Lead planning, improvement and implementation of global IT governance across the Nikon Group. The role covers IT Gate management, stakeholder collaboration, project launch and operational improvement, requiring 5+ years of IT and systems development experience.
About this role
This full-time position leads the renewal of core production systems based at Nikon headquarters and the Innovation Center in Shinagawa, Tokyo. The role drives SAP S/4HANA projects for production subsidiaries in Europe and the Americas from the Japan headquarters perspective. Responsibilities include organizing requirements for production management, procurement, inventory and cost management; conducting Fit & Gap analysis and To-Be design; defining business and system policies based on global standards and overall optimization; and coordinating issues, decisions, progress, quality and risks with headquarters and overseas stakeholders in English.
The position also supports project governance and QCD management for core-system renewal and related system implementations. After go-live, the role contributes to stable operation, user adoption, continuous improvement, standardization, and planning for deployment to additional sites. It includes reviewing and consolidating peripheral systems such as MES and WMS. The role is not focused on SAP configuration or development; it determines what should be standardized and how the global rollout should proceed, while supporting business-side decision-making. Business travel to sites in Europe and the Americas may occur.
Required qualifications include practical experience equivalent to a project manager, project leader or domain leader in an SAP S/4HANA core-system renewal or implementation project. This includes experience in upstream or middle phases such as requirements analysis, requirements definition, Fit & Gap, design and design reviews, as well as experience independently making decisions, coordinating stakeholders and moving an assigned area forward. Candidates must understand production-related business processes in manufacturing, with a main focus on production management, procurement and inventory, or cost management, and be able to explain the broader logistics workflow, organize business issues and make proposals. Practical experience conducting meetings, issue analysis, coordination, consensus building or design reviews in English with overseas sites, members or vendors in Europe or the Americas is required. Experience controlling, coordinating or otherwise leading overseas-site projects from a headquarters position is also required.
Preferred experience includes SAP S/4HANA implementation across multiple modules such as PP, MM and CO; global deployment across multiple countries or sites; involvement from requirements definition through production launch and hypercare; integration design or consolidation of peripheral production systems such as MES and WMS; and practical experience with IT standards, IT governance, license management or company-wide IT controls.
The production and procurement systems team has 16 members, including seven career hires, with an average age of 41. The position is part of the IT Solutions Headquarters and the Enterprise Systems Department. Nikon's business is the manufacture and sale of optical instruments. Remote work is available; the home-working utilization rate is 30 percent.
The probationary period is three months.
The work environment permits flextime, and remote work is available; the stated home-working utilization rate is 30 percent and paid-leave utilization is 50 percent.
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