– The Vice President, IT leads a global effort to define, collaborate with the business to prioritize, build, and deliver transformative projects that will support Penn Color’s future growth through technology.
– As an experienced technology leader, this role will foster a collaborative culture to deliver innovative technology solutions.
– As a member of the Penn Color executive team reporting directly to the President, this role will represent and advocate for technology investments and priorities that will support Penn Color’s long-term objectives.
– The role is accountable for a variety of application platforms including Enterprise Applications, Analytics/Business Intelligence, Color Technology, Plant Automation & Data Acquisition, and Global Infrastructure – including security.
-This leader will have their pulse on the latest trends in the technology landscape and will help evangelize and transform the company to become a more technology enabled global business.

TARGET RESPONSIBILITIES:

Business Partner:

•  Provides cross functional, hands-on leadership for application, data, and technology initiatives; establishes strong working relationships with the business at all levels – in the capacity of a trusted advisor.
• Provides guidance and direction as it relates to application projects including platform selection, data engineering, and the delivery of business information to drive business strategy, operational effectiveness, continuous improvement, and “discovery.”
• As a member of the executive team, provide direction and guidance as it relates to the application of technology to support customer and employee engagement.

Strategy & Direction :

• Develop a strategic technology roadmap; develop and design an enterprise applications and technology vision for the company.
• Ensure alignment of IT applications and technology with business direction.
• Analyze the costs, value, and risks of information technology to advise leadership and suggest actions. This is especially applicable to infrastructure refresh cycles and the costs/benefits of migrating to cloud-based infrastructure and/or applications.

Projects & Deliverables:

• Excellent command of data design, application development, and the full software development lifecycle including Agile methods; ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning), plant automation, planning solutions and Business Intelligence deployment experience.
• Excellent command of IT infrastructure management including security, wide and local area networking, server and storage technologies, and client computing.
• Manage projects and expenses to on-time/on-budget expectations.
• Implement cybersecurity, infrastructure reliability, and disaster recovery policies and procedures optimized for company needs.
• Set project management standards / methodologies for technology deployments.

Day to Day Operations:

• Manages people, resources, and daily activities within the IT teams; provides the necessary coordination across teams, to ensure infrastructure and applications are available at optimal levels of performance and reliability.
• In alignment with business priorities, sets the project agenda for all IT teams including application development/deployment projects and infrastructure related projects.
• Manages all infrastructure and systems at all global locations.
• Maintains real-time monitoring & controlling of performance of all IT assets and taking immediate corrective action upon loss of service(s).
•  Always maintains the highest level of engagement for team members – providing them with excellent workplace conditions and tools to support the enterprise.

Interpersonal relationships and Team Development:

• As an executive team member, the VP IT collaborates closely with other company executives. Within the IT teams, instills and drives a culture of collaboration with other functions, departments, stakeholders in the company. Drives change via relationships versus authority.
• Lead, coach, and mentor a team of IT professionals:
• Fostering a collaborative environment with a focus upon customer service and customer satisfaction.
• Considering the growth and development of each team member, setting goals, identifying training opportunities – via formal education and project assignments.

Performance control:

• Reviews and approves standards and policies for the measure of performance and what success looks like in general, formalized standards of performance. Provides adequate support to subordinates regarding goal setting, measuring, and interpreting performance.
• Presents monthly, quarterly, annual reporting on performance and state of IT in general, as requested by the President/CEO and the other members of the executive team. Reporting includes project status, introduction of new applications platforms, suggested areas of investment, and the overall “state of IT.”
• Supports the direct and indirect contribution of IT to customers’ satisfaction, employee engagement, and the overall financial performance of Penn Color.
• Ensures all IT services operations in the US and globally (United States, The Netherlands, Thailand, and Singapore) are available performing optimally.
• Maintains all infrastructure globally to ensure available support and timely recovery in an outage.

Growth and Continuous improvement:

• Instills and drives a culture of continuous improvement in all IT teams and is a change management champion.
• Executes with a mindset of continuous improvement, as it relates to efficiency or effectiveness, across the entire IT scope (team member development, systems, processes, services, etc.).
• With each key technology deployment, improves legacy service levels and delivers improved value.
• Defines the strategy for the mid and long-term performance improvements in IT, supporting the company goals for growth. Strategic goals in IT include supporting Penn Color’s 10% year-on-year business growth, maintaining best-in-class IT systems and operations to provide and complement the “Penn Color Experience” for customers and employees.

Education:

• B.S. degree in Computer Science or other relevant discipline
• Master’s degree or MBA preferred, though not an absolute requirement.

Knowledge/Skills/Experience:

• 20+ years with progressive leadership in IT function with oversight of budgets, services, and internal/external resources.
• Minimum 10 years in an applications development/deployment role.
• Minimum 5 years managing an applications development/deployment team of 20 people.
• Demonstrated ability to create and develop strong teams.
• Ability to explain digital concepts and technologies to non-technical audiences, and business concepts to technologists.
• Experience with manufacturing applications required. Experience in support of applications for a chemical industry/process manufacturing enterprise preferred.
• Demonstrated leadership role with an ERP implementation required.
• Infrastructure management and cybersecurity experience required.
• Experience with advanced IT technologies including data analytics and machine learning/AI/VR preferred.
• Demonstrated experience and success in defining vision and strategy, establishing project agendas, and delivering projects on-time and on-budget.
•  Demonstrated ability to effectively drive and achieve business results related to critical application and technology infrastructure – driving and supporting business process improvement in any area of the business.
• Proven leadership abilities on an executive team; proven abilities to lead, develop and motivate a diverse workforce, to drive high employee engagement at all levels.
• Strong analytical, technical, business, managerial skills, financial acumen with excellent oral and written communication skills, robust people skills, effective at connecting with people and building relationships at all levels of the organization.
• Proficiency in managing a shared services function across multiple operating units, plants and offices.