The SAP recruitment market in 2026 is being forged by one overriding reality: SAP transformations succeed or fail at the business process level, not the technical one.
After years of remote-heavy delivery models, offshore dependency and accelerated timelines, many organisations are recalibrating. The focus has shifted firmly toward business adoption, stakeholder alignment and return on investment, fundamentally changing how SAP talent is hired.
Here’s what our Managing Director Connor Wallsays to expect through 2026:
1. On-site presence is back
One of the clearest shifts is the renewed expectation for on-site and hybrid working, driven by business process ownership.
SAP programmes today are end-to-end business process transformations affecting finance, manufacturing, supply chain, sales and operations.
To deliver that successfully, organisations need consultants who can:
Engage face-to-face with business stakeholders
Challenge and redesign legacy processes
Run workshops that drive alignment and decision-making
Support user adoption and behavioural change
Resolve issues quickly during critical delivery phases
As a result, fully remote SAP roles are becoming increasingly rare, particularly across:
S/4HANA transformations
Manufacturing and supply chain programmes
Plant rollouts and regional deployments
Change, testing, and hyper-care phases
Expect 2–3 days on-site as the norm, with premium rates for candidates who can offer flexibility.
2. Business process & technical understanding are now non-negotiable
Clients are no longer hiring SAP professionals who only understand the system, they're hiring people who understand how SAP impacts the business, why processes need to change and what success looks like beyond go-live.
The most in-demand profiles sit at the intersection of:
SAP functional or technical expertise
Deep business process knowledge
Strong stakeholder and change management capability
This shift is a direct response to previous programme failures where systems were delivered but users reverted to old processed, meaning ROI was never fully realised.
3. Native language skills are critical for stakeholder engagement & adoption
As SAP moves closer to the business, language capability has become a strategic requirement. Native or fluent local-language workers are essential to:
Manage local business stakeholders
Run workshops and training sessions effectively
Support user adoption and change management
Ensure requirements are understood correctly first time
This trend is especially strong across Germany, France, Benelux, Nordics, Southern and Eastern Europe, where local engagement is key to transformation success. English-only profiles are increasingly limited to back-end or global template roles, while native-language consultants command higher salaries and day rates due to their impact on delivery outcomes.
4. Shift from offshore to onshore hiring to protect ROI
For years, offshore delivery models promised cost efficiency. In 2026, many organisations are reassessing that promise. We are seeing a clear move toward onshore SAP hiring for business-facing roles and offshore teams being used in a controlled, supporting capacity.
The driver is poor adoption and misaligned processes cost far more than higher day rates.
Onshore consultants are increasingly responsible for:
Owning business process design
Managing stakeholder expectations
Governing offshore delivery teams
Ensuring solutions work in practice, not just in theory
5. Less fully remote work, more accountability & visibility
The market correction is well underway. As forementioned, hybrid delivery models dominate and clear on-site expectations are defined upfront. This reflects a shift toward accountability, which looks like:
Visibility during key phases
Faster issue resolution
Stronger trust between IT and the business
Candidates unwilling to travel or engage on-site will find the market significantly more limited.
6. Supply chain & manufacturing transformations are accelerating
One of the strongest hiring trends in 2026 is the surge in SAP Supply Chain and Manufacturing programmes.
Drivers include supply chain resilience, cost control and optimisation, sustainability and traceability and increased automation/planning accuracy.
This is driving demand for:
SAP PP, MM, WM, EWM, QM
SAP IBP
Manufacturing Execution (ME/MII)
Plant rollout and cutover specialists
These programmes are deeply operational, further reinforcing the need for on-site presence, native-language capability and strong change management and user adoption experience.
7. Continued investment in AI with a focus on business value
AI investment within SAP environments continues to accelerate — but with a much sharper focus on practical business outcomes. This year, funding is concentrated around:
SAP BTP
Embedded AI and automation
Predictive analytics in supply chain and manufacturing
Intelligent exception handling
Decision-support tools for business users
The most valuable SAP professionals are those who can translate AI capability into business value when embedding it into real-world processes and drive adoption, not just deployment.
8. What this means for businesses
To secure top SAP talent in 2026, organisations must:
Be transparent about on-site requirements
Prioritise business process expertise, not just technical skills
Invest in native-language and onshore capability
Move quickly in hiring decisions
Focus on adoption and ROI, not just go-live
Those that don’t will continue to experience delivery delays, poor adoption and underwhelming returns on investment.
9. What this means for SAP professionals
On the flip side, for SAP candidates, the message is clear:
Develop strong business process knowledge
Strengthen stakeholder and change management skills
Be open to hybrid and on-site delivery
Invest in supply chain, manufacturing, and AI-enabled SAP
Position yourself as a transformation partner, not just a system expert
Those who do will remain in high demand and command premium compensation.
Final Thoughts
The SAP recruitment market in 2026 is less about flexibility for flexibility’s sake, and more about delivering real business value.
On-site presence is rising
Business process expertise is essential
Native language skills are critical
Onshore hiring protects ROI
Supply chain, manufacturing, and AI investment is accelerating
Ultimately, the organisations that succeed will be those that recognise one truth: their SAP transformation will only deliver ROI when the business truly changes.
If you’d like deeper market insight, consultancy on shaping your programme and resourcing strategy or support with key hires globally to deliver your transformation, contact Connor to find out what the team are seeing and we'll help you shape the right approach. The opportunity in 2026 is huge, but only if you get the people and the strategy right.
Email Connor: connor.wall@conexusdx.com
Call Connor: +44 (0) 7854 244 744 / +34 937 374 287