Director IT Applications Product Management

The Director of IT Applications Product Management is expected to lead and manage an IT team supporting enterprise applications for Procurement, Merchandising, Supply Chain, Production Planning and Master Data Management in support of Retail and Dining Operations, which may further expand in scope. This leader will be the main point of contact for business teams stated here in terms of providing end-to-end functional support for managing the IT systems in these domains related to new and evolving business functions. This position will work closely with the SAP COE technical team. Along with this, this role will expand in the future as the IT functional owner for other SaaS applications, such as Workforce Management, HR and Payroll platforms.

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

Leadership and Collaboration

• Foster a collaborative and innovative culture, promoting continuous learning and development.
• Collaborate with other business department heads/leaders to align technology initiatives with overall business strategies.
• Provide leadership and mentorship to one or more engineering/support/third-party teams, fostering a culture of excellence, accountability, and teamwork.
• Provide timely and accurate communication of pertinent information regarding the activities of the team to the appropriate business units and IT Management team. Strategic Planning, Vision, and Execution
• Ability to deal with rapidly changing technology landscape by strategizing and generating a compelling vision of how technology supports business processes.
• Leading cross-functional teams/initiatives to achieve the vision timely and qualitatively.
• Contribute to the strategic technology plans of the organization.
• Create a pipeline of work (backlog, prioritization, demand vs. capacity) that is well understood and well managed in terms of delivery timeliness, cost, and quality.

Budget, Contracts, and Vendor Management

• Develop and manage budgets for IT related initiatives, ensuring optimal labor resource allocation.
• Collaborate with procurement and legal teams to negotiate contracts with vendors, service providers, and consultants. Manage vendor relationships and productivity in the areas of responsibility.
• Monitor expenditures to ensure adherence to budgetary constraints.
• Collaborate with finance and procurement teams to reconcile spend versus budget every period.

Application Portfolio Management

• Manage effective governance and portfolio management of all business apps to ensure stakeholder engagement, consensus on prioritization, effective resource management, and functional accountability through all phases of application and product lifecycle.
• Experience dealing with large scale implementation projects as well as continuous improvement of Retail, and Dining systems such as SAP S4 Hana, CAR, and Data Integration among many others.
• Deployment of security patches (OS & Applications) and/or updates to support all business systems including servers and backend systems.
• Collaborate with various business teams and other IT areas to ensure the smooth opening of new stores/platforms as well as store/platform remodel activities. Coordination with associated IT Infrastructure (Network/Cloud) as well as Information Security are expected.
• Work closely with other IT leadership in developing short- and long-range plans and review these plans with senior IT leadership as well as other organizational management.
• Ensure all Service Level Agreements (SLAs) are appropriate for the agreed service level targets; participate in incident

EDUCATION AND/OR EXPERIENCE:

• Bachelor's degree in the field of Computer Science or Information Systems; Master's degree preferred.
• 10+ years of relevant experience in the fields of IT Solutions Development, Deployment, and Support, dealing with a variety of technology and functional solutions in the backend applications area of Retail & F&B industry. Direct experience with SAP S4 Hana would be a major plus.

POSITION QUALIFICATIONS:

• Proven, multi-year experience in a management role overseeing solution engineering, deployment, and support functions within IT.
• Strong leadership skills with a track record of managing and developing one or more high-performing teams.
• Experienced with Enterprise Architecture, including the development of architectural roadmaps.
• In-depth knowledge of systems engineering, and cloud computing.
• Excellent communication skills with the ability to articulate complex technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders.
• Proven experience in budget management and contract negotiations
• Ability to align technical solutions with business requirements.
• Knowledge of emerging solutions, technologies, and applications.
• Ability to interact with users of varying levels of technological understanding.
• Ability to clearly explain technical concepts to both technical and non-technical personnel.
• Ability to work on multiple projects with varying deadlines.
• Good time management skills with the ability to self-manage support/issue priorities. · Strong critical thinking, verbal, and written communication skills, especially technical documentation skills.
• Ability to prioritize work and approach tasks with a sense of urgency.
• Ability to work independently and as a team and manage multiple projects efficiently.
• Must be self-motivated, customer-centric, a team player, and possess a great attitude.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills as well as organizational skills.

PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS:

• Work from the corporate office location as per company policy
• Travel requirement as per the job requirements (not to exceed 20%)