IT Director

The Director, NAIP Business Applications & IT Business Partner serves as the primary IT partner for the North America Industrial Packaging (NAIP) business, aligning business priorities with practical technology solutions. The role owns the NAIP business application portfolio, including support, enhancements, demand management, project delivery, and stakeholder engagement for QAD, Solomon, and related applications. Working closely with global application strategy leaders, this position ensures alignment with enterprise standards, architecture, roadmaps, and long-term platform strategies. The leader also brings sufficient understanding of AI-enabled business capabilities to identify practical use cases and collaborate effectively with Data/BI and Enterprise Applications teams. Additionally, the role helps define and execute the NAIP ERP modernization roadmap, ensuring transformation initiatives support both NAIP business objectives and enterprise technology direction.

The primary scope of this position includes NAIP IT business partnership, business application portfolio leadership, ERP modernization execution and planning, demand management, support coordination, vendor coordination, and project delivery in alignment with enterprise application strategies.

Key Responsibilities:

• Serve as the primary IT business partner for NAIP, building strong relationships with functional and operational leaders to align technology solutions with business priorities.
• Lead the NAIP business applications portfolio, including QAD, Solomon, and related systems, ensuring reliable support, maintenance, enhancement delivery, and business value realization.
• Manage application demand intake, prioritization, and execution, balancing business needs, resource capacity, budgets, and enterprise technology standards.
• Develop and execute the NAIP ERP modernization roadmap, including ERP consolidation, migration, rationalization, and transformation initiatives.
• Partner with enterprise application strategy leaders to ensure NAIP solutions align with corporate architecture, platform standards, governance, and long-term technology roadmaps.
• Evaluate business processes and system capabilities to identify opportunities for standardization, optimization, automation, analytics, and AI-enabled improvements.
• Lead application-related projects and enhancements, including requirements gathering, solution design, testing, deployment, change management, and post-implementation support.
• Provide leadership for application support and issue resolution, ensuring timely escalation, root-cause analysis, communication, and continuous service improvement.
• Coordinate cross-functional IT activities with Infrastructure, Security, Service Desk, Data/BI, and Enterprise Applications teams to deliver integrated and supportable solutions.
• Manage vendor and third-party partner relationships, overseeing performance, service delivery, project execution, and value realization.
• Lead, coach, and develop application and business analyst teams, fostering accountability, knowledge sharing, succession planning, and continuous improvement.
• Ensure compliance with IT governance, security, risk management, SDLC, change management, and audit requirements.
• Communicate technology strategies, project outcomes, risks, and recommendations to business and IT leadership, translating technical concepts into clear business impacts and decisions.

Requirements:

• Demonstrated experience leading or substantially contributing to ERP migrations, consolidations, rationalization, or modernization initiatives is required.
• Experience with ERP roadmaps, business process harmonization, data migration, integration planning, testing, cutover readiness, and change management is required.
• Demonstrated ability to operate within a matrixed governance model and collaborate effectively with enterprise application strategy leaders, business stakeholders, and transformation teams.
• Experience working with manufacturing ERP platforms such as QAD, Solomon, SAP, Oracle, Microsoft Dynamics, Infor, Epicor, JD Edwards, or similar solutions is strongly preferred.
• 10+ years of experience in IT, business applications, ERP support, business analysis, or related technology leadership roles.
• 5+ years of leadership experience managing application teams, business analysts, vendors, projects, or business-facing technology functions.
• Experience supporting ERP or business application portfolios in manufacturing, industrial, distribution, finance, plant operations, or customer service environments.
• Strong business acumen and ability to partner with executives, functional leaders, operational teams, IT peers, vendors, and cross-functional teams.
• Experience with project delivery, requirements definition, testing, release management, SDLC discipline, vendor management, SLAs, KPIs, contract inputs, and cost/value discussions.
• Strong communication skills with the ability to translate technical topics into clear business terms, prioritize competing demands, and make practical tradeoff recommendations.
• Working knowledge of AI-enabled business capabilities, including how AI, automation, and analytics can be applied responsibly to improve business processes, decision-making, and user productivity.
• Bachelor's degree in Information Technology, Business, Supply Chain, Finance, Engineering, or a related field preferred, or equivalent experience.