Role Purpose:

Project: Payroll Transformation Program

Location: Melbourne (Hybrid)

Reports to: Program Manager

Duration: 4 Months The Cutover and Transition Lead will own and lead the end-to-end cutover and transition activities for a major Payroll Transformation Program, with explicit accountability for cutover execution and formal go/no-go recommendations.

The role will ensure a controlled, low-risk transition from legacy payroll platforms to SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central Payroll (ECP) , including go-live readiness, hypercare, and business-as-usual (BAU) handover. The position will coordinate delivery across implementation partners, vendors, and internal teams, while delegating execution activities where appropriate to minimise dependency on a single individual.

Key Responsibilities:

Cutover Planning and Governance

- Act as the single point of accountability for the integrated cutover strategy, plan, and runbook.
- Manage sequencing, dependencies, readiness criteria, contingency planning, escalation processes, and go/no-go recommendations to governance forums.
- Ensure alignment across business, technology, implementation partners, and vendor workstreams.

Business Readiness and Go-Live Coordination

- Lead business and technical readiness activities for go-live, including environment readiness, production access, approvals, interfaces, and support activation.
- Work closely with the implementation partner, vendors, and internal teams to manage defects, risks, and readiness activities.
- Support governance decision-making through clear readiness assessments and recommendations.

Data Migration and Deployment Readiness

- Coordinate final data migration, deployment, reconciliation, and sign-off activities across Employee Central (EC), Employee Central Payroll (ECP), integrations, and downstream systems.
- Monitor critical-path activities and proactively manage risks or delays that may impact go-live readiness.
- Partner with implementation and support teams to ensure successful deployment outcomes.

Transition to BAU and Hypercare





- Lead transition and handover activities to BAU operations, including hypercare mobilisation, support governance, and escalation management.
- Ensure operational readiness through documentation, knowledge transfer, support model establishment, and clear ownership across all support teams.
- Define and manage exit criteria for hypercare and enable a sustainable transition to BAU with minimal reliance on implementation partners.

Stakeholder Management and Reporting

- Provide central coordination across all cutover and transition workstreams.
- Engage effectively with business leaders, project teams, implementation partners, and vendors.
- Deliver concise, executive-ready reporting on status, risks, issues, decisions, dependencies, and overall readiness.

Required Skills & Experience:

- Proven experience leading cutover and transition activities for large-scale HR, payroll, ERP, or SAP transformation programs.
- Strong experience with SAP Payroll and/or SAP SuccessFactors, ideally including Employee Central Payroll (ECP) and related integrations.
- Demonstrated success managing complex go-live planning involving multiple vendors, business stakeholders, and technology workstreams.
- Experience coordinating data migration cutover activities, production deployments, business readiness, and hypercare support.
- Strong understanding of governance, risk management, dependency management, release planning, and enterprise program delivery.
- Experience operating in highly controlled environments where payroll continuity, data quality, compliance, and operational readiness are critical.

Ways of Working / Competencies:

- Strong collaborator and team player, willing to support broader program objectives as required.
- Outcomes-focused and detail-oriented, with the ability to make informed decisions under pressure.
- Strong stakeholder engagement and communication skills across business and technology audiences.
- Proactive problem solver with a disciplined approach to risk identification and mitigation.
- Committed to sustainable delivery outcomes with a solid emphasis on operational stability and risk reduction.

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