File · SRX-2613 / Netherlands (EMEA) · Open

Senior SAP S/4HANA PP/DS Consultant

Production planning and detailed scheduling · SAP domain

A scheduling authority, not a planning theorist. This mandate is for the consultant who is comfortable in the scheduling board and can carry embedded PP/DS from blueprint to a shop floor that trusts it.

Discipline
Enterprise ERP
Seniority
Senior · 10+ years
Stage
Open
Work mode
Hybrid — Netherlands
Employment
Full-time · Contract or permanent
Listed
19 Aug 2026

How to approach this mandate

No application form. No CV portal. Read the position brief, then speak with Harald directly, under confidence.

The client is not named here. On an engaged mandate the client's hiring intent is commercially sensitive, so the organisation is identified to you under confidence in the first partner conversation — not published to their competitors.

The remit

Why this role exists now. And what it carries.

Dutch manufacturers — discrete and process alike — are mid-migration to S/4HANA. The transition from classic PP and standalone APO PP/DS to embedded S/4HANA PP/DS is the part of the programme that most often exposes the gap between a planning concept and a schedule the shop floor will actually run.

Embedded PP/DS is not a rename. Heuristics, planning procedures, product and resource master data, block planning, sequence-dependent setup, the scheduling board and the product planning table all behave differently in an embedded landscape, and the integration surface with MM, SD, QM and MES is where credibility is won or lost.

The client is running an active S/4HANA programme and needs the PP/DS authority the planners, production managers and project team defer to — through configuration, integration testing, cutover and hypercare.

What the role carries

  • Own the functional design and documentation of S/4HANA PP/DS solutions, from requirements gathering through blueprint sign-off.
  • Configure and optimise embedded PP/DS hands-on: heuristics, planning procedures, product and resource master data, work centre configuration and detailed scheduling.
  • Work fluently in the PP/DS scheduling board and product planning table, including block planning and sequence-dependent setup where the process demands it.
  • Lead fit-gap and blueprint sessions with Dutch planners, production managers and supply chain leadership, translating requirements into PP/DS process design.
  • Configure cross-module interdependencies with MM (BOMs, material requirements), SD (make-to-order linkage) and QM (in-process inspection).
  • Manage functional specifications for ABAP developments, and lead integration with MES and shop-floor data collection systems.
  • Drive testing, cutover and hypercare, and guide medior and junior consultants through solution reviews.

The brief

The challenge, the mandate, and the impact.

The challenge

The client's migration from classic PP and APO to embedded PP/DS is the critical path, and the scheduling design has no settled owner. Heuristics, resource master data and the integration surface with MES sit unresolved. The constraint is hands-on scheduling depth, not planning theory.

The mandate

Reports into the lead SAP architect. Full functional ownership of the PP/DS scope — blueprint, configuration, integration testing with MM, SD and QM, cutover and hypercare — with specification authority over in-scope ABAP developments. No line management; the authority is technical.

The impact

30–90 days
Client landscape and PP/DS configuration baseline mapped, blueprint sessions run with planning and production leadership, assigned scope configured and integration-tested across MM, SD and QM.
6 months
Go-live delivered or final testing advanced, hypercare or next-phase scope underway, and recognition as the go-to PP/DS authority for planners and client leadership.

35

Median days to shortlist

Category norm: 84–120 days

8 in 10

12-month retention

Category norm: ~60% at 18 months

90 days

Replacement guarantee

With backfill

1

Partner, start to close

Never delegated

Index reading

The market reading behind the brief.

This mandate is not written from a job description. It is written from our own quarterly reading of how these roles are being eliminated, redefined and created in this corridor.

Where this mandate sits in the market

Current Q3 displacement intensity in the sectors that frame this search. Higher intensity means more leadership turnover and sharper talent scarcity.

  • Tech ConsultingDisplaced · 9/9
  • SaaS & CloudDisplaced · 9/9
  • WorkforceExposed · 7/9

Read the full Displacement Index — 7 sectors across APAC, EMEA and the GCC.

The profile

Who closes this. And on what terms.

Critical

  • Embedded PP/DS delivery

    Configured and delivered PP/DS in S/4HANA, including the APO migration path — not only classic APO.

  • Scheduling board fluency

    Comfortable in the scheduling board and product planning table, with block planning and sequence-dependent setup.

  • Cross-module fluency

    PP/DS against MM BOMs, SD make-to-order linkage and QM in-process inspection.

  • Shop-floor credibility

    Speaks capacity, constraints and sequencing with planners and production managers, and has integrated MES in production.

Differentiators

  • Delivery in both discrete and process manufacturing environments.
  • Experience with advanced heuristics, optimiser configuration and constraint-based scheduling.
  • Existing relationships with SIs, SAP Nederland or Dutch manufacturers.
  • Track record mentoring consultants through solution reviews.

What the client offers

  • A senior seat on a live S/4HANA manufacturing programme with real configuration ownership.
  • Day rate or salary benchmarked to Netherlands market standards for senior SAP PP/DS consultants.
  • Contract or permanent engagement — the model is set in the scope conversation, before commitment.
  • Direct access to planning, production and supply chain decision-makers.
  • Hybrid working from the Netherlands.
Scope
Planning strategies, heuristics, detailed scheduling, resource optimisation
Landscape
S/4HANA embedded PP/DS · discrete and process manufacturing
Engagement
Contract or permanent · EUR day rate or salary
Reports to
Lead SAP Architect / programme lead

The approach

How this mandate runs. Partner-led, end to end.

01 · Day 0–1

Approach

You reach out — through this page, the partner's direct line, or a confidential booking. No application form, no CV upload to a portal. The first conversation is about fit, not paperwork.

02 · Days 2–7

Partner conversation

Harald Agterhuis, the partner who signed this mandate, speaks with you directly. The conversation establishes whether the role and your delivery record genuinely align before anyone invests further.

03 · Days 8–21

Client introduction

If the fit holds, Harald introduces you to the hiring client under confidence. The client sees a short, serious shortlist — not a pile of CVs. You meet the decision-makers and test the role against what you need.

04 · Days 22–35

Decision

The client decides. If it's a yes, Harald works the offer with you and the client to land it — including counter-offer defence. If it's a no, you get a direct debrief, not silence.

Your partner on this mandate

Harald H.R. Agterhuis
Harald H.R. Agterhuis

Founder · Amsterdam · Dubai

Works across all corridors. Thirty years placing technology executives across APAC and EMEA, personally, mandate by mandate.

Book a confidential call

Where this mandate connects

The full register