Director SAP S4 Release Technology - PMO

Welcome to Warner Bros. Discovery… the stuff dreams are made of. Who We Are… When we say, “the stuff dreams are made of,” we’re not just referring to the world of wizards, dragons and superheroes, or even to the wonders of Planet Earth. Behind WBD’s vast portfolio of iconic content and beloved brands, are the storytellers bringing our characters to life, the creators bringing them to your living rooms and the dreamers creating what’s next… From brilliant creatives, to technology trailblazers, across the globe, WBD offers career defining opportunities, thoughtfully curated benefits, and the tools to explore and grow into your best selves. Here you are supported, here you are celebrated, here you can thrive. Your New Role : The WBD S4 ERP implementation is a large-scale M&A initiative that benefits the entire company and is supported via the Integration Management Office (IMO). The APAC wave spans 12 countries and 26 legal entities. The APAC Technology PMO Lead will be the technology primary point of contact in region for S/4 Compass project, responsible for overseeing the planning, coordination, and execution of ERP software deployments and releases within the technology team. Your primary focus is to ensure that releases are deployed smoothly, on time, and with minimal disruption to the business. You will work closely with program PMO and is accountable to core PMO and Functional areas within technology, the tech project manager will oversight, manage risks, issues, escalation and logistics coordination for international releases. Provide overall support to local deployment activities including technology build, testing, cutover and deployment activities. Facilitate the integration of business and technical cutover plans. Your Role Accountabilities: Deployment:

• Lead the technology program office for regional release deployment, including overseeing code releases, system configurations, data migrations, and other technical aspects of the deployment process. Ensuring that all deployment activities are carried out according to the plan.
• Support the activities post integration testing to complete the go live.
• Assist the project team and local users in ensuring Business Readiness go-live regionally. Ensure execution of the business cutover plan for assigned location.
• Act as regional command center lead during go-live activities and central point of contact for facilitating go-live issue resolution.
• Facilitate overall assessment of Go-live Readiness deliverables.
• Provides Input into deployment planning and approach including specific country considerations.
• Coordinates regional activities for deployment including working with multiple teams for logistics, connectivity and country readiness.
• Overall ownership of technology status reporting including issue escalation and resolution point of contact in region.
• Assist in developing and executing a deployment methodology for rolling out technology release for WBD activities including boundary systems and business cutover activities.
• Provide support during the deployment workstreams, SIT, UAT, Training and Go-live.
• Collaborate with the Business Release lead to define the business cutover plan ensuring Business Readiness go-live.
• Provide On-Site support during stabilization of the Regional Go-live.
• Build & execute technology deployment plans and defined regional command center approach.
• Ensuring all local cutover activities are defined from the detailed cutover runbooks to the wider communications (internal and external).
• Manage APAC technology hyper care support and facilitate transition to run state operations.
• Execute APAC command center approach, schedule, and defined interaction model for a multi-location roll-out.

Testing

• Work with Testing team, support technology in Systems Integration Testing and User Acceptance testing during the local time zone.
• Collaborate with Testing Lead to support SIT and UAT to regional users.
• Support the definition of key local scenarios and variants used in Data Migration, UAT (e2e testing).
• Support all local streams (Business and IT) in all aspects of boundary system integration.
• Work with integrator and Testing lead for the definition of local test scope/strategy.
• Provide technology support for local teams for testing, documentation, and defect management.
• Ensure defects are documented, progressed, and escalated across the streams.
• Support UAT for APAC, ensuring that any medium defects have workarounds defined and that resolution dates are known.
• Primary liaison between the business and the technology team to resolve issues and defects.
• Coordinate Test execution within time zone working closely with the Testing Lead.
• Manage local logistics of test execution.
• Expedite and escalate defects as required.
• Align system readiness for boundary systems.

