JD Edwards Technical Manager - Solution Architecture, St. Louis or Chicago
Hoffman Estates, IL

Job Description

Job Summary

The Manager of Solution Architecture leads a team of Solution Architects who design, test and deliver solutions supporting Order To Cash, Forecast To Deliver and Procure To Pay. The role works closely with the business-based Process Owners and Key Users to ensure that requirements are well defined and that solutions meet those requirements. Key responsibilities include the creation of business requirements and draft technical specifications as well as effective project management skills. This role provides subject matter expertise on the related business processes, configuration and data structures within the JD Edwards ERP systems and associated bolt-on applications.

Major Duties

* Lead, manage, mentor and provide day-to-day oversight of the Operations IT team of Solution Architects. Includes interviewing, hiring, training and coaching of team members. Additionally assigns work and guides the creation of team member work plans by ensuring priorities are understood.
* Provides functional leadership, mentoring and development of staff.
* Provide guidance and mentoring to junior members of the Solutions Architecture team.
* Ability to mentor and lead other IT and business team members without having direct supervision responsibility.
* Collaborate with end users and management to define business requirements and functional specifications.
* Acts as a solution architect in partnership with line of business staff.
* Researches emerging solutions and technologies and creates assessments of key benefits and risks of changing technology. Active contributor to strategic roadmaps.
* Influences technology decisions and direction.
* Identifies and is evangelistic with the commonization of business processes and system functionality and designs.
* Develops and manages productive relationships within IT and with business leaders and staff.
* Ensures delivery of service requests and regular communication with users during the delivery process.
* Ensures robust test plans are developed to support User Acceptance Testing. Serves as the IT owner of user acceptance testing.
* Via collaboration with other IT team members, ensures comprehensive cutover plans are created and performed for projects and changes.
* Manages proactive response to business system outages to ensure minimal impact to business continuity. May serve as Incident Manager on Events.

Qualifications

* Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology or related field.
* A minimum of eight years of experience preferably in Consumer Products or Food Manufacturing.
* A minimum of five years of hands-on software design and development experience.
* A minimum of three years of experience in an IT Manager role overseeing the direction, development, and implementation and support of ERP solutions, specifically JD Edwards.
* A minimum of three years of experience in an IT Manager role managing a team of people preferably with a mixture of on-site and remote team members.
* A minimum of two years of experience with Advanced Planning and Scheduling solutions such as Logility, i2, Manugistics, SAP APO, etc.
* Broad knowledge of technologies and tools with ability to lead and manage staff in their projects or tasks.
* Strong experience with various software requirements definition, development and quality assurance methodologies.
* Exceptionally strong analytical and problem solving skills.
* Strong experience in successfully communicating concepts to both technical staff as well as non-technical business users.
* Experience managing budgets and forecasting future needs.
* Customer service and skills experience. Must be able to interact with a diverse workforce and be comfortable working in culturally diverse settings and groups.
* Experience working in a global or multi-national environment.
* Fluent in the MS Office suite, MS Visio and MS Project solutions.
* On average 20% travel is required.

Competencies

* Professional & Relationships. Makes efforts to understand the customer (internal and external), anticipates their needs, gives high priority to customer satisfaction while exhibiting professional behaviors.
* Continuous Improvement. Design, develop and implement improvements to existing processes utilizing best practices where applicable.
* Team Skills. Contributes to team development and performance to achieve team and organizational goals. Contributes to a positive work environment through own behavior.
* Leadership Behaviors. Team building and motivating others.
* Critical Thinking in a self-directed manner.