Principal Solution Architect
Lumen is the trusted network for the AI-powered world, connecting people, data, and applications through our expansive fiber network and connected ecosystem. We enable secure, high-performance connectivity across cloud, edge, and AI workloads for enterprises, governments, and communities.
At Lumen, you’ll work on infrastructure customers rely on today and build for what’s next, where performance, security, and resilience matter.
This is a high accountability environment where bold ideas drive real innovation for our customers, partners, and industry. The work is challenging, expectations are clear, and trust is built into how we operate. If you’re ready to take ownership, deliver meaningful impact, and help shape the future of AI-ready connectivity, join us today.
The Role
Lumen connects the world. We are igniting business growth by connecting people, data and applications quickly, securely and effortlessly. Our ERP estate is where much of that work is bought, built, paid for and reported, and the Principal IT ERP Solution & Portfolio Management role leads solution and portfolio management for it from the IT side.
This is a senior individual contributor role for someone who enjoys bringing order to complexity. Our landscape is organized around value streams such as Procure-to-Pay, Material-to-Deploy, Record-to-Report and Capital Programs and Portfolio Management, and around the IT workstreams that serve them, including development, data, reporting, security, testing and cutover. It runs on SAP S/4HANA at the core, alongside surrounding platforms such as the Procurement Gateway, satellite and field systems, and an expanding set of third-party and outsourced service providers brought in by Procurement and the business. You will hold a single connected view across all of it: what is in flight, what it depends on, what it will cost, and what happens if it moves.
The initial focus for this role is the supply chain and spend portfolio, spanning Procure-to-Pay and Accounts Payable, Supply Chain and Sourcing, Material-to-Deploy, Project Systems, capital programs and construction flow, together with the points where these transactions land in Record-to-Report. Scope is expected to broaden as the estate moves from transformation into steady state and as new platforms join the landscape.
You will run intake, prepare the impact assessments that give leaders a clear basis for a decision, keep the roadmap and dependency view current, and help protect the health of the landscape by encouraging standard solutions and steady reduction of complexity. This role earns its influence through trust, transparency and credibility rather than reporting lines. It reports to the Vice President, IT Billing & ERP and has no direct reports.
Location
This role is designated as a fully remote position within the United States.
The Main Responsibilities
- Maintain a strategic view of the ERP portfolio, including priorities, dependencies, costs, risks, and cross-functional impacts.
- Manage portfolio demand intake and partner with business and IT stakeholders to validate requirements, value, and funding justification.
- Assess business, technical, operational, and organizational impacts of major changes to support informed decision-making.
- Oversee change request management, ensuring scope, effort, status, and release sequencing are aligned across dependent workstreams.
- Lead portfolio planning activities, translating enterprise priorities into executable, milestone-driven roadmaps.
- Maintain visibility into the end-to-end ERP ecosystem, including SAP S/4HANA, SAP Ariba, SAP Business Network, and integrated platforms.
- Partner with architects, engineering leaders, and business stakeholders to evaluate solution options and recommend scalable, cost-effective approaches.Promote standard, configuration-first solutions while managing technical debt, deferred work, and long-term platform sustainability.
- Support data governance and master data quality across key business domains through collaboration with business data owners.
- Identify portfolio risks, opportunities, capacity constraints, and alignment concerns, escalating issues proactively.
- Develop and maintain dashboards, metrics, and reporting to communicate portfolio performance, progress, risks, and outcomes.
- Support stabilization and hypercare efforts through root-cause analysis, corrective action tracking, and transition-to-operations planning.
- Serve as a trusted liaison across Finance, Procurement, Supply Chain, IT, Audit, and Transformation Office stakeholders.
- Manage relationships with systems integrators, platform vendors, and service providers to ensure delivery quality and roadmap alignment.
- Mentor analysts and delivery team members, fostering knowledge sharing, continuous improvement, and portfolio management best practices.
What We Look For in a Candidate
Required Qualifications:
- Bachelor's degree in Business, Finance, Information Systems, Engineering, or a related field; advanced degree preferred.
- 10+ years of experience in portfolio management, solution management, program management, or a similar role supporting enterprise ERP and connected business systems in an IT organization.
- Working knowledge of the value chain in an enterprise ERP: requisition to purchase order to receipt, invoice processing and exception handling, three-way match, payment, and how these transactions flow through to the general ledger.
- Familiarity with SAP S/4HANA, SAP Ariba, and invoice management platforms such as OpenText VIM, along with exposure to Project Systems, capital programs, and materials management, and experience integrating an ERP core with surrounding and third-party systems.
- Demonstrated experience running intake and impact assessment processes, including business case, capacity and dependency analysis.
- Experience working across IT delivery disciplines such as development, data, reporting, testing, security and cutover, and supporting change and release processes in a SOX-relevant environment, including an understanding of control and segregation-of-duties considerations.
- Strong analytical skills and financial acumen, with the ability to interpret complex data and turn it into actionable insight for a leadership audience.
- Proficiency with portfolio and delivery tooling such as Jira, Clarity, ServiceNow, or equivalent.
Preferred Qualifications:
SAP, Ariba, or procurement platform certification, familiarity with agile delivery practices, experience managing outsourced or managed-service providers, and experience in telecommunications or another capital-intensive industry where project systems, construction, and asset accounting interact directly with procurement.
Compensation
This information reflects the anticipated base salary range for this position based on current national data. Minimums and maximums may vary based on location. Individual pay is based on skills, experience and other relevant factors.
Location Based Pay Ranges
$152,066 - $202,755 in these states: AL AR AZ FL GA IA ID IN KS KY LA ME MO MS MT ND NE NM OH OK PA SC SD TN UT VT WI WV WY
$159,670 - $212,893 in these states: CO HI MI MN NC NH NV OR RI
$167,273 - $223,031 in these states: AK CA CT DC DE IL MA MD NJ NY TX VA WA
Lumen offers a comprehensive package featuring a broad range of Health, Life, Voluntary Lifestyle benefits and other perks that enhance your physical, mental, emotional and financial wellbeing. We're able to answer any additional questions you may have about our bonus structure (short-term incentives, long-term incentives and/or sales compensation) as you move through the selection process. Learn more about Lumen's:Benefits
Requisition #: 343521
Life at Lumen
Life at Lumen is human and connected, even in a fast moving, AI-focused organization. We set clear expectations and trust people to meet them. With real support and shared accountability, teams collaborate better, move faster, and deliver meaningful outcomes.
Our Lumen 8 behaviors guide how we interact, make decisions, and work together, shaping a culture built to perform and win.
To learn more about Life at Lumen and how we live the Lumen 8, please visit:
https://jobs.lumen.com/global/en/life-at-lumen
Background Screening
If you are selected for a position, there will be a background screen, which may include checks for criminal records and/or motor vehicle reports and/or drug screening, depending on the position requirements. For more information on these checks, please refer to the Post Offer section of our FAQ page. Job-related concerns identified during the background screening may disqualify you from the new position or your current role. Background results will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.
Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.
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https://jobs.lumen.com/global/en/privacy-notice
Disclaimer
The job responsibilities described above indicate the general nature and level of work performed by employees within this classification. It is not intended to include a comprehensive inventory of all duties and responsibilities for this job. Job duties and responsibilities are subject to change based on evolving business needs and conditions.
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