Project Management

• Leading and mentoring a team of deployment specialists, providing guidance on best practices, and ensuring that the team is adequately trained and equipped to support successful ERP deployments.
• Maintaining detailed records of all release activities, including deployment plans, risk logs, change requests, and issue resolution documentation. Providing reports on release performance and metrics.
• Serving as the primary point of contact for release-related activities, providing clear communication to stakeholders about release schedules, status updates, risks, and issues. Coordinating with cross-functional teams to ensure a unified approach to releases.
• Ensuring that all release activities adhere to internal policies, industry standards, and regulatory requirements. Implementing governance frameworks to manage the release process effectively.
• Provide status of key deliverables, raise issues, follow-up to completion and appropriate escalation to core project team.
• Ensure timely completion of tasks, maintaining project timeline and target dates.
• Conduct APAC meetings in collaboration with Core PMO and functional teams.
• Ensure execution of project change control process to understand additions to project scope while working with Core project team.
• Identify and evaluate the risks associated with project activities and take appropriate action to mitigate the risks.
• Drive completion of local/regional specific deliverables.
• Communication and Coordination: Serving as the primary point of contact for release-related activities, providing clear communication to stakeholders about release schedules, status updates, risks, and issues. Coordinating with cross-functional teams to ensure a unified approach to releases. Ensure excellent communication between core and local test teams.
• Support all local streams (Business and technology).
• Support functional teams as they define the local requirements, plans, and execution.
• Coordinate the local dependencies between business, IT, data (including data remediation).
• Conducting release readiness assessments to ensure that all prerequisites, such as testing, approvals, and documentation, are completed before deployment. Collaborating with QA teams to validate that the system is ready for release, including the readiness and Go/No-Go assessments.
• Ensure the Ramp-Up plan is in place and support ramp-up reporting/status.
• Maintain post go-live issue log.
• Report to Core Cutover to ensure all framework activities are aligned and to ensure cutovers are coordinated across the deployment.

Qualifications & Experiences:

• Bachelor’s or equivalent years of experience required
• Information Technology - Preferred

• 10-12 years of experience leading large transformation project management office operations for global deployments
• 2+ years of prior experience in a related field (media, entertainment plus)
• Extensive direct experience with SAP implementation and deployments.
• Experience with complex cutover plans and project plans; must have brought live complex functionality from many source systems.
• Excellent analytical skills, attention to detail, and good project management capabilities.
• Based in APAC Region
• Travel required
• Experience in coordinating and managing tasks across teams and across systems.
• Experience implementing international systems is highly desirable.
• International travel will be required.
• May require flexible schedules including on-call requirement to support live-site and international releases as needed.

Not Required but preferred experience:

• MBA
• 1+ years of post-MBA experience in a related field (entertainment or entertainment)
• Knowledge of and passion for media, entertainment, and technology industries (including key players, growth trends and drivers, new media models, industry structure, etc.)
• Experience working in a national or global company.
• Comfortable in working in a highly iterative and somewhat unstructured environment.
• Excellent communication skills.
• Ability to work in a matrixed environment.
• Knowledge of current WBD systems and business processes (across divisions), business applications architecture and current systems is preferred.

How We Get Things Done… This last bit is probably the most important! Here at WBD, our guiding principles are the core values by which we operate and are central to how we get things done. You can find them at along with some insights from the team on what they mean and how they show up in their day to day. We hope they resonate with you and look forward to discussing them during your interview. Championing Inclusion at WBD Warner Bros. Discovery embraces the opportunity to build a workforce that reflects the diversity of our society and the world around us. Being an equal opportunity employer means that we take seriously our responsibility to consider qualified candidates on the basis of merit, regardless of sex, gender identity, ethnicity, age, sexual orientation, religion or belief, marital status, pregnancy, parenthood, disability or any other category protected by law. If you’re a qualified candidate with a disability and you require adjustments or accommodations during the job application and/or recruitment process, please visit our accessibility page for instructions to submit your request. #J-18808-Ljbffr