Director, Enterprise Application Services

The Opportunity & Role Overview:

The Director, Enterprise Application Services provides leadership, strategic direction, and oversight for the architecture, enhancement, integration, implementation, support, and maintenance of the organization's enterprise applications and services. The Director ensures that all enterprise application services, support business processes and operations efficiently and effectively through best practices and team development, including recruitment, growing team skillsets, and empowering team members to deliver service excellence in practice, mindset, and culture.

Application Deadline: February 3, 2025, 8:59pm PT

Key Responsibilities:

• Lead and manage the IT application team, ensuring the effective maintenance and support of all enterprise applications.
• Develop and implement strategies for application maintenance, ensuring optimal performance, reliability, and security.
• Oversee the release management process, including planning, scheduling, and coordination of software releases, updates, and patches.
• Ensure compliance with industry standards and best practices in application maintenance and release management.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to align application strategies with business objectives.
• Monitor and report on key performance indicators (KPIs) and service-level agreements (SLAs) related to application maintenance and releases.
• Identify and mitigate risks associated with application maintenance and release activities.
• Provide guidance and mentorship to team members, fostering a culture of continuous learning and professional development.
• Stay abreast of emerging trends and technologies in application maintenance and release management.
• Lead the development, management, and reporting of KPIs associated with the application life cycle to focus on continuous improvements and overall customer satisfaction.
• Responsible for working closely with business partners to broker and orchestrate end-to-end activities associated with application maintenance and business continuity.
• Strong vendor management to effectively hold third party solution providers to SLAs and performance.

 Leadership & Strategy

• • Provide overall vision and leadership for the enterprise application services function, including selection, implementation, maintenance, and support.
  • Provide technical leadership on full-cycle service delivery including business analysis, application development, customization & configuration, quality control, and support.
  • Work closely with the enterprise architect to conduct feasibility studies for software and system products under consideration for purchase, and provide recommendations based on findings.

Application Management

• • Manage multiple application support teams to develop, deploy, operate, and evolve reliable, resilient, and scalable application services with a focus on quality, business enablement, and delivering outstanding user experiences.
  • Establish, monitor, report, and analyze KPIs and metrics to measure effectiveness and identify continuous improvement opportunities.

• • Define and enhance methodologies and practices for the application life cycle management aligned to best practices and practical experience of continuous improvement.
  • Ensure compliance with existing policies & procedures and lead new policy & procedure development as needed.

• • Ensure application and services documentation is up to date including but not limited to inventory, configuration, support matrix, contracts/agreements, release plans, and user guides.
  • Identify, assess, and implement necessary controls to mitigate risks as needed.
  • Cultivate and disseminate knowledge of application-usage best practices.

Technical Oversight

• • Provide technical guidance and support for systems analysis, applications, services, databases, integration, and reporting systems.
  • Evaluate and approve technical approaches, including cloud architecture, programming, DevOps, and security.

Project Management

• • Provide project management leadership and consultation for new or enhanced enterprise systems.
  • Manages the development of processes and tools in conjunction with infrastructure and operations to automate the handoff of code releases from development to operations.
  • Undertakes special projects or assignments as required.

Vendor and Stakeholder Management

• • Provide business outcome-centric advice and services in assessing evolving business requirements, shaping, and prioritizing technology needs, developing, and delivering solutions.
  • Build partnerships with business leaders or product owners at various levels within the company to guide strategic decision making and influence how services can improve adoption.
  • Foster collaboration and develops highly responsive working relationships with cross functional IT teams.
  • Manage vendor performance and work with vendors on developing creative solutions, solving technical issues, and enhancing service delivery.
    • Manage relationships with software vendors, including contract negotiation and compliance.
  • Collaborate with analysts, developers, and system owners in the quality assurance of software applications and services.
  • Collaborate with stakeholders to understand business needs and translate them into technical requirements.

Team Leadership

• • Leads and supports a team of highly skilled IT professionals and provides training, coaching, career development, and performance management.
  • Foster a culture of customer service, innovation, and quality within the team.
  • Establish and oversee individual and department priorities, projects, tasks, and responsibilities.

Fiscal Responsibility

• • Contributes to the development and management of the application services budget.
  • Identifies and leverages opportunities to optimize costs and value for applications and services, throughout their life cycle.
     

What You’ll Bring:

 Formal Education & Certification

• • Bachelor’s degree in computing science, Computer Systems Engineering, or Software Engineering
  • ITIL certification.
  • Certified Scrum Master, Agile Certified Practitioner or similar certification would be an asset.
  • PMP certification is an asset.

Knowledge & Experience

• • Bachelor of Computer Science, Information Technology, or related field. Masters preferred.
  • Minimum of 15 years’ experience in IT application management with at least 10 years of direct leadership / management experience, leading technical support and development teams.
  • Strong background in application maintenance, release management and other leading practices associated with the Development and Operations (“DevOps”) life cycle.

• • Proven knowledge of the principles, concepts, practices, and technologies of Agile/DevOps.
  • Demonstrated business acumen and technical knowledge of software development lifecycle, cloud architecture and distributed systems.
  • Experience defining systems architectures and exploring technical feasibility tradeoffs.
  • Proven experience overseeing the direction, development, implementation, and support of applications and services.
  • Advanced people skills, including relationship building, advising, consulting, influencing, conflict resolution, and presentation/facilitation skills.
  • Proven service management experience for organizations with a 1500+ user base.
  • Advanced communication skills to communicate technical concepts to nontechnical people to enhance understanding and drive decisions that lead to positive outcomes.
  • Experience with organizational change management is considered an asset.

Personal Attributes

• • Excellent written and oral communication skills.
  • Strong customer-service orientation.
  • Excellent listening and people skills.
  • Ability to communicate ideas in both technical and user-friendly language.
  • Highly initiative-taking and directed.
  • Ability to conduct research into application issues and products.
  • Excellent diligence to detail.
  • Ability to effectively prioritize and execute tasks in a high-pressure environment.
  • Experience working in a team-oriented, collaborative environment.

What Can We Offer You?

• Extended health and dental coverage, healthcare spending account, and RRSP matching.
• Maternity and parental leave top-up.
• Employee & Family Assistance Program, which offers support in person, online or over the phone.
• A workplace culture that is characterized by respect and inclusion for all.
• Competitive salary, participation in our generous performance bonus plan, and opportunity to join an employee-owned firm with potential share ownership.

Salary Range: $125,000-$165,000 per Annum. McElhanney offers fair compensation that is commensurate with the individual’s education, experience, skills, and professional qualifications. The posted base salary range is representative of the required level of qualifications and experience for the position as noted in the job posting. The salary offered will be based on the experience and qualifications of the successful candidate. 

Application Deadline: February 3, 2025, 8:59pm PT

Application Instructions: 

Please include the following in your application:

1. An updated resume and portfolio of work that is relevant to the position outlining:
2. A cover letter that includes:
   1. Your motivation for applying for this position, highlighting what specifically attracts you to the role.
   2. Explain how your unique blend of skills and experiences would enable you to make a significant impact as a leader at McElhanney.