Principal SAP Security Specialist

£85,000 to £95,000 per year, plus excellent benefits

Contract Type:

Permanent

Hours:

Full time

Disability Confident:

No

Closing Date:

05/08/2026

Principal SAP Security Specialist Circa £85,000 - £95,000 plus private healthcare, company car or £6,000 car allowance and more great benefits (Work Level
4) Manchester city centre

• in this role you'll work in a hybrid way splitting your time between home and the office two days per week (find out more about our hybrid working policy at ). We're open to applications from people who may require flexible working arrangements.

There'll be an opportunity to discuss your flexible working requirements during the interview process, and at offer stage.

We're reshaping our Digital, Technology and Data function for the future, creating new opportunities, strengthening our capability, and building clearer, more resilient ways of working so we can deliver even better services for our Co-op, our colleagues, members and customers.

We're looking for a Principal SAP Security Specialist to join our Technology team and lead the strategy, governance and continuous improvement of SAP security, GRC and IT controls across Co-op.

SAP is at the heart of many of our business-critical processes, and you'll be responsible for ensuring our controls, access and compliance framework remains secure, scalable and effective, while leading a team of specialists and influencing stakeholders across the organisation.

Why this role matters As our SAP landscape continues to evolve, strong security, governance and controls have never been more important.

This is an opportunity to shape the future of SAP security and GRC at enterprise scale, leading a specialist team while influencing how we manage risk, compliance and access across Co-op.

You'll play a key role in enabling business change while maintaining a secure and well-governed SAP environment.

What you'll do

• Define and lead the strategy and roadmap for SAP security, authorisations, controls and GRC across ECC and S/4
  
  HANA
• Lead, coach and develop a team of SAP security, GRC and controls specialists, setting direction and driving high performance
• Own the governance of SAP role design and access management, ensuring a scalable and compliant role-based access model
• Provide senior oversight of SAP GRC processes, including Access Risk Analysis (ARA), Access Request Management (ARM) and segregation of duties controls
• Lead the continuous improvement of SAP IT general controls and automated controls, ensuring they remain effective and aligned to business needs
• Act as the senior point of accountability for SAP security, controls and compliance across Technology, Finance, Risk and Audit
• Oversee the security and controls impact of SAP and wider business change initiatives, ensuring risks are appropriately assessed and managed
• Drive simplification, standardisation and automation across SAP security, governance and controls processes What you'll bring We’re committed to making our roles as accessible as possible, so we only ask for the minimum criteria.

To thrive here, you’ll need to bring:

• Significant experience leading SAP security, GRC and controls functions within large, complex organisations
• Deep expertise in SAP authorisations, role design and role-based access control (RBAC)
• Strong knowledge of SAP GRC Access Control, including ARA, ARM and segregation of duties management
• Experience supporting and governing SAP ECC, S/4
  
  HANA and Fiori security environments
• A strong track record of defining and operating SAP controls, governance and compliance frameworks
• Experience managing SAP IT general controls and supporting internal and external audit activity
• Proven people leadership skills, with experience developing and leading specialist teams
• The ability to influence and build credibility with senior stakeholders, balancing business enablement with effective risk management We know some people may hesitate to apply if they don’t meet every requirement.

At Co-op, we’re committed to building diverse and inclusive teams, so if you’re excited about this role but your experience doesn’t align perfectly, we still encourage you to apply.

Why Co-op?

At Co-op, we’re owned by our…