IT PROGRAM DIRECTOR- RETAIL - HOME OFFICE - KENDRA SCOTT
About Kendra Scott:
We are a fun, talented and driven team dedicated to providing our customers with gorgeous products and a WOW! experience. Family, fashion and philanthropy are at the core of our company and though we move at a very fast pace, we are committed to maintaining a family-oriented work environment and giving back to our community. A passion for great design, dedication to innovation and a strong social media presence are our building blocks for creating a unique and engaging lifestyle brand across all channels, including retail stores, wholesale accounts and e-commerce. Our headquarters are located in the heart of Austin, Texas, and we embrace the unique vibe and energy of our hometown as an inspiration for our brand and company culture.
Position Overview:
Kendra Scott is looking to hire an IT Program Director - Retail to provide vision, definition and leadership of retail enterprise initiatives with multiple projects, to achieve successful completion. This Program Director drives the planning and implementation of enterprise IT systems to enable business processes and improved operations.
Responsibilities:
Plan, manage, monitor the execution of, and deliver strategic programs with multiple project and application lifecycles, including systems integration.
Oversee the implementation of new POS, Merchandise and Order Management systems (such as Oracle and Manhattan) and business processes.
Directly supervise project managers and project leaders.
Work closely with Business and IT senior management and executives, cross-functional business partners, multiple groups within IT, vendors and SI partners to ensure effective program delivery.
Monitor progress of development and implementation projects through stage gate checkpoints.
Partner with the delivery organization, monitor project status and risk, ensuring timely reporting and issue escalation.
Create and publish program status and dashboard reports.
Establish and provide direction that is based on industry best practices and standards. Ensure that project and baseline activity is performed using the selected project lifecycle framework and methodology.
Collaborates with others to establish all aspects of program structure, including preparation and administration of standards for large-scale, complex projects, application life cycle management, and project portfolio management. These may be further leveraged to stand up a future Program Management Office (PMO).
Skillfully interact with outsourced service providers, software and hardware vendors, service representatives, user groups, and peers in other companies, as applicable, outwardly modeling core pillars of Fashion, Family and Philanthropy.
Keep senior IT management informed of status of project portfolio, planning and resources.
Assist in the development of a multi-year strategic roadmap and project sequencing.
Develop and maintain a strong working relationship with IT and business leadership.
Interact with all levels of management within IT and other areas of the company.
Participate in business systems planning and detailed analytical studies. Ensure detailed review addresses business issues, applies standards and methods (manual and automated), identifies alternatives, analyzes costs and benefits, and recommends solutions.
Provide input to IT senior leadership for budget, and long-range business systems planning.
Provide quality assurance for the process and documentation, to meet compliance requirements.
Maintain knowledge of industry standards, ITIL, applicable compliance standards, and changing technologies. Measure and evaluate the effectiveness of the standards and practices, comparing those results to third-party standards to implement continuous improvement.
Work with Vendor Management to ensuring that the service providers meet their Service Level Agreement while continuing to operate within the forecasted and contracted resource levels.
Our Ideal Candidate Will Have:
Bachelor’s degree in related field; relevant graduate degree is strongly preferred
10+ years’ experience in a similar role with a retailer required (specialty preferred).
10+ years’ experience managing major systems projects
10+ years of working with outsourced providers to deliver projects
10+ years of direct management responsibility over teams of 5 or more
10+ years in application development and/or COTS package implementation
Broad range of experience with an omni-channel retail business model
Demonstrated ability to lead effectively within a matrix management environment, consisting of third-party providers, outsourced resources, vendors, business management and IT resources is expected
Stellar communication skills, executive presence, tact, diplomacy and emotional intelligence
Must have knowledge and experience effectively planning and executing projects within an outsourced environment
Experience both maintaining and building/deploying new solutions
Experience managing and delivering solutions deployed on a variety of technical platforms and environments, with cloud strongly preferred
Proactive, strategic thinker and detail-oriented
PMP certification is strongly preferred
Prior responsibility for project portfolio management, application lifecycle management, IT planning and/or vendor management is preferred
Strong business and financial analysis skills are expected
Experience working for a top-tier consulting firm is desirable
Proactive, holistic, strategic thinker yet detail-oriented
Experience with MS O365, Visio, Atlassian, Jira, Confluence