Sr. Manager, ITBP - Engineering
Ferrara Pan Candy Co., Inc.

Job Info

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Job Location: Chicago

Hybrid role - Travel to plants in the Chicagoland area on a regular basis with the main presence at the corporate office at OPO. There is the ability to work from home 2 days a week pending demand.

Want to make an impact?

The Senior IT Business Partner is a key role within Information Technology at Ferrara Candy Company. Ferrara's success and strategic growth initiatives drive our aggressive IT agenda. The Business partner acts as a specialist within several business process areas. As such, the role works closely with our business stakeholders to translate requirements into solutions that consistently add value to our business.

The Senior IT Business Partner will work directly with Plant Engineering and Manufacturing Business leaders, IT Leaders and external Service Providers actively facilitating the delivery of solutions. A keen understanding of the goals and objectives of Plant Operations is required.

The Senior Business Partner ensures that the support mechanisms are in place for system users and that we have the ability to extend, integrate and optimize the platform.

Ways you will make a difference

Business Partnership:

• Work directly with leaders and managers within the Plant Engineering Function to develop the business technology strategy that matches Ferrara's business objectives and growth strategies
• Build a partnership and relationship that adds value to the business through proactive management of enabling technologies
• Assess risk in business areas not adequately supported by technology
• Facilitate the prioritization of projects, programs and enhancements
• Develop recommendations, solution concepts and business cases for new investments

Project Leadership & Solution Design and Delivery:

• Provide visibility of IT projects and activities that impact the Plant Engineering functions. Clearly communicate risks, issues, and action plans.
• Manage all aspects of the project portfolio within the assigned business area.
• Effectively communicate the results and status of projects during various stages of their life cycle.
• In certain cases, it will be necessary to directly manage and lead projects of medium complexity.
• Ensure that the teams are in place (both internal and external) to deliver technology-based solutions.
• Provide consultation during all phases of the development of solutions.
• Work closely with internal IT resources and external service providers to deliver solutions on time and on budget.
• Manage issues and escalate as necessary when projects within the portfolio are at risk in terms of Scope, Timelines and Budgets.

External Partner Management:

• Ensure that our strategic partners operate as an extension of the Ferrara team and are acting in the best interests of Ferrara.
• Proactively manage and escalate as necessary situations where our external partners are not meeting our needs and delivering on their commitments.
• Seek thought leadership from our external partners.

Application/Technology Management:

• Understand the application architecture and essential elements of how application design and configuration meet the needs of the business.
• Understand when and how patches and upgrades should be applied to systems and the impact that those upgrades have on the business as it applies to new functionality and the potential disruption of services
• Meet our Service Level Agreements when it comes to beak/fixes and system bugs. Apply ITIL methods to managing incidents.
• Utilize our existing technology investments before investing in other solutions that could be redundant.
• Understand the full implications of application security and compliance ensuring that our People, Processes and Technologies are compliant and meet all relevant audit requirements.
• Meet established System performance metrics

Skills that will make you successful

• 5 or more years of experience in delivering projects to the business within Plant Engineering function.
• 3 or more years of experience configuring and supporting Rockwell Automation Application suite, QAD Redzone connected worker platform, SAP S4 Plant Maintenance, Wonderware, Zebra technologies and other plant operational systems
• Bachelor's degree (B.A. or B.S.) from a four-year college or university or 5 to 7 years of IT and business/industry work experience.
• Certified Automation Professional (CAP), Project Management Professional (PMP), and Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) certifications a plus.
• Experience in M&A and Divestiture activities is a plus.
• Prior experience working with in a consumer-packaged goods manufacturing facility.
• Prior success managing external IT service providers to deliver solutions.
• Proven experience and knowledge of integrated technical ecosystems such as SCADA, PLCs, HMIs, IOT, VMU devices and MES.

Experiences that will support your success

• Dynamic and enthusiastic personality combining flexibility and creativity.
• Strong communicator with the ability to translate high-level unstructured ideas and requests quickly into a level of detail that can be easily matched to our current system capabilities.
• Proven experience developing project plans and leading projects to completion.
• Proven ability to build and maintain successful relationships across business partners, external partners and the wider IT community.
• Strong interpersonal, written, and oral communication skills.
• Able to conduct research into issues and products as required.
• Ability to prioritize and execute tasks in a fast-moving environment and make sound decisions.
• Ability to present ideas in a user-friendly language.
• Highly self-motivated and directed.
• Occasional travel required.

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