Senior Programme Lead – One Payroll (SAP S/4HANA)

DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS

16 August 2026-23:59-GMT+01:00 Central European Time (Rome)

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ABOUT WFP
The World Food Programme is the world’s largest humanitarian organization saving lives in emergencies and using food assistance to build a pathway to peace, stability and prosperity, for people recovering from conflict, disasters and the impact of climate change.

At WFP, people are at the heart of everything we do and the vision of the future WFP workforce is one of diverse, committed, skilled, and high performing teams, selected on merit, operating in a healthy and inclusive work environment, living WFP's values (Integrity, Collaboration, Commitment, Humanity, and Inclusion) and working with partners to save and change the lives of those WFP serves.
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WHY JOIN WFP?

• WFP is a 2020 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate.
• WFP offers a highly inclusive, diverse, and multicultural working environment.
• WFP invests in the personal & professional development of its employees through a range of training, accreditation, coaching, mentorship, and other programs as well as through internal mobility opportunities.
• A career path in WFP provides an exciting opportunity to work across the various country, regional and global offices around the world, and with passionate colleagues who work tirelessly to ensure that effective humanitarian assistance reaches millions of people across the globe.
• We offer an attractive compensation package (please refer to the Terms and Conditions section of this vacancy announcement).

JOB TITLE: Senior Programme Lead – One Payroll (SAP S/4HANA)

TYPE OF CONTRACT: Consultant (Level 3)

UNIT/DIVISION: Technology Digital Services

DUTY STATION (City, Country): Rome, Italy (HQ)

DURATION: 11 months

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE OF THE ASSIGNMENT:

The World Food Programme (WFP) is the world's largest humanitarian agency, working towards achieving a world with zero hunger. WFP is implementing the One Payroll Programme, a strategic digital transformation initiative aimed at consolidating payroll systems into a single SAP-based solution, aligned with the ongoing SAP S/4HANA upgrade, Workday and the HR solutions, and UN80 objectives.

Reporting to the Chief of Digital Services (TECD), the Programme Lead will lead end-to-end delivery of the workstreams within the One Payroll Programme, ensuring successful implementation of the phased SAP rollout, including migration of UNDP- and PASport-managed populations and alignment with HR, Finance, and TEC stakeholders.

The role requires strong leadership across complex, multi-stakeholder environments, ensuring delivery of a high-quality payroll solution while managing risks, dependencies, and organizational change.

The incumbent ensures alignment between strategic programme objectives and operational execution, proactively managing risks, dependencies, and delivery constraints while safeguarding timelines, quality, and budget.

The role contributes to establishing a sustainable, centralized payroll operating model, ultimately enabling improved efficiency, compliance, and service delivery across WFP.

ACCOUNTABILITIES/RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Programme Leadership and Delivery:

• Lead the end-to-end delivery of the One Payroll Programme, ensuring full alignment with the agreed phased SAP consolidation strategy and overall programme roadmap.
• Drive execution across all phases of the project lifecycle, including initiation, detailed design, build/configuration, data migration, testing, deployment, and post-go-live stabilization, ensuring quality and timeliness of deliverables.

• Ensure deliverables meet defined business requirements, technical standards, and operational readiness criteria, with a strong focus on scalability and sustainability.

• Stakeholder Engagement and Governance

• Act as the primary coordination and integration point across TEC, HR, CFO, and Country Offices, ensuring effective collaboration and alignment on priorities, scope, and timelines.
• Support and actively contribute to programme governance structures, including preparing materials for Steering Committees and leadership forums, facilitating decision-making, and ensuring effective escalation of risks and issues.

• Establish and maintain structured communication mechanisms to ensure transparency, manage expectations, and secure stakeholder buy-in across all levels of the organization.
• Ensure strong country engagement model.
• Oversee Change Management and communications ensuring stakeholder buy-in, user readiness and adoption of new payroll processes.

