Skywise - Business Applications & Development Tools Manager

Airbus; Southwestern Ontario; On-site; CAD 120,000 - 170,000; Full time

Job summary

Skywise, owned by Airbus, seeks a Business Applications & Development Tools Manager to lead strategy, tooling, and operations for internal business applications and development tools across NAVBLUE. You will drive backlog refinement, establish developer platforms, and supervise subcontractors to deliver on roadmaps.

The role requires leveraging IT leadership to ensure tool alignment with business processes and robust release management, while fostering a collaborative, high-velocity team culture.

Qualifications

• Minimum 7 years delivering business systems transformations.
• Experience with project management and change management.
• Proven ability to lead multi-stakeholder projects.
• Ability to translate business needs into technology solutions.

Responsibilities

• Lead tooling selection and management across HR, Finance, Procurement, Sales, and Support.
• Oversee tooling infra including CI/CD pipelines and repositories.
• Act as Technical Product Manager with IT and architecture leadership.
• Allocate resources and engage subcontractors to meet roadmaps.
• Ensure high availability and robust support plans.
• Manage budgets and ROI for third-party tools.
• Lead change management and smooth user adoption.
• Foster a positive, collaborative team environment.
• Align tools with business processes and provide technical guidance.
• Assist in annual development budgets.
• May participate in interviews and hiring decisions.

Skills

Communication skills

Team leadership

Stakeholder management

Change management

Strategic planning

IT management

Cloud infrastructure

Dev tooling

Project management

Problem solving

Education

Bachelor’s degree in data management, IT Management, CS or related field

Tools

CI/CD pipelines

Source control

Cloud infrastructure (AWS)

Google Workspace

Job description

Job Description:

Skywise is a leading digital services company, wholly owned by Airbus. We deliver a first-of-its-kind offer that seamlessly integrates Planning & Operations Control, Flight, Technical, and Ground Operations. By providing interoperable digital solutions for end-to-end operations, Skywise combines aircraft manufacturer expertise and digital know-how to transform operational complexity into predictable and profitable performance, ensuring resilient and more sustainable operations.

Role Summary:

The Business Applications & Development Tools Manager is responsible for leading the strategy, implementation, operations, and tooling for both Business Applications (spanning HR, Finance, Procurement, Sales, and Support) and internal Development Tools across NAVBLUE. The Manager provides direction for internal stakeholders when refining the backlog, establishes software development infrastructure and developer platforms, and leads development subcontractors executing on the backlog.

The Internal Tools Development Lead is expected to work very closely with internal tool owners, business subject matter experts, or other internal customers to understand the business needs and processes which require tooling support..

Main Responsibilities:

Position discipline : Technology management

Sphere of influence : Team Level / Business / Software Factory

The incumbent benefits from industry experience or an ability to learn quickly as the airline management solution space is wide and deeply interesting. Responsibilities include working with internal team members and external contractors (as needed) to decide on tooling and design of configuration to meet the documented business and development tool processes. Gathering, measuring and generating monthly metrics/reports with KPI’s and communicating with Project Management, Product Management and other internal and external stakeholders is also required.

The team operates on a self-driven Kanban backlog while actively triaging incoming support requests. This role oversees system maintenance and operations, ensuring high availability through robust, well-defined support plans.

Responsibilities include:

• Lead the selection, implementation, and management of tooling and systems for Business Applications across HR, Finance, Procurement, Sales, and Support.
• Oversee development tools infrastructure, including CI/CD pipelines, source control, artifact repositories, and developer platforms to support internal software engineering squads.
• Act as Technical Product Manager, understanding direction and guiding solutions with IT and architecture leadership.
• Allocate team resources and engage with subcontractors as required to meet product roadmaps and business process needs.
• Supervise tool upgrades, security compliance, server infrastructure, and license management across developer and business application suites.
• Manage departmental operational budgets and evaluate ROI for third‑party software tools and vendor services.
• Monitoring and guiding processes to ensure high quality solutions are output on time.
• Team building and health reporting, using servant leadership to remove impediments and remove risks.
• Lead change management activities for business applications and development tools, ensuring controlled software releases, clear stakeholder communication, and smooth user adoption of process and system updates.
• Work closely with process owners to ensure alignment of tools with business processes, providing expert feedback and technical guidance on feasibility.
• Fostering a positive, productive, supportive, collaborative and energetic team environment with a customer‑centric focus on delivering solutions.
• Support the development of annual budgets for development to support the business’ goals
• May be involved in interviews; support hiring decisions.

Qualified Experience / Skills / Training:

Education:

• Bachelor’s degree in data management, IT Management, CS or related field.
• Candidates with equivalent experience will also be considered.

Experience:

• Minimum 7 years of hands‑on experience facilitating business systems and guiding end‑to‑end organizational transformations.
• Proven experience in maintaining project schedules, documentation, communications and meeting deadlines
• Experience in project management and change management.
• Proven experience leading projects with multiple stakeholders.

Knowledge, Skills, Demonstrated Capabilities & Competencies:

• Able to effectively communicate, both verbally and written, highly technical aspects of architecture and integration to management, clients and staff at all levels
• Strong team orientation - someone who can enable others, instill a unified and collaborative atmosphere amongst a diverse team of software developers.
• Ability to manage through a period of growth or transition a definite asset
• Able to translate business requirements into technology solutions, and new technology solutions into business opportunities; capable of understanding complex technical issues and their impact on customers’ operations.
• Able to translate strategic objectives into daily activities and guide and motivate others to deliver
• Supplier (including contract) and partners management
• Ability to delegate tasks and monitoring progress;
• Ability to develop high-quality and high‑availability software to business specification while understanding process and requirements
• Excellent organizational and time management skills.

Communication Skills:

• English.
• French is an asset

Technical Systems Proficiency:

• Experience with IT infrastructure and IaC would be an asset.
• Effective use of Google Workspace office tools.
• Basic understanding of AWS or similar cloud technology.
• Demonstrated expertise in enterprise business applications (HR, Finance, Procurement, Sales, Support) and modern development tooling (CI/CD pipelines, source control, Cloud infrastructure especially AWS, and application integration utilities).
• Knowledge of Aviation topics, Aeronautics, or Flight and Operations Management nice to have

Travel Required:

• 5% - 20% International and Domestic

AI Disclosure: No artificial intelligence tools are used to screen, assess, or select candidates for this role

Selection and Hiring Commitment

We thank all applicants for applying. Only selected applicants will be contacted.

Skywise is committed to creating an environment and a culture where everyone feels like they belong no matter who they are or where they are from. We are committed to providing equal employment opportunities to all individuals based on job-related qualifications and ability to perform a job. We do not discriminate against any employee or applicant for employment because of race, colour, sex, age, national or ethnic origin, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, marital status, family status, genetic characteristics, record of offences, and basis of disability or any protected class. Accommodations will be available on request for candidates throughout the entire recruitment and selection process.

What we Offer:

Located in the heart of University of Waterloo’s David Johnston Research + Technology Park, Sk ...