Company Overview
Through its Social Innovation Business that brings together IT, OT(Operational Technology) and products, Hitachi contributes to a harmonized society where the environment, wellbeing, and economic growth are in balance. Hitachi operates globally in four sectors – Digital Systems & Services, Energy, Mobility, and Connective Industries – and the Strategic SIB Business Unit for new growth businesses. With Lumada at its core, Hitachi generates value from integrating data, technology and domain knowledge to solve customer and social challenges.
Hitachi Europe Ltd is the regional head office for Hitachi Ltd and employs approximately 350 people in 13 countries across Europe. The Information Technology Group of Hitachi Europe Ltd is part of Hitachi’s shared service for EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) and responsible for delivery of IT services to Hitachi companies in our region.
What you’ll be doing
The Business Applications and Project Manager is responsible for the management, continuous improvement and delivery of business application services across the organisation. Reporting to the Head of Projects and Customer Solutions, this role ensures that key applications are reliable, fit for purpose, well governed and aligned to business priorities.
The role combines application management, project management, stakeholder engagement and people management, supporting the full application lifecycle from requirements gathering and solution design through to implementation, testing, release, support and ongoing optimisation.
Working closely with business stakeholders, internal IT teams, vendors and delivery partners, the Business Applications and Project Manager will translate business needs into practical technology outcomes, manage project plans, risks and dependencies, and ensure successful adoption of new or enhanced application capabilities. The role will also directly manage staff across the EDI and SAP Applications teams, ensuring effective workload management, team development and service delivery.
Key Responsibilities
- Manage and support the organisation’s portfolio of business applications, ensuring availability, usability and alignment with business requirements.
- Directly manage staff within the EDI and SAP Applications teams, providing leadership, coaching, performance support and day-to-day guidance.
- Lead application-related projects, including upgrades, enhancements, integrations, migrations and new system implementations.
- Work with stakeholders to gather requirements, define scope, agree priorities and translate business needs into clear delivery plans.
- Work closely with the G-AMO Support and Operations team ensuring effective communication and support between application process owners and remote support teams
- Manage project plans, milestones, risks, issues, budgets and dependencies, providing regular reporting to the Head of Projects and Customer Solutions.
- Oversee team workload, priorities and resource allocation across EDI and SAP Applications, ensuring operational support and project delivery commitments are met.
- Coordinate testing, user acceptance, release management, training and post-go-live support activities.
- Manage relationships with application vendors and third-party partners, including service performance, escalations and improvement plans.
- Identify opportunities for process improvement, standardisation, automation and better use of existing systems.
Benefits Package
Company Funded Benefits * Generous holiday entitlement - with the option to buy up to an additional 5 days per year * A Holiday Banking scheme allowing you to bank untaken holiday to use another year * Group Personal Pension * Private Medical Insurance with self-funded option to cover family members * Employee Assistance Programme available to all employees * Personal Accident Insurance
Voluntary Benefits (funded by employee) including; * Cycle To Work scheme * Gym Membership * Dental Insurance with option to include dependent children * Health screening * Dining card
Skills and Experience
- Minimum five years’ experience in application management and project management.
- Good understanding of business applications, enterprise systems and the corporate IT function.
- Experience managing application lifecycles, including support, change, testing, release and continuous improvement.
- Proven ability to deliver projects using structured project management methods; Agile, hybrid or waterfall experience desirable.
- Experience of working with ERP, CRM, workflow, reporting or other business-critical applications.
- Strong stakeholder management skills, with the ability to work across business, IT and supplier teams.
- Previous experience of directly managing, coaching or developing technical or application support teams.
- Strong knowledge of Microsoft 365 tools, particularly Excel, PowerPoint, Teams and SharePoint.
- Experience with SAP s/4 HANA or similar ERP platforms would be advantageous.
- Relevant project management or service management qualification, such as PRINCE2, PMP, Agile, Scrum or ITIL, would be beneficial.
Competencies
- Delivery focused, organised and able to manage multiple priorities.
- Strong communicator who can engage confidently with technical and non-technical stakeholders.
- Analytical and practical problem solver with attention to detail.
- Customer focused, with a strong understanding of business impact and service quality.
- Confident people manager who can motivate teams, set clear expectations and support professional development.
- Collaborative team player who can work effectively across departments, regions and supplier teams.
- Proactive, adaptable and committed to continuous improvement.
