Director, Application Services

Director, Application Services

We’ve been retained by a great client who is looking for a visionary and dynamic leader to join the Information Technology department and lead the evolution of their applications portfolio, including CRM, ERP/CPQ, and other enterprise business applications. The selected candidate will be responsible for applications domain, executing the enterprise application strategy and managing the legacy and future-state application portfolio. The ideal candidate is an experienced development manager with the capacity to oversee the implementation of major application initiatives that advance a business transformation program while maintaining a legacy environment that continues to run the company. 

The Director, Application Services will assume significant collaboration with business leaders, IT Managers, various departments/functions, software vendors, and professional service organizations to facilitate delivery. 

Essential Tasks & Responsibilities

·       Author and communicate the IT application mission and goals that align with business objectives and strategy.

·       Develop and implement the IT application and information roadmap, that involves needed resources, budget, and governance framework, ensuring the optimal use of people, effort, and compliance.

·       Manage and rationalize the application portfolio and other enterprise business applications, ensuring their availability, performance, security, and scalability.

·       Supervise, mentor, and build-out a team of systems analysts, programmers, and IT specialists, providing guidance, coaching, and feedback.

·       Collaborate with internal and external stakeholders, such as business leaders, vendors, suppliers, and consultants, to ensure the effective delivery and integration of applications.

·       Evaluate and monitor the application portfolio, identifying opportunities for improvement, innovation, and transformation.

·       Manage the troubleshooting and resolution of any issues or problems with the applications, ensuring minimal disruption to the business operations.

·       Stay updated on the latest trends and developments in application technologies and best practices.

·       Establish and enforce information governance policies and standards for the application portfolio, ensuring data quality, integrity, accuracy, and consistency.

·       Lead and support information governance initiatives and projects, such as quality assessment, lineage mapping, cataloging, classification, etc.

·       Coordinate with the information governance council and other information governance roles to ensure alignment and collaboration on governance objectives and activities.

·       Promote information governance awareness and education across the organization and foster a data-driven culture.

·       Plan the maintenance and support of legacy applications that are large, monolithic, and difficult to modify, ensuring their compatibility with new business requirements and processes.

·       Lead legacy transformation projects that migrate legacy applications to more modern platforms, such as cloud-based solutions, using automated migration tools or refactoring techniques.

·       Ensure the quality, performance, security, and scalability of transformed applications on new platforms, leveraging cloud-native architectures and best practices.

Technical & Managerial Competencies 

·       Expert knowledge of Sales, Enterprise Resource Planning, HRIS, Middleware, and other enterprise applications, such as MS Dynamics, Iptor ASW (preferred), Infor, Epicor, Boomi, etc.

·       Proficient in the latest B2B technologies for modernizing/managing FTP/SFTP, EDI, and APIs, such as Boomi, Mulesoft, etc.   

·       Proficient in application programming, administration, and support tools and methodologies.

·       Proficient in automated migration tools or refactoring techniques to transform legacy applications.

·       Exceptional project management, leadership, communication, problem-solving skills, and an innate ability to meet deadlines and communicate and address roadblocks. 

·       Strong knowledge of information governance principles, practices, tools, and frameworks.

·       Demonstratable skills as a change agent, and building, developing, and motivating IT team members.

Expectatations

·       A successful Director, Application Services will build and maintain the trust of the business in deploying, managing, and supporting the enterprise application portfolio in support of business objectives. They will properly align their team to the business and be responsive to requests while ensuring adherence to established roadmaps and strategies. They will continuously monitor trends in the industry and ensure the application needs of the enterprise are properly met. In addition, they will ensure that services are delivered according to standard practices and will enforce governance and policy.

Education & Experience

·       Bachelor’s degree

·       10+ years of leadership experience, preferably in a distribution and/or manufacturing environment.

·       Experience in implementing and managing information governance programs and projects.

·       Experience in managing legacy applications

·       Experience in leading legacy transformation projects that migrate legacy applications to cloud-based solutions.

·       Experience in ensuring the quality, performance, security, and scalability of transformed applications on new platforms.