Implementation Lead

MIS / ERP Implementation Lead – Contract

Lancashire | £450 per day | 9-month contract | Outside IR35

We are working with a specialist UK manufacturing business embarking on a significant transformation of its core operational systems.

Following investment and ambitious plans for growth, the business is replacing a heavily manual, Excel-based planning and production environment with a specialist industry MIS/ERP platform.

We are looking for an experienced MIS / ERP Implementation Lead to take ownership of the implementation from the client side and ensure the new platform delivers genuine operational improvement.

This is not a coordination-only Project Manager role.

You will be embedded within the business, working closely with operational teams and senior stakeholders while acting as the primary interface with the software vendor. You'll need to understand how the business operates today, challenge existing processes where appropriate and ensure the organisation doesn't simply recreate its current ways of working in a new system.

The Role

You will take hands-on ownership of the implementation, including:

• Leading the end-to-end implementation from the client side
• Acting as the primary point of contact between the business and software vendor
• Gathering requirements across operational and business teams
• Mapping and documenting existing processes
• Identifying opportunities to improve processes rather than simply replicating them
• Challenging and validating vendor recommendations
• Facilitating workshops with stakeholders from the shop floor through to senior management
• Creating and managing the overall implementation plan
• Establishing appropriate project governance, risks, actions and decision-making
• Producing regular progress updates for senior leadership
• Leading data migration activity
• Planning, coordinating and owning UAT
• Helping operational users understand test scenarios, test cases and expected outcomes
• Identifying and taking ownership of gaps that fall between the vendor and internal teams
• Driving the project forward and ensuring decisions are made

What We're Looking For

We're particularly interested in people who have personally delivered several ERP, MIS or similarly business-critical system implementations.

You should be able to demonstrate:

• End-to-end ERP/MIS/business systems implementation experience
• A strong combination of Business Analysis and Project Delivery
• Experience working within an SME and/or operationally complex environment
• Hands-on process mapping and requirements gathering
• Data migration and UAT experience
• Third-party software vendor management
• Strong stakeholder management skills
• The confidence to constructively challenge senior stakeholders and vendors
• The ability to build credibility with operational/shop-floor teams
• Strong project governance without becoming overly bureaucratic
• The ability to operate independently and make pragmatic decisions

Experience within manufacturing, print, packaging or production environments would be particularly valuable, although strong implementation experience in comparable operational environments is more important than specific sector experience.

The Person

This role needs someone who is comfortable getting into the detail.

You'll need to be able to sit with operational users to understand how a process actually works, facilitate a challenging stakeholder meeting, question a software vendor's proposed solution and then roll your sleeves up and help with testing or data migration.

You'll be joining a knowledgeable business where some established processes have been in place for many years. The successful person will need the communication skills and credibility to bring people with them while still challenging established ways of working when there is a better approach.

Contract

Rate: £450 per day (Outside IR35)

Duration: Initial 9 months

Location: Lancashire

Working pattern: Initially 5 days per week onsite. Once established, expected to move to approximately 3 days onsite / 2 days remote (after 4 weeks and relationships established).

There is also potential for further work. The wider group has recently acquired additional UK businesses with legacy systems, and a successful implementation could potentially become the blueprint for future rollouts.