I suggest an experienced project manager/SCRUM Master that has good technical background knowledge. Maybe someone who had development experience before they switched to Project Management. The key here is not that this person has up-to-date development skills but that they know how a software development team works in general.
If the person has very deep development skills it will most likely be a hinderance because they will tend to tell the team "how to do" things. This in turn will most likely be a challenge for the software development team because they don't like to be micro-managed.
The person should have solid project management skills (traditional and/or agile) and should like to work with people. In addition to that Leadership skills (e.g. communication, delegation), team spirit and a honest passion for Project Management are important.
The most challenging part of every software development project or standard software (e.g. SAP, Siebel) deployment project is to gather all requirements in the correct priority. In order to understand the requirements correctly Industry experience is important. Depending on the complexity of your Industry this is not the most critical part but the learning curve can take considerable time and hence the desire to have someone with industry experience.
For many technical experts the leadership skills are the most challenging part. They tend to try to do things faster and for less money. In the end there are many bumps and many lessons learned. This drags down the team morale and hence should be prevented.
The conclusion here is that technical experts might become good project leaders when they get the time and experience to get the additional project management skills. Do you have the time, money and desire to invest in this?
