationDelivery organisation of 200+, coordination model

Sogecap · Banque de France · GEFCO · Orange · Arval · Developed Net Group — Project management, business analysis, ITIL production support

2004 — 2011

Project management, business analysis / functional analysis, SLA / ITIL, production incident follow-up and Java application development.

FoundationsFunctional specs, SLA reporting, incident follow-up

EngineeringJava application development

Credentials

Education, certifications, languages

EducationEngineering degree in Computer Systems, École Polytechnique de Nantes (2004)
DEUG MIAS (2001)

CertificationsITIL · PMP · SAFe (in progress)

LanguagesFrench and English fluent
German and Spanish basic

Work with me

A migration to rescue, a release train to get under control?

Available for SAP programme and release management missions — France, hybrid, or international. Tell me the constraint you are stuck on.

contact@nourredine.tech email S/4HANA field guide method