Senior SAP Basis AdministratorLocation: Remote with As-Needed Onsite Support – San Diego, CA
Employment Type: Staff Augmentation / Long-Term Contract
Experience Level: Senior (10+ Years)
Position Overview
The City of San Diego's Department of Information Technology (DoIT) is seeking an experienced
Senior SAP Basis Administrator to support one of the largest municipal SAP ERP environments in the United States. This role is responsible for ensuring the reliability, availability, security, scalability, and performance of the City's enterprise SAP landscape while supporting a long-term modernization initiative to SAP S/4HANA Private Cloud.
The successful consultant will become a key member of the ERP Infrastructure team responsible for administering complex SAP environments supporting Finance, Human Capital Management, Utilities, Enterprise Asset Management, Procurement, Payroll, Budgeting, Treasury, Grants Management, Public Utilities, Transportation, Environmental Services, and numerous mission-critical City operations.
This position requires a proactive SAP Basis professional who thrives in a production support environment, understands enterprise architecture, enjoys solving complex technical challenges, and possesses extensive experience with SAP system administration, HANA databases, cloud infrastructure, system performance optimization, disaster recovery planning, upgrades, and enterprise integrations.
The City operates within a KPI-driven environment where system stability, customer satisfaction, continuous improvement, and knowledge sharing are essential to success. Candidates should be comfortable supporting critical business applications in a 24x7 municipal government environment while participating in strategic ERP modernization initiatives.
About the Department
The Department of Information Technology (DoIT) ERP Division manages and supports the City's enterprise SAP ecosystem, providing technology services across virtually every City department.
Current SAP landscape includes:
- SAP ECC on HANA
- SAP S/4HANA migration program
- SAP HCM
- SAP IS-U
- SAP CRM
- SAP EAM
- SAP BW
- SAP Business Objects
- SAP GRC
- OpenText Solutions
- Microsoft SQL Server
- SAP HANA
- SAP NetWeaver ABAP & Java
- Hybrid Cloud Infrastructure
The City is currently executing a multi-year ERP modernization initiative with an anticipated migration to SAP S/4HANA Private Cloud by 2030. This position plays a critical role in supporting both the current production landscape and future-state architecture.
Primary Responsibilities
The Senior SAP Basis Administrator will provide senior-level technical leadership and operational support across the City's SAP environment.
Responsibilities include:
- Administer large-scale enterprise SAP landscapes
- Ensure 24x7 availability of mission-critical SAP systems
- Monitor overall SAP system health and performance
- Perform SAP installations, upgrades, enhancements and support packages
- Administer SAP HANA and Microsoft SQL databases
- Execute kernel upgrades and system patching
- Perform client copies and system refreshes
- Manage SAP Transport Management System (TMS)
- Perform transport sequencing and production migrations
- Configure and maintain SAP NetWeaver ABAP and Java environments
- Support OpenText applications
- Perform capacity planning
- Optimize SAP performance
- Conduct root cause analysis for production incidents
- Coordinate disaster recovery planning and testing
- Support backup and recovery activities
- Troubleshoot SAP startup issues
- Support interface connectivity with SAP and non-SAP applications
- Maintain SAP printing infrastructure
- Support desktop SAP GUI issues
- Participate in weekend maintenance windows
- Provide on-call support
- Develop technical documentation
- Assist development, functional and security teams
- Mentor junior administrators
- Participate in architecture discussions supporting S/4HANA migration
- Recommend infrastructure improvements
- Ensure compliance with City security standards
- Participate in project planning and ERP modernization initiatives
Technical Responsibilities
This role includes ownership of enterprise SAP infrastructure including:
SAP Administration- SAP ECC
- SAP S/4HANA
- SAP NetWeaver ABAP
- SAP NetWeaver Java
