Director, Enterprise Application Services

McElhanney Ltd.; Vancouver; On-site; CAD 125,000 - 165,000; Full time

Job summary

An established industry player is seeking a dynamic Director of Enterprise Application Services to lead their IT application team. This role involves strategic oversight of enterprise applications, ensuring optimal performance and alignment with business objectives. The ideal candidate will have extensive experience in application management and a strong background in Agile methodologies. You will foster a culture of continuous learning and innovation while managing vendor relationships and ensuring compliance with industry standards. Join a company that values collaboration and offers a competitive compensation package, including shareholding options for employees.

Benefits

Extended health and dental coverage

Healthcare spending account

RRSP matching

Maternity and parental leave top-up

Employee & Family Assistance Program

Performance bonus plan

Potential share ownership

Qualifications

• Minimum of 15 years’ experience in IT application management.
• Strong background in application maintenance and release management.
• Advanced communication skills to convey technical concepts.

Responsibilities

• Lead and manage the IT application team for effective support.
• Develop strategies for application maintenance and performance.
• Oversee compliance with industry standards in application management.

Skills

Leadership

Application Maintenance

Release Management

Vendor Management

Agile Methodologies

Communication Skills

Project Management

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Computing Science

ITIL Certification

PMP Certification

Tools

DevOps

Cloud Architecture

Job description

Monday, January 6, 2025

Based in Western Canada for over 110 years, McElhanney offers innovative and practical engineering, surveying, mapping, planning, landscape architecture, and environmental services. As a 100% employee-owned and operated firm, with over 1,400 staff members in 33 locations, we are proud to offer qualified staff with shareholding options in our company. At McElhanney, we work in teams to build strong connections with our staff, clients, and local communities. Our employees enjoy working here because of our varied projects, high levels of autonomy, opportunities for career development, excellent total compensation and benefits package, and collaborating with a team of great professionals.

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.
• 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.
• Manage 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 develop 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.
• Lead and support a team of highly skilled IT professionals and provide 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

• Contribute to the development and management of the application services budget.
• Identify and leverage 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:

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

Our Commitment to Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion

At McElhanney, our unwavering commitment lies in cultivating a culture that aligns with our core values and fosters diversity, equity, and inclusion. We celebrate the collective achievements of a team rich in expertise, experiences, and perspectives, and welcome applications from individuals of diverse ethnicities, religions, backgrounds, genders, sexual orientations, gender identities, aboriginal statuses, various age groups, and those with disabilities. Requests for accommodations can be made at any stage of the selection process. If this job description resonates with you, we encourage you to apply even if you don’t meet all of the requirements outlined. We’re interested in getting to know you and explore the unique contributions you can bring to McElhanney!

If this is the opportunity for you, apply now or visit www.mcelhanney.com/careers to learn more. We thank all applicants for their interest; however, only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.

To learn more about our recognition as Canada's Top 100 Employers (2024), visit Top Employer: McElhanney Ltd. (canadastop100.com).

Visit us on Glassdoor to learn more about our employee experience.

Our Purpose: Amaze our clients. Care for our communities. Empower our people.

McElhanney is aware of activities where individuals have received fraudulent job offers. Please be advised that McElhanney will not ask applicants for any form of monetary exchange at any point in the recruitment process. To learn more visit: www.mcelhanney.com/careers/fraud-warning . The disclosure of your information in accordance with this Policy and applicable law, including to third party service providers may result in your personal information being transferred outside of Canada, including to the United States. Such transferred personal information may be subject to the laws of these other countries and the laws of other countries regarding the collection, use, and disclosure of personal information may be different from the laws of Canada.