Director, IT Business Relations - Operations

Essential Functions & Responsibilities

• Act as the strategic interface between the IT organization and Operations teams across multiple facilities.
• Build strong relationships with Operations leaders to ensure IT investments are aligned with operational requirements that support customer needs.
• Serve as the Applications leader for a team of developers, specifically dedicated to maintaining and continuously enhancing the mission-critical applications that underpin daily operations across the organization.
• Support Arcwood’s ERP platform and unique operations-specific applications, while also identifying and delivering technology solutions that drive operational efficiency, effective production analysis, and digital transformation.
• Lead the planning and implementation of IT projects (including M&A integrations) that support Operations functions.
• Own the end-to-end requirements collection process across all operations projects, engaging stakeholders to define, document, and validate business needs before development begins.
• Evaluate, select, and govern application partners to supplement internal capabilities for implementation projects and ongoing run-and-maintain support of critical systems.
• Prioritize and align development capacity across the team to ensure the highest-impact initiatives are resourced and delivered first.
• Establish and manage release schedules, coordinating across development, QA, and Operations teams to ensure smooth, predictable deployments with minimal disruption.
• Explore and recommend emerging technologies to enhance operational capabilities.
• Ensure the on-time, on-budget, and high-quality delivery of IT initiatives.
• Identify and resolve risks, dependencies, and resource constraints.
• Collaborate with IT Architecture, Security, and Development teams to ensure solutions meet enterprise standards.
• Balances competing project demands by maintaining a prioritized backlog and aligning development resources to strategic business priorities.
• Manage application partner relationships, ensuring third-party teams deliver against defined SLAs, project milestones, and quality standards for both implementation and run-and-maintain engagements.
• Support team in completing system configuration, testing, and deployment of updates, patches and new features.
• Oversee the ongoing evolution and stability of the proprietary ERP system, including release planning, version control, and deployment coordination to ensure platform reliability.
• Develop and maintain documentation including process flows, user guides and training materials.
• Takes on additional duties as assigned to support the team and organization.

Strategic Leadership

• Collaborates with Operations teams to gather requirements, design solutions, and implement system enhancements.
• Translates business requirements into IT project scope and roadmaps.
• Leads the planning and implementation of IT projects (including M&A integrations) that support Operations functions.
• Owns the end-to-end requirements collection process across all operations projects, engaging stakeholders to define, document, and validate business needs before development begins.
• Evaluates, selects, and governs application partners to supplement internal capabilities for implementation projects and ongoing run-and-maintain support of critical systems.
• Prioritizes and aligns development capacity across the team to ensure the highest-impact initiatives are resourced and delivered first.
• Establishes and manages release schedules, coordinating across development, QA, and Operations teams to ensure smooth, predictable deployments with minimal disruption.
• Explores and recommends emerging technologies to enhance operational capabilities.
• Ensures the on-time, on-budget, and high-quality delivery of IT initiatives.
• Identifies and resolves risks, dependencies, and resource constraints.
• Collaborates with IT Architecture, Security, and Development teams to ensure solutions meet enterprise standards.
• Balances competing project demands by maintaining a prioritized backlog and aligning development resources to strategic business priorities.
• Manages application partner relationships, ensuring third-party teams deliver against defined SLAs, project milestones, and quality standards for both implementation and run-and-maintain engagements.

Data Analysis & Compliance

• Collaborates with Operations teams and data analytics groups to improve visibility into facility performance, downtime, and optimization opportunities.
• Supports the implementation of dashboards, BI tools, and predictive analytics while partnering with Arcwood’s Data team.
• Ensures operational systems are compliant with respective data regulations.
• Participates in IT governance and budgeting processes related to Operations initiatives.

System Upgrades & Maintenance

• Supports team in completing system configuration, testing, and deployment of updates, patches and new features.
• Oversees the ongoing evolution and stability of the proprietary ERP system, including release planning, version control, and deployment coordination to ensure platform reliability.
• Develops and maintains documentation including process flows, user guides and training materials.
• Takes on additional duties as assigned to support the team and organization.

Education & Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in information systems, business, engineering or related field (required).
• 7+ years of experience in IT management; 3+ years closely supporting Operations (required).
• Experience selecting third party providers and working with them to deliver initiatives on time and on budget (required).
• Previous experience working within project management methodologies such as Agile or Waterfall (preferred).
• Experience managing or leading development teams responsible for supporting proprietary or internally-built enterprise applications (required).