SAP Archiving & ILM Manager (Permanent)

SAP Archiving & Information Lifecycle Management (ILM) Manager

The role

As an SAP Archiving & ILM Manager, you will lead the design and delivery of enterprise-scale SAP data archiving and Information Lifecycle Management solutions.
This is a specialist, hands-on leadership role combining deep SAP Archiving/ILM expertise with solution architecture, regulatory data-management knowledge, client advisory and team leadership.
You will work within the SAP Digital Content Services (DCS) team and help clients manage the life cycle of their SAP data while balancing regulatory retention requirements, system performance, data privacy and infrastructure costs.
You will work across complex SAP S/4HANA and ECC landscapes and may integrate SAP ILM with technologies such as JiVS, OpenText InfoArchive, SAP Content Server and other external/cloud storage solutions.

What you will do

Lead SAP Archiving & ILM solution design

You will:

• Lead the design and implementation of enterprise SAP Data Archiving and ILM strategies.
• Assess clients' SAP data volumes, business requirements and regulatory obligations to determine appropriate archiving and retention approaches.
• Design archiving strategies for both transactional and master data across modules such as FI, CO, MM, SD and HR.
• Configure and oversee SAPILM capabilities, including:
  • Retention Management
  • Residence Rules
  • Legal Hold
  • Data deletion/destruction
• Implement or integrate alternative archiving and ILM technologies where appropriate.
• Design integration between SAP and external archive, content-management, storage and cloud platforms.

Data retention, privacy and compliance

You will:

• Translate defined GDPR, data privacy and regulatory retention requirements into SAP ILM solutions.
• Define and implement technical retention rules and data-deletion workflows.
• Implement legal-hold capabilities that prevent relevant data from being deleted when required.
• Design audit trails and evidence supporting compliant retention and deletion processes.
• Work closely with Security, Compliance, Legal and business stakeholders when translating policies into technical solutions.

You are not expected to act as legal counsel; you are expected to understand regulatory data-retention concepts and implement the appropriate technical controls in SAP.

System performance and data-volume management

You will:

• Analyse SAP database growth and data-volume patterns.
• Identify SAP tables and Business Objects that are appropriate candidates for archiving.
• Recommend archiving strategies that improve system performance and control database growth.
• Support SAP HANA and traditional database environments.
• Monitor archiving jobs and processes.
• Diagnose bottlenecks, failures and performance issues.
• Continuously improve archiving operations and processes.

Integration and technical delivery

You will:

• Implement SAP Archiving and ILM solutions across SAP S/4HANA and ECC environments.
• Support SAP Business Suite on HANA and hybrid/cloud landscapes where applicable.
• Work with SAP Basis, Security, functional teams and external platform specialists.
• Ensure archiving and retention solutions operate correctly across relevant business processes and SAP modules.
• Develop and execute functional, technical and compliance-focused test scenarios.
• Support implementation, cutover and operational handover.

Team and client leadership

You will:

• Lead SAP Archiving/ILM workstreams and take ownership of their successful delivery.
• Lead client workshops covering archiving strategy, retention requirements and solution design.
• Advise IT, business, security and compliance stakeholders on SAP Archiving and ILM.
• Coordinate with Business Process Owners and technical teams.
• Review the quality of project deliverables.
• Create and review solution designs, configuration documentation and operational runbooks.
• Deliver training and knowledge-transfer sessions to client teams.
• Lead, coach and mentor junior consultants.

What we are looking for

Essential experience and skills

You should have:

• At least 7 years of professional experience working in SAP environments.
• At least 3 years specifically focused on SAP Data Archiving and Information Lifecycle Management (ILM).
• Proven experience delivering end-to-end SAP ILM implementations in large enterprise environments.
• Strong hands-on knowledge of SAP Data Archiving and SAP ILM.
• Practical experience implementing:
  • Retention Management
  • Residence Rules
  • Legal Hold
  • Retention/deletion processes
• Strong knowledge of SAP S/4HANA and/or ECC data structures relevant to data archiving.
• Experience designing archiving strategies across multiple SAP modules and business processes.
• Experience implementing legal-hold and audit-compliant data-deletion processes.
• Strong understanding of GDPR, data privacy and regulatory data-retention principles.
• Experience translating business or regulatory retention requirements into technical SAP solutions.
• Experience working with technical stakeholders such as SAP Basis, Security and infrastructure teams.
• Experience leading project/workstream delivery and guiding more junior team members.
• Strong client-facing, workshop and stakeholder-management skills.
• Professional fluency in English.

Technology experience

Strong expertise should be centred on:

• SAP Data Archiving
• SAP Information Lifecycle Management (ILM)
• SAP S/4HANA
• SAP ECC

Experience with the following wider archiving ecosystem is particularly valuable:

• JiVS
• OpenText InfoArchive
• SAP Content Server
• External archive/content-management platforms
• Cloud-based storage and archive solutions

Candidates do not necessarily need hands-on expertise across every third-party technology listed. The core requirement is deep SAP Archiving and ILM expertise combined with the ability to design and lead enterprise-scale solutions.

Experience that is advantageous

The following would strengthen your profile:

• Experience with JiVS.
• Experience with OpenText InfoArchive.
• Experience with SAP Content Server.
• Experience integrating SAP ILM with cloud or third-party archive platforms.
• Experience working in highly regulated industries such as:
  • Financial services
  • Pharmaceutical/life sciences
  • Utilities
• SAP or SAP ILM certifications.
• ISO 27001 or related information-security knowledge/certification.
• Experience across both SAP ECC and S/4HANA transformation environments.
• Professional knowledge of French and/or Dutch.

What success looks like at Manager level

At Manager level, you should be able to:

• Own the ILM workstream: Take responsibility for the design and successful delivery of an enterprise SAP Archiving/ILM solution.
• Remain technically credible: Have enough hands-on expertise to design solutions, challenge technical decisions and help solve complex implementation problems.
• Define the strategy: Determine what should be archived, retained or deleted and translate the agreed business/regulatory rules into an appropriate technical approach.
• Understand compliance: Understand how requirements such as retention, data privacy, legal hold and auditable deletion translate into SAP ILM functionality.
• Understand SAP data: Know how SAP data structures and Business Objects affect archiving decisions across S/4HANA and ECC.
• Advise clients: Confidently explain options, risks and recommendations to business, IT, security and compliance stakeholders.
• Lead delivery: Coordinate multiple functional and technical stakeholders and maintain the quality of the overall solution.
• Develop others: Review the work of junior consultants, coach them and develop their SAP Archiving/ILM expertise.

This role is best suited to an experienced SAP Archiving and ILM specialist who has already delivered end-to-end ILM implementations and is ready to combine deep technical expertise with solution leadership, client advisory and team management.