Position Summary
The ERP Implementation Project Manager is a consulting role that serves as Lipari's client-side project management lead for enterprise resource planning (ERP) implementations, migrations, system integrations, and related IT transitions across the entities that operate under the Lipari umbrella. The role supports moving businesses onto Lipari's target-state platforms, such as Microsoft Dynamics 365, whether that business is an established entity modernizing off a legacy system or a newly acquired one being brought into the fold, and typically operates in coordination with a third-party implementation partner.
The Project Manager acts as the connective tissue between the implementation partner, business stakeholders, IT and infrastructure teams, third-party software vendors, and Lipari leadership. The primary charge is to keep the project moving: surfacing and driving open decisions to closure, ensuring requirements are tracked and resolved, protecting Lipari's broader systems roadmap and future-state interests, and making sure nothing falls through the cracks between parties.
As a consultant, the Project Manager is expected to do more than administer a plan. This person brings a trusted-advisor mindset, reads the room, anticipates needs before they are raised, and continually looks for opportunities to add value, improve how the client operates, and expand the impact of the engagement. Much of the role's effectiveness comes down to personality and relationship: the ability to build genuine rapport, earn credibility quickly, and connect with clients as people so that they welcome guidance and act on it.
This is a coordination, facilitation, and advisory role rather than a hands-on configuration role. Success is measured by how effectively the Project Manager builds trust, removes blockers, aligns stakeholders, surfaces new opportunities, and keeps the implementation on timeline and in scope on Lipari's behalf.
Key Responsibilities-Trusted Advisor and Opportunity Identification
- Operate as a consultant and trusted advisor to the client, not just a project administrator, building the kind of relationship where clients seek out guidance and act on it.
- Invest in genuine rapport with stakeholders at every level, connecting on a personal level and using strong interpersonal instincts to read dynamics, defuse tension, and keep people engaged.
- Continually look for opportunities to add value, whether that means improving a process, closing a gap, streamlining how the client works, or identifying additional needs the engagement can help address.
- Anticipate client needs before they are formally raised and bring proactive recommendations rather than waiting to be asked.
- Represent Lipari and the engagement in a way that strengthens the relationship and opens the door to future work.
Stakeholder Coordination and Liaison
- Serve as the day-to-day point of contact bridging the implementation partner, the in-scope business team, Lipari corporate leadership, and IT and infrastructure resources.
- Proactively surface anything that is off-track and escalate issues, gaps, and unknowns to the appropriate leadership, including items with potential budget or scope implications.
- Bridge gaps between the implementation team and business or leadership stakeholders when decisions stall, setting up the right conversations and pushing for resolution.
- Represent Lipari's future-state interests in design discussions, flagging configuration choices that could conflict with Lipari's broader platform direction before they are locked in.
Requirements and Decision Management
- Own the coordination of the requirements and open-decision backlog in Azure DevOps, keeping it current and visible.
- Organize requirements and decisions by business owner and priority so reviews feel manageable and the right people see the right items.
- Schedule and run focused review sessions with business owners to confirm priorities, capture direction, and authorize the implementation partner to proceed.
- Track each item through to a resolution path (configuration, third-party software, custom development, reporting, or handled internally) and confirm nothing is lost.
- Maintain a regular review cadence, increasing frequency during peak periods and easing off once the active backlog is cleared.
Third-Party Software (ISV) Scoping
- Coordinate the evaluation of third-party and add-on applications, arranging demos and walkthroughs so stakeholders understand full functionality rather than surface features.
- Define integration scope for retained applications and confirm which systems will sunset, remain standalone, or integrate with the new ERP.
- Track vendor decisions against project milestones, flagging long-lead items (such as EDI or specialized integrations) that carry timeline risk if not decided early.
- Follow up with leadership and vendors on outstanding quotes, proposals, and go or no-go decisions.
IT Roadmap and Application Rationalization
- Maintain a working application roadmap that classifies each system as sunset, retain, or migrate to the target ERP.
- Walk business and leadership stakeholders through the roadmap to confirm current state, validate assumptions, and align on direction.
- Keep the inventory clean and current, removing stale or retired applications and confirming ownership for each item between Lipari IT and the implementation partner.
Infrastructure and Migration Coordination
- Coordinate infrastructure and application migration activities as an entity is moved from legacy or externally controlled systems onto Lipari's target-state platforms.
- Handle separation and carve-out work where the scenario calls for it, such as an acquired entity being moved off seller-controlled systems.
- Partner with IT and infrastructure resources to align application migration, licensing, and transition timelines, and to identify irreversible or high-cost setup decisions early.
- Track dependencies between the ERP workstream and parallel IT efforts such as identity, collaboration platforms, and licensing transitions.
Governance, Status Reporting, and Meeting Management
- Support project governance forums, including executive steering committees and biweekly project team syncs, contributing status, risks, and open items.
- Help right-size meeting invite lists so working sessions include the appropriate decision-makers and key subject matter experts without over-inviting.
- Contribute to weekly status reporting, including forward-looking activity forecasts and running logs, and encourage stakeholder teams to reference them for shared visibility.
Data Migration and Testing Coordination
- Participate in data migration planning, including decisions on scope and historical data, and coordinate subject matter expert review of extracted master data.
- Support Conference Room Pilot (CRP) phases, user access and practice, homework assignments, and test case readiness.
- Help identify resource availability across project phases, including planning around holiday and PTO windows during critical testing periods.
Required Qualifications
- Demonstrated experience managing or coordinating ERP implementations, ideally Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance and Supply Chain or a comparable enterprise platform.
- Experience acting in a client-side or owner-side project management capacity alongside a third-party implementation partner.
- A consulting or advisory background, with a track record of building trusted-advisor relationships and being someone clients want to work with.
- Exceptional interpersonal skills and personal presence, with a natural ability to connect with people, build rapport quickly, and earn credibility across all levels of an organization.
- Strong stakeholder management skills, with a proven ability to bridge business, IT, vendor, and leadership groups.
- Working knowledge of Azure DevOps for requirements and decision tracking.
- Ability to drive decisions and resolution across parties who do not report to the Project Manager, using influence rather than authority.
- Excellent written and verbal communication, including status reporting and executive-level updates.
- Strong organizational skills and comfort managing multiple concurrent workstreams and competing priorities.
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience supporting ERP work within a merger, acquisition, or divestiture context, including system carve-outs and infrastructure separation.
- Familiarity with food, distribution, manufacturing, or consumer packaged goods operations.
- Exposure to third-party software (ISV) evaluation and integration scoping.
- Understanding of data migration, master data governance, and testing cycles (CRP, UAT).
- PMP, Agile, or comparable project management certification.
Key Competencies
- Consultative, trusted-advisor mindset
- Strong personality and interpersonal presence, with a natural ability to connect with and relate to clients
- Relationship building and rapport across all levels of an organization
- Proactive opportunity spotting and value creation
- Proactive problem identification and follow-through
- Comfort operating in ambiguity and across organizational boundaries
- Diplomacy and credibility with both technical and business audiences
- Attention to detail balanced with the ability to keep the broader roadmap in view
- Bias toward resolution and momentum over exhaustive analysis
Benefits:
- 401(k)
- Dental insurance
- Health insurance
- Paid time off
- Vision insurance