- SAP Solution Manager
- SAP Landscape Management
- SAP Host Agent
Database Administration- SAP HANA
- Microsoft SQL Server
- Database backups
- Recovery planning
- Database optimization
- Performance tuning
System Administration- Linux
- Windows Server
- Virtualized environments
- Hybrid cloud platforms
SAP Landscape Management- Client administration
- Transport Management System (TMS)
- STMS
- SPAU/SPDD
- Kernel upgrades
- Support Package Stack implementation
- System copies
- Client copies
- Refresh strategies
Performance- Workload analysis
- Memory optimization
- Background job tuning
- RFC monitoring
- Gateway monitoring
- Performance troubleshooting
- Capacity planning
Disaster Recovery- High availability planning
- Backup strategy
- Recovery testing
- Failover support
- Business continuity
Required Technical Skills
Candidates should possess deep expertise in:
SAP Technologies- SAP ECC
- SAP S/4HANA
- SAP NetWeaver
- SAP HANA
- SAP Java Stack
- SAP ABAP Stack
- SAP Solution Manager
- SAP Transport Management
- SAP Host Agent
Infrastructure- Linux Administration
- Windows Administration
- VMware
- Storage management
- Networking fundamentals
- Active Directory
- DNS
- SSL Certificates
Database Technologies- SAP HANA
- Microsoft SQL Server
Monitoring Tools- SAP EarlyWatch
- Solution Manager
- CCMS
- OS monitoring tools
Cloud- SAP S/4HANA Private Cloud
- Hybrid infrastructure
- Cloud migration support
Mandatory Qualifications
Candidates
must possess:
- Minimum 10 years of SAP Basis Administration experience
- Experience supporting enterprise SAP production environments
- Experience leading multiple SAP implementation or upgrade projects
- Experience supporting SAP ECC on HANA
- Experience supporting SAP NetWeaver ABAP and Java stacks
- Experience administering SAP HANA databases
- Experience with Microsoft SQL Server
- Experience with Linux and Windows operating systems
- Experience performing SAP upgrades and patching
- Experience with SAP system performance tuning
- Experience with disaster recovery planning
- Experience supporting mission-critical environments
- Excellent troubleshooting skills
- Strong documentation skills
- Outstanding verbal and written communication skills
Preferred Qualifications
Ideal candidates will also possess:
- SAP Basis Certification
- SAP S/4HANA Administration certification
- Experience with SAP Private Cloud
- OpenText administration
- SAP Landscape Management (LaMa)
- SAP Solution Manager
- Azure
- VMware
- Enterprise monitoring platforms
- Automation scripting
- PowerShell
- Ansible
- Terraform
- DevOps exposure
- ITIL Foundation
- Public sector ERP experience
- Large utility industry SAP experience
- Enterprise Asset Management support
- IS-U support
- Municipal government experience
Soft Skills
The successful candidate demonstrates:
- Exceptional communication skills
- Executive-level professionalism
- Strong analytical thinking
- Excellent problem-solving ability
- Ability to work independently
- Strong collaboration skills
- High customer-service orientation
- Ability to prioritize multiple initiatives
- Adaptability in rapidly changing environments
- Continuous learning mindset
- Leadership without authority
- Strong documentation skills
- Ability to explain technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders
- Proactive ownership of issues
- Positive team attitude
What Will Make You Successful
Top performers in this role:
- Prevent issues before they impact production
- Take ownership of complex incidents
- Drive continuous performance improvements
- Build strong partnerships with Development, Security, Functional and Infrastructure teams
- Maintain excellent documentation
- Support the City's long-term S/4HANA roadmap
- Share knowledge across the ERP organization
- Thrive in a KPI-driven support environment
- Deliver exceptional customer service while maintaining enterprise-class SAP operations
Certifications
Preferred:
- SAP Certified Technology Associate – SAP System Administration
- SAP HANA Certification
- SAP S/4HANA Technology Certification
- Microsoft SQL Certification
- ITIL Foundation
- Azure Administrator (preferred)
Education
Bachelor's Degree in:
- Computer Science
- Information Systems
- Information Technology
- Engineering