IT Solutions Executive at Clicks Group

Clicks is on the Hunt for an exceptional IT Solutions Executive that will jointly develop and deliver the application road-map through continuous and effective interpretation of business requirements. Ensure support, maintenance, enhancement and monitoring of information systems according to agreed SLA with the business. This role is based at our Head Office in Cape Town, and reports into Head of IT with Direct Reports which include Application Portfolio Managers, Solution Architects.

Job Objectives:

• To develop the IT Roadmap in conjunction with IT Senior Management team that is aligned to the business strategy.
• To work closely with application portfolio managers and the enterprise architect team in ensuring all business requirements are prioritised and sequenced on the IT project schedule.
• To plan and co-ordinate team resources to meet IT demand requirements, resolving any priority and resourcing issues across project and application teams.
• To work closely with the IT Services Exec to ensure production uptime and data integrity according to defined SLA.
• To participate in contract and commercial negotiations and manage vendor performance to ensure delivery on the service level agreement.
• To define a consistent, best practice approach to implementing and/or designing and integrating systems in order to enhance application design and architectural alignment.
• To ensure that ITIL principles are embedded in the SDLC and accountabilities are clear.
• To ensure that all escalated faults, queries and problems are driven to resolution.
• To drive project management principles and execution disciplines in the application development area in order to maximise IT’s ability to support business changes.
• Manage the annual and monthly budget processes to identify cost saving opportunities and to execute the agreed budget plan.
• Development of people to drive employees, partners and suppliers to perform and innovate to enable Group strategies.
• To build partnerships with internal and external stakeholders in order to keep abreast of business needs and identify opportunities and risks.

Qualifications and Experience:

•  B Degree or Post Graduate Diploma in Information Technology or other related subjects (essential)
•  Project Management methodologies e.g. PMBOK, Prince2 certification (desirable)
•  6-8 Years IT Senior Management experience (essential)
•  Extensive experience of planning and managing a large team’s workload and activities.
•  Evidence of quickly identifying and implementing change and improvements in a systematic way
•  Managing outsource and managed service/vendor resources (essential)
•  Strong Project Delivery background: 5 years managing multiple projects and project managers or complex IT programmes (essential)
•  Demonstrable experience of negotiating and setting priorities across diverse technical and business stakeholders interests
•  Experience in IT application development (essential)
•  Experience with managing large budgets (essential)

Skills, Experience and Job Related Knowledge:

•  Complex problem solving capability
•  Ability to simplify technical jargon and communicate to business
•  People management skills
•  ITIL service processes
•  Knowledge of retail and supply chain systems essential
•  Knowledge of financial planning (financial literacy and budgeting skills)
•  Knowledge of procurement strategies
•  Knowledge of IT strategy development
•  Business acumen and commercial thinking
•  Networking skills and ability to influence others
•  Ability to differentiate between strategic and operational issues
•  Ability to negotiate and make trade off’s in decision making
•  Planning and organising with strong strategic planning skills
•  Good business communication (verbal and written)

Competencies:

• Leading and Supervising
• Formulating strategies and concepts
• Persuading and Influencing
• Deciding and Initiating Action
• Presenting and Communicating Information
• Coping with Pressures and Setbacks