Lead - IT Applications - Android/iOS - (C.19.38) Michaels Stores, Inc.
Irving, TX

Job Description

Why Work for Us?

The Michaels Companies, Inc., is North America's largest arts and crafts specialty retailer, with more than 1,340 stores in the United States and Canada. Our store team, distribution and manufacturing center team, and support center team work together to help our customers bring their creativity to life. We offer career growth, benefits packages, retirement plans, tuition reimbursement, and more. Michaels Team Members also enjoy a wide variety of ways to save including discounts at our stores, select fitness and childcare centers, restaurants, hotels, and more.

The Michaels support center is located in Irving, Texas. We call our corporate office a "support center" because everything we do there helps to support the retail stores. It's a creative, challenging and collaborative place to grow your career.

Basic Function:

A leader who is responsible for delivering value leveraging technology-enabled solutions as well as providing on-going enhancement and maintenance support for Mobile area. He/she is the primary contact and liaison with the Business. He/she is also responsible for managing the third party/vendor resources.

What will you be doing?

Leadership Area Management

* Provide thought leadership with business partners and IT teams to build, align and execute to the strategic and tactical goals for the designated functional areas in a portfolio
* Operate with a commitment to embracing emerging trends, operations and technologies that are applicable to the business
* Collaborate, influence and communicate with business on project/enhancement prioritization and delivery/support status
* Serves as an escalation point for incidents, problems, and service requests for designated areas in a portfolio
* Coordinate and establish solution area(s), project schedules and release plans
* Provide input for the annual project area(s) roadmap, schedule and related budgets and forecasts
* Demonstrate leadership in the pursuit of excellence and continuous process improvement initiatives
* Enhance own and teams' working knowledge of the designated functional areas and applications/technologies
* Ensure associates roles and capabilities are optimally aligned to meet the support standards and/or business needs
* Adheres to department operations standards, follows the prescribed SDLC process and operational framework
* Participate in the recruiting, interviewing and selection process of newly hired associates
* Provide mentoring, coaching and development for associates; partner with HR in decisions on personnel actions

Solution Delivery

* Accountable for the delivery of new projects on time, within budget and with high quality within their designated areas of a portfolio
* Develop and recommend solution options to meet business needs
* Assist to ensure projects are appropriately estimated, scheduled, planned and executed
* Determine, monitor and review project budgets, schedules and resource requirements
* Manage 3rd party service providers to ensure timely execution of project deliverables and quality
* Provide clear, concise and timely communication to project team members, stakeholders, senior management and other groups as appropriate.
* Coordinates issue/risk resolution between teams.
* Ensure projects follow Michaels defined project delivery methodology, architectural standards, processes and policies to ensure quality of solutions
* Ensures all provided technology services and solutions meet business needs for reliability, performance and security

Applications Support, Performance Measurement and Continuous Improvement

* Accountable for maintaining stable operations and executing within or exceeding SLAs for designated area(s) of applications
* Proactively monitor and provide input to Manager regarding outsourced partner(s) performance and escalate deficiencies.
* Work with the Support teams and Vendor's Support Manager to respond to escalated Incidents, Problems and Service Requests for application support
* Assist Manager with managing the business relationships and communications for assigned applications
* Implement the application lifecycle roadmap. Assist Manager in determining support/maintenance milestones for upgrades.
* Manages technology upgrades, patches, or break fix
* Assist Manager in collaborating with key stakeholders to prioritize and schedule support requests and ensure timely and efficient closure of tickets.
* Plan and manage execution of Peak Season support
* Facilitate incident, defect and enhancement review and prioritization discussions with the Infrastructure Support organization
* Measure support services performance against service levels using measurable KPIs
* Prepare management dashboard of the designated areas service performance
* Champion improvements of systems to solve problems, improve stability and drive down support costs
* Leverage support best practices and process frameworks, such as the ITIL, to drive continual process improvement
* Ensure adherence to quality standards
* Provide quality and testing support for all projects involving assigned applications

Job Requirements

* Bachelor's Degree
* Computer Science or equivalent
* Required:
* Demandware SalesForce (or similar Ecomm platforms)
* HTML, JavaScript, JQuery, Java, Json
* Good working knowledge on Web services - REST, SOAP, Kony, Cordova, React Native, Angular, Xamarin, Ionic, Node.JS


* 5 - 7 years of experience in progressively responsible IT positions; leadership or relevant areas of business. Project Management and Support
* 5 - 7 years Mobile experience
* Retail background
* Front end and backend development
* Production support background website monitoring experience
* Developing strategic thought process
* Strong project management
* Knowledge and experience with supporting IT applications and environments
* Knowledge and experience with complex IT system implementations
* Knowledge of retail systems or business experience
* Experience in educating others on Project Management methodologies
* Ability to effectively coordinate work across multiple areas of the organization
* Excellent verbal and written communication skills, negotiation skills, interpersonal skills
* Detail-oriented person with strong problem solving abilities
* Team oriented with strong organizational and planning skills
* Ability to drive change
* Ability to build professional relationships at all levels
* Ability to manage multiple priorities and business expectations
* Manages hiring, performance management, coaching and career development, and succession planning for their staff
* Provides direction to others so that corporate goals, strategies, and objectives can be achieved
* Must possess strong analytical and financial analysis skills