EWM Business Process Consultant

Location: Remote - JapanWorking Hours: Monday-Friday, Japan Standard Time (JST)Start Date: ASAP - ideally OctoberContract Duration: 10 months, with a strong possibility of extensionLanguages: Japanese & EnglishIndustry: Pharmaceutical / Life Sciences

About the Role

We are seeking an experienced SAP Extended Warehouse Management (EWM) Business Process Consultant to support a global pharmaceutical organisation's SAP EWM shared-services function across multiple sites in the US, Europe, and APAC.

The successful candidate will provide business-process expertise, functional SAP support, user consultation, end-user training, issue resolution, and operational process governance for warehouse and supply-chain operations.

Acting as a key bridge between business users and IT, the consultant will help ensure the effective and efficient operation of warehouse processes supported by SAP EWM.

This is a business-process-focused role, requiring someone who can work closely with warehouse, supply chain, quality, manufacturing, and IT stakeholders.

The ideal candidate will combine strong SAP EWM functional knowledge with excellent business-process understanding and stakeholder management skills, and will be comfortable operating within a regulated pharmaceutical/life-sciences environment.

Key Responsibilities

• Provide functional and business-process support for SAP EWM across global warehouse and supply-chain operations.
• Act as a key point of contact between business users, IT teams, and SAP support teams.
• Analyse and resolve SAP EWM incidents, process issues, and user queries.
• Support the investigation of root causes and identify sustainable process or system improvements.
• Translate business requirements into practical SAP EWM solutions and functional specifications.
• Support enhancements, change requests, testing, releases, and continuous improvement initiatives.
• Provide expert guidance on warehouse processes including:
  • Inbound receiving and putaway
  • Outbound delivery, picking, packing, and shipping
  • Internal warehouse movements and replenishment
  • Inventory management and stock accuracy
  • Physical inventory processes
  • RF/mobile warehouse transactions
  • Warehouse monitoring and exception handling
  • Warehouse task and warehouse order processing
• Support integration and business processes across SAP EWM, MM, PP, and QM.
• Work closely with warehouse, supply chain, manufacturing, quality, and business operations teams to understand process requirements and operational challenges.
• Deliver end-user training, process guidance, and user consultation.
• Develop and maintain process documentation, work instructions, and training materials where required.
• Support testing activities, including test preparation, execution, defect analysis, and business-user acceptance testing.
• Identify opportunities for process optimisation, standardisation, and automation.
• Contribute to operational governance and ensure SAP-supported processes align with business and regulatory requirements.
• Support global teams across US, EU, and APAC sites while working primarily within Japan business hours.
• Ensure appropriate consideration of GxP, compliance, validation, and regulated-process requirements within the pharmaceutical/life-sciences environment.

Required Experience & Skills

• SAP EWM
• 7+ years of overall SAP experience, with at least 5+ years of hands-on SAP EWM experience.
• Strong functional knowledge of SAP EWM warehouse processes.
• Proven experience across:
  • Inbound and outbound processing
  • Putaway and picking
  • Internal warehouse movements
  • Replenishment
  • Inventory management
  • Physical inventory
  • RF/mobile processes
  • Warehouse monitoring
  • Exception handling
  • Warehouse task/order management
• Strong understanding of SAP EWM integration with MM, PP, and QM.
• Experience supporting production and/or manufacturing-related warehouse processes is highly desirable.
• Experience troubleshooting EWM process and integration issues.
• Ability to translate business requirements into SAP functional solutions.
• Experience supporting incidents, defects, enhancements, and change requests.
• Strong understanding of end-to-end warehouse and supply-chain business processes.

Business Process & Stakeholder Management

• Strong business-process orientation with the ability to understand operational requirements beyond SAP configuration.
• Proven experience working directly with warehouse and supply-chain users.
• Ability to act as a trusted advisor and bridge between business stakeholders and IT.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.