Head of I&T Applications & Platforms - Packaging

Reporting to the Packaging I&T Director, the head of Packaging I&T Applications & Platforms is responsible for the strategy, architecture, build, & running of divisional wide shared business applications and platforms estate. In scope are a significant number of applications supporting all business functions across the packaging division based on a broad range of technologies and platforms.

The Head of Packaging I&T Applications & Platforms provides application specific analysis and advisory expertise, leading and managing a distributed team of application specialists and suppliers. Developing the application environment in alignment with the DS Smith business and functional strategies., Strategy, planning and Application Portfolio Management

• Owning the application lifecycle portfolio for the applications in scope, maintaining an up to date application catalogue and defining the strategy for each application.
• Delivering the ambitions of our applications standardisation strategy
• Developing and maintaining the divisional application system data architecture
• Owning the design of new and the decommissioning of existing application services.
• Supporting service design & acceptance ensuring effective handover to service teams.
• Key to success will be the experienced in building teams shared service teams who can support multi-stakeholder and multi-country operations

Business engagement, advice and guidance

• Developing and leveraging collaborative working relationships with all partners within DS Smith IT and the business to deliver continuously improving end to end services.
• Leading as a technical design authority alongside their team, working closely with the business to help realise the business potential of applications to improve business performance.
• Supporting divisional leadership and business partners in initiating ideas, developing business cases and successfully deploying IT projects.
• Actively managing application delivery activity as part of the I2I process, and providing senior escalation for divisional application run and build activities

Application sustainability and optimisation

• Driving service continuity and improvement through the team and key user groups, providing active monitoring, identifying issues before they impact performance and overseeing the introduction of change to new and existing systems.
• Responsible for the life cycle management, working with relevant IT teams and vendors so that the required projects are planned and delivered to ensure continuous business operation.
• Build strategic relationships with partners to scale and serve the business
• Work collaboratively with suppliers and the business to identify and implement continuous improvement recommendations to minimise costs and maximise value.
• Manage the resolution of major incidents, keeping business and IT stakeholders informed at all time. Ensuring that the team continuously improve performance
• Enable active problem management processes to improve service performance.

Supplier and contract management

• Ownership of core application vendor relationship
• Ownership of key vendor contracts, ensuring governance of key performance indicators and agreed targets are met, overseeing issue resolution where required. Working closely with I&T procurement as necessary on negotiations.

and manage People

• Solid Line reporting to the Packaging I&T Director
• Dotted line reporting to the group I&T Applications and Platforms Director
• Leading a team with the right structure, people, and skills to deliver effectively. (c 60 FTE under direct leadership, with c 45 FTE under indirect leadership through dotted line engaged of the regional application teams)
• Lead and motivate the team, providing coaching and guidance both to those directly under leadership and enablement of communities of practice within the wider packaging applications teams and group.
• Co-ordinate the Packaging Applications Community of Practice across regions with the aim of driving development and best practice within the teams
• Ensure your team are clear on their responsibilities, receive regular feedback on performance and utilise the range of career development options available.
• Inspire your team to continually improve ways of working.
• Create an environment which rewards team success and job satisfaction

Budget

• Budget management responsibility for all divisional applications and people related costs. (divisional application service under management contribute to c £10m p/a opex and capex)

• Highly experienced in IT and business/industry, preferably in a multi-site, multi-country manufacturing environment with knowledge of a broad range of business functions and technology platforms.
• A strategic thinker able to build and lead relationships internally with business and partner Executive leaders
• Specific expertise in application management with demonstrated experience driving business engagement and value creation as well as third party performance.
• Able to work in a matrix organisation with cross-functional teams.
• Excellent knowledge of incident, problem management and change management tools
• Display a strong business driven background with value awareness, understanding the business needs and excellent business judgement.
• Innovative attitude, leading the division into Digital opportunities
• Possess strong interpersonal and influencing skills with excellent stakeholder management.
• Be able to manage relationships across the organisation at multiple levels.
• Strong leadership to inspire and motivate and strong ability to develop self and others through continuous learning, sharing best practices, knowledge and expertise.
• Bachelor or Master's Degree in computer science, information systems, business administration or related field, or equivalent work experience.