Head of Enterprise Applications & Data Engineering

About the role

The Head of Enterprise Applications & Data Engineering is responsible for the strategy, stability, and evolution of the organization’s core business systems, with primary accountability for the Infor XA ERP platform and supporting systems. This role ensures high availability, performance, and continuous improvement of enterprise applications and data availability supporting critical business operations.

Responsibilities

• Own the performance, reliability, and continuous improvement of the Infor XA ERP system
• Partner with Finance, Procurement, Manufacturing, and Operations to optimize ERP usage and business processes
• Lead ERP support, enhancements, upgrades, and issue resolution
• Ensure system integrity, data accuracy, and compliance with internal controls
• Establish governance, change management, and prioritization frameworks for ERP initiatives
• Drive improved user adoption, training, and documentation
• Lead ERP roadmap development, including evaluation, selection, and implementation of a future ERP platform
• Define and execute a holistic enterprise applications strategy aligned to business growth
• Rationalize application portfolio to reduce redundancy and technical debt
• Drive system integration and interoperability across platforms
• Lead the IS Data Team responsible for:
• Microsoft Fabris/SQL-based data infrastructure and data lake/warehouse environments
• Power BI reporting, dashboards, and semantic models
• Data integration, automation, and ETL/ELT pipelines
• Advanced analytics (e.g., Python/R-based analysis where applicable)
• Deliver enterprise reporting aligned to financial and operational KPIs
• Establish data governance, including data quality, definitions, and ownership
• Enable self-service BI while maintaining consistency and trust in enterprise data
• Establish best practices for data & application lifecycle management (implementation, support, optimization)
• Implement ITIL-aligned service management practices where appropriate
• Develop KPIs and SLAs for application performance and support
• Ensure cybersecurity, compliance, and audit readiness across systems
• Manage vendor relationships and third-party service providers
• Build, lead, and develop a high-performing data & applications teams
• Act as a trusted advisor to business leadership on technology-enabled process improvement
• Foster strong collaboration across IS, Finance, Operations, and executive leadership
• Lead organizational change efforts related to system adoption and transformation
• Drive a culture of continuous improvement and innovation

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Information Systems, Computer Science, Business, or related field
• 10+ years of progressive IT applications experience, including leadership roles
• Deep experience with ERP systems, with strong preference for Infor XA/IBM i or similar manufacturing ERP platforms in a live production environment
• Demonstrated experience leading or heavily contributing to ERP implementations or major transformations
• Strong understanding of: Business process flows (Finance, Supply Chain, Manufacturing), Systems integration and data architecture, Application support models and governance
• Experience managing vendors, system integrators, and offshore resources

Qualifications

• Strategic Leadership – Balances operational excellence with future-state transformation
• Business Acumen – Aligns enterprise systems with operational and financial outcomes
• Change Leadership – Drives adoption through large-scale transformation initiatives
• Stakeholder Influence – Builds trust and alignment across executive and functional teams
• Execution Excellence – Delivers complex, multi-phase initiatives successfully
• Problem Solving – Resolves complex systems and process challenges with scalable solutions