• Planning, Scope and Delivery Management

• Develop, maintain, and continuously refine integrated project plans that capture scope, milestones, dependencies, critical path activities, and resource requirements across multiple workstreams.
• Ensure effective scope management through structured requirements gathering, validation, prioritization, and control of change requests.
• Oversee execution of key delivery activities, including data cleansing and validation, system configuration, integration, user acceptance testing, parallel runs, cutover planning, and go-live readiness.

• Monitor and report on delivery performance against established baselines, implementing corrective actions where required.

• Risk, Issue, and Dependency Management

• Proactively identify, assess, and manage programme risks, including those related to system integration, data quality, compliance, and operational continuity.
• Maintain and regularly update risk and issue registers, ensuring appropriate mitigation and contingency plans are defined and implemented.
• Track and manage cross-functional and cross-system dependencies, ensuring alignment between technical and business workstreams and preventing bottlenecks in delivery.

• Escalate critical risks and issues through governance channels in a timely and structured manner.

• Financial and Resource Management

• Lead detailed budget planning, forecasting, and financial tracking in line with the approved business case.
• Monitor resource utilization across internal teams and external partners, ensuring optimal allocation and efficiency.
• Identify potential budget deviations and propose corrective measures to maintain financial control and programme viability.

QUALIFICATIONS & EXPERIENCE REQUIRED:

Education:

Advanced university degree in IT, Business Administration, Finance, or related field. PMP, PRINCE2, Agile or equivalent certification desirable.

Experience:

• 10-12 years of progressive project/programme management experience. Proven experience in large-scale ERP/SAP implementations. Experience in Workday, HR/payroll or shared services transformation is highly desirable. Experience managing global, multi-stakeholder programmes. Knowledge & Skills: An understanding of how technology can optimize the work of often geographically distributed groups and teams

Knowledge and skills:

• Familiarity with an international working environment.

Languages: Fluency (level C) in English language. Knowledge of Spanish, French or Arabic a strong asset.

WFP LEADERSHIP FRAMEWORK

WFP Leadership Framework guides to the common standards of behavior that guide HOW we work together to accomplish our mission.

Click here to access WFP Leadership Framework

REASONABLE ACCOMMODATION

WFP is committed to supporting individuals with disabilities by providing reasonable accommodations throughout the recruitment process. If you require a reasonable accommodation, please contact: global.inclusion@wfp.org

NO FEE DISCLAIMER

The United Nations does not charge any application, processing, training, interviewing, testing or other fee in connection with the application or recruitment process. Should you receive a solicitation for the payment of a fee, please disregard it. Furthermore, please note that emblems, logos, names and addresses are easily copied and reproduced. Therefore, you are advised to apply particular care when submitting personal information on the web.

REMINDERS BEFORE YOU SUBMIT YOUR APPLICATION

• All applications must be submitted exclusively through our online recruiting system. We do not consider CVs or applications sent by email, LinkedIn, or any other channel.
• We strongly recommend that your Workday profile is accurate and complete, and that all sections are filled in, including your employment history, academic qualifications, language skills, and UN grade (if applicable). Once your profile is completed, please apply, and submit your application.
• If you experience technical issues while submitting your application, you may contact us at global.hrerecruitment@wfp.org. Please note that this email is only for technical issues with an application - unsolicited applications or documents sent to this inbox will not receive a reply.
• At the application stage, the only required documents are your CV and Cover Letter. Additional documents (passport, certificates, recommendation letters, etc.) may be requested later in the process.
• Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and invited to proceed to the next stage of the recruitment process.

All employment decisions are made on the basis of organizational needs, job requirements, merit, and individual qualifications. WFP is committed to providing an inclusive work environment free of sexual exploitation and abuse, all forms of discrimination, any kind of harassment, sexual harassment, and abuse of authority. Therefore, all selected candidates will undergo rigorous reference and background checks.

No appointment under any kind of contract will be offered to members of the UN Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ), International Civil Service Commission (ICSC), FAO Finance Committee, WFP External Auditor, WFP Audit Committee, Joint Inspection Unit (JIU) and other similar bodies within the United Nations system with oversight responsibilities over WFP, both during their service and within three years of ceasing that service.