Director, Enterprise Applications

Port of Tacoma; Tacoma (WA); On-site; USD 151,000 - 178,000; Full time

Job summary

The Port of Tacoma seeks a Director of Enterprise Applications to enhance IT strategies and lead a dedicated team in delivering enterprise application services. Candidates should possess extensive experience managing enterprise platforms, preferably with Microsoft solutions, and demonstrate strong leadership capabilities. This role offers an excellent opportunity to contribute to the Port's operational effectiveness and digital transformation initiatives.

Qualifications

• 8+ years managing enterprise applications and staff.
• Extensive experience with Microsoft Dynamics 365 F&O, Azure, and Power BI preferred.
• Knowledge of ITIL/ITSM practices.

Responsibilities

• Lead and direct an Enterprise Applications staff.
• Develop strategies for Microsoft ERP and analytics platforms.
• Manage vendor relationships and application performance.

Skills

Project Management

Strong communication skills

Leadership abilities

Problem-solving

Education

Bachelor’s degree in computer science, business, or related field

Job description

Applications received prior to June 16, 2025, are given preference.Anticipated hiring range is between $151,083 - $177,744 depending on qualifications.

The Director, Enterprise Applications, is a critical IT leadership position that reports to the Port of Tacoma’s Chief Information Officer. This role is responsible for delivering high quality and reliable Enterprise Application services to the Port of Tacoma (Port) and Northwest Seaport Alliance (NWSA). The Director, Enterprise Applications, collaborates extensively with Senior IT Managers on strategic and operational IT initiatives, and leads a team of nine full-time software Architects, Engineers, and Analysts.

Over the prior five years, the Enterprise Applications team has completed several strategic projects and initiatives, including:

• Implementing Microsoft Dynamics 365 F&O as the Port’s ERP platform
• Expanding the utilization of Microsoft 365, including SharePoint and Teams, for content management and collaboration
• Migrating all major Enterprise Applications to SaaS Platforms and Microsoft Azure cloud services
• Implementing Microsoft data management and analytics solutions, including Data Factory, Power BI, and Fabric
• Retiring numerous legacy applications, simplifying the application portfolio

1. IT Departmental Leadership: Partners extensively with IT departmental leadership on organization and department-wide initiatives. Acts as the point of contact, as delegated by or, in the absence of the Chief Information Officer (CIO) and will support the CIO as needed. Leads assigned activities and initiatives include establishing vision, strategy, goals, budgets, IT operations, project priorities and other departmental priorities. Collaborates with other members of IT leadership on governance activities, including preparing for and participating in IT Executive Steering Committees, project steering committees, and operational oversight committees, and in the development of technology policies, procedures, and standards. Ensures alignment and constructive cooperation between Enterprise Applications and other departmental sections.

2. Enterprise Applications Leadership: Leads and directs an Enterprise Applications staff, promoting a team-centric approach to work activities. Ensures team members are constructive and productive in their work performance and are fully accountable for their areas of responsibility. Establishes the essential functions of each Enterprise Applications position and manages areas of staff responsibility to ensure changing business needs are met. Sets goals and expectations, establishes priorities, supports training/development opportunities, and holds staff accountable for progress. Manages staff performance, growth, development, and motivation.

3. Business Partnership and Collaboration: Routinely and intentionally collaborates with department heads and business leaders throughout the Port and NWSA to understand current and future business technology and data needs. Collaborates with business leaders to continually simplify and standardize business processes to improve organizational efficiency and effectiveness and ensures robust change management practices are developed and followed to ensure staff ability to readily adopt new digital technologies and processes. Manages strategic Enterprise Application vendor/partner relationships and engagements. Leads or sponsors vendor/partner solicitations, selections, and negotiations. Ensures the Enterprise Applications team delivers, advances, and maintains solutions that meet evolving business needs.

4. ERP, Productivity, Data and Analytics Platform Strategies: Establishes multi-year strategies, strategic projects, and goals for the expansion and effective utilization of Microsoft ERP, productivity, collaboration, data and analytics platforms, including Dynamics 365 F&O, Microsoft 365, Microsoft Azure, and Microsoft Fabric. Add business value through expanding solutions and services, simplifying the technical environment, and reducing technical debt. Evolve and mature the current platform/application ecosystem and architecture, ensuring an appropriate balance between business needs, innovation, user experience, security, and costs. Maintains 3-year EA service roadmaps and ecosystem diagrams to ensure proactive planning of organizational priorities. Promotes a Data Driven organizational culture. Improves organizational data analytics and enables departmental Key Performance Indicators (KPI) by leveraging MS Power BI and MS Fabric as a unified cloud data platform. Lead the adoption and integration of Artificial Intelligence, including Microsoft Copilot and Azure AI Services, to enhance business productivity and enable competitive differentiation.

5. Projects: Working closely with project stakeholders, acts as Project Sponsor on strategic enterprise application projects, providing leadership, direction, and clarity regarding scope, schedule, budget and priorities. Establishes and leads project Steering Committees ensuring business engagement in Enterprise Application projects and effective project governance. Ensures Project Managers provide effective management of project plans, schedules, resources, tasks, risks, and communications, and that projects meet stakeholder expectations.

6. Operational Excellence: Ensures Enterprise Applications staff and operations follow standardized ITIL practices and processes to continually improve operational excellence, increase system availability, and reduce operational risk. Leads the development of warranty and utility metrics for applications and platforms to measure and manage performance, utilization, and availability against defined SLA’s. Maintains the integrity and availability of software applications and data by ensuring enterprise applications and platforms follow and comply with Port cybersecurity, information security, incident response, and disaster recovery policies, procedures, and best practices.

Bachelor’s degree in computer science, business, or a related field is required. An additional four (4) years relevant experience may be considered in lieu of the degree requirement.

A minimum of eight (8) years of progressively responsible experience managing enterprise applications, platforms, and staff is required. Experience with other Information Technology disciplines preferred.

Extensive experience with Microsoft Dynamics 365 F&O, Microsoft 365, Azure, and Power BI is preferred. Experience with IBM Maximo and supply chain solutions is preferred.

Preferred certifications:
Microsoft Dynamics 365 ERP Certifications
ITIL Foundation Certification
PMP CertificationKnowledge

• Extensive knowledge of cloud-based platforms, including ERP, CRM, Collaboration/Productivity, and Data/Analytics platform architectures, with a strong preference for Microsoft solutions including Dynamics 365 F&O, Dynamics 365 Sales, Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Fabric.
• Extensive knowledge of Microsoft Azure services, operations, and governance.
• Knowledge of Enterprise Asset Management and ESRI Enterprise GIS solutions.
• Knowledge of Port Operations, Logistics, and Supply Chain Operations.
• Extensive knowledge of business practices and operations, including financial, human resources, procurement, enterprise asset management, sales, engineering and environmental project management, and government affairs.
• Maintains knowledge of IT industry trends and best practices.
• Knowledge of ITIL/ITSM practices.

Skills

• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Excellent presentation and facilitation skills.
• Strong Project Management skills utilizing both agile and predictive methodologies.

Abilities

• Strong leadership, management, and staff development capabilities.
• Ability to think strategically and develop and execute multi-year technology strategies.
• Ability to think critically.
• Excellent problem-solving ability.
• Driven, self-directed, and personally accountable.
• Decisive, even when faced with incomplete information.
• Excellent planning skills.
• Strong team player.
• Professional, diplomatic, and collaborative.
• Ability to multi-task and prioritize workload.