Director Business Systems

A well known client of ours in North San Diego has engaged us to help recruit a Director of Business Systems. This person must be a SME on finance and accounting principles (to the extent they have their CPA, degree in finance and started career in accounting/finance, or are from Financial Systems type of role) and processes as they relate to enterprise systems. At a high level here are some concepts to home in on-

Job Description

Director, Business Systems, you'll lead roadmap development, project delivery, and support for several of our core platforms such as ERP, HCM, and PLM. Your retail expertise and business acumen will enable you to collaborate with business partners to drive process improvements and technical solutions vital to our domestic and international growth. You'll enforce high-quality standards and use metrics to improve team performance. You will augment your team leveraging vendor partnerships and will optimally manage priorities, schedules, budgets, and risks to ensure excellence in our business applications. Your entrepreneurial drive will fuel proactive innovation recommendations.

Qualifications

What you'll get to do:

• Build, lead and continuously develop a high performing team.
• Assess and recommend org strategy, including partnerships and global support.
• Help lead RFPs for selection of software platforms and implementation partners.
• Establish and enforce sound implementation and support processes.
• Establish and nurture collaborative relationships with key stakeholders across various departments, including accounting/finance, planning, procurement, operations, and People & Culture.
• Oversee the development and execution of strategic roadmaps for business systems, including ERP, Wholesale, HCM, and PLM.
• Lead project delivery efforts, ensuring timely completion within budget and with adherence to quality standards.
• Drive continuous improvement initiatives across all business systems to enhance efficiency and effectiveness.
• Provide ongoing support and maintenance for existing systems and applications.
• Utilize retail/apparel experience and accounting and finance business acumen to deliver leading practice solutions.
• Leverage vendor partnerships strategically to enhance organizational capabilities.
• Assess and mitigate risks associated with business system implementations and operations.
• Monitor and optimize team capacity to meet project demands and organizational goals.
• Enforce standards and best practices to ensure the delivery of high-quality work.
• Continuously improve internal team processes and coordination of work with other teams.
• Mentor and develop team members to foster growth and professional development.
• Contribute to executive status reporting and project presentations.
• Implement metrics to measure team performance and identify areas for improvement.
• Collaborate with technology teams and the PMO to manage schedules, budgets, and priorities effectively.
• Ensure dedication to excellence in collaboration with the quality assurance team to maintain high standards of quality and reliability.
• Work closely with key business stakeholders to ensure your team understands requirements and implements effective solutions.
• Collaborate with the Engineering and Architecture team to ensure system integrations requirements are well understood and properly documented, implemented and supported.
• Foster a culture of teamwork, accountability, and continuous learning within the business systems team.
• Act as a liaison between technical and non-technical stakeholders to ensure alignment and effective communication.
• Prepare for and ensure reliable systems operations during peak season.
• Prepare for and execute periodic system upgrades.
• Proactively evaluate and recommend innovation opportunities to drive business growth.
• Stay updated on industry trends and emerging technologies relevant to business systems.
• Provide leadership, guidance and support to your team members and other business and technology stakeholders in resolving production issues.

Who you are:

• Bachelor’s degree in information systems, Computer Science, Business Administration, or a related field, or comparable professional experience.
• Master's degree is a plus.
• Accounting certification preferred.
• 10+ years proven experience implementing and supporting ERP systems (D365 F&O preferred).
• 7+ years proven technology leadership experience.
• Retail experience required. Apparel or footwear experience preferred.
• Excellent analytical, problem-solving, and critical-thinking skills.
• Strong communication and interpersonal skills.
• Able to collaborate effectively with cross-functional teams and stakeholders.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced, dynamic environment.
• Knowledge of SDLC and agile practices

Additional Information

Our investment in you:

We’re proud to offer the following to our employees;

• Health Insurance
• Savings and Retirement Plan
• Employee Assistance Program
• Generous Vuori Discount & Industry Perks
• Paid Time Off
• Wellness & Fitness benefits

Retail industry experience is a key priority

D365 is key, but could have other SAP or Oracle experience as long as they come from the retail industry

REALLY want someone who is local enough to be onsite 2-3x per week. If they are in Southern California could they stay locally a night or two per week.

Why Finance/Accounting Systems is so important- need to know:

Total cost of goods: landed cost

Moving average

Section 321 duty, ecomm purchases and the implications of that

Intercompany trade

Eliminations/Consolidations

P2P, order to cash, fixed assets

Public accounting experience would be highly preferred

Accounting processes: AP/AR, Bank Reconciliations, foreign currency, etc

International with Multiple entities

Will oversee the team that runs procurement: process we go through doing long term purchasing with contract manufacturing

Working closely with suppliers, POs, Planned receipt dates,

Integration of an ERP with PLM- how that impacts net requirements for supply chain mng

BOMs, raw materials planning, consumption of raw materials, Master Data

Wholesale is unique: long lead times, EDI orders from large retailers, etc.

Hitting inventory in the ERP environment

Large scale planned orders that evolve into retail sales orders

Smaller account orders – allocation of inventory