Senior Manager: IT Development at PPS

Overall Job Purpose

The Senior Manager: Development will be accountable all mission critical applications used by the PPS Group, this includes PPS Applications ie (Financials, Supply Chain, HCM and CRM pillars), Business Intelligence / Analytics / Data Warehouse, B2B EDI system and other applications. This Senior Manager will be responsible for the long-term strategy of these applications (including upgrades as needed), execution of the committed portfolio of IT projects through technical design, configuration, development, testing and implementation.

The Senior Manager will also be responsible for daily application support activities ensuring that the organisation can effectively use the pool of applications to delivery on strategic and operational targets. Lead, plan, direct and control all activities related to developers and testing competencies; resource management; release management, quality and test management. This Senior Manager ensures a formal set of application development methodologies, principles, standards and processes are in place and adhered to with a focus on more agile ways of work.

This role will be accountable for the evaluation and implementation of standards and procedures, which support all the PPS Group functions. Ensures projects/programs are completed within the committed time and budget and are integrated with other software applications.

Key Accountabilities

• Support IT Exec Dev/Ops by delivering the committed portfolio of Business Projects on time, to scope and within budget and within agreed constraints
• Lead a team of developers and reporting specialists to support PPS’s Arena, Websites, HR, BI, CRM, Finance, PRO-FiT, Sparkle etc and other application needs
• Ensure application development methodologies, principles, standards and processes are defined and ensure compliance across IT portfolio with a future focus on agile methods of work
• Ensure a long-term strategy of the ERP applications is maintained and agreed to by the CIO and IT Executives
• Create a culture of high performance, continuous optimisation and cost effectiveness and manage team performance
• Serve as the Centre of Excellence for applications under the control of the Applications team providing expertise on application functionality, roadmaps (understanding vendor future plans)
• Quorum member of Architecture Review Board that approves / rejects solution designs
• Serve as point of escalation for Program Manager, assist in mitigating delays and removing obstacles that are delaying projects
• Establish, communicate, manage and enforce appropriate change and release management, test and quality mechanisms
• In conjunction with Portfolio Management Executive pro-actively plan future IT resource requirements with third-party suppliers for both projects and application support
• Review business cases (business and IT) to assess all application impacts
• Own all business cases and RFI/RFP/RFQ related for any applications related work
• Provide detailed budget requirements and the management thereof
• Understanding how the entire IT budget is constructed and provide input into the management and use of this budget

Education:

• Matric
• Bachelor degree in either Information Systems, Informatics or Computer Science or Engineering
• Honours or Masters in Information Systems, Informatics, Computer Science or Engineering is preferred
• ITIL Service Management Framework Certification an advantage

Experience:

• 5-7 years of application management experience
• 3-5 years in managing suppliers and large contracts
• Experience in Architecture an advantage
• Experience in Project Management an advantage

Knowledge and Skills:

• Excellent strategic and tactical planning capabilities - proven experience in application delivery
• Designing, managing and actively promoting the ‘Build’ and Deploy capabilities - expertise in methodologies and processes, e.g. Agile and Waterfall delivery methodologies
• Relationship-Builder - ability to manage and work effectively with multiple third-party vendors
• Excellent analytical, logical reasoning and strategic thinking ability and business acumen.
• Excellent leadership change management and problem-solving skills.
• Excellent planning, organising and execution skills.
• Excellent communication (verbal and written) in English.
• Strong conflict management skills