This is a contract to hire opportunity. Candidates MUST be local to the Atlanta area. This role is NOT open to C2C, OPT, or any Visa consideration. No vendor support of any kind allowed.
Director, Business Applications
The Director, Business Applications serves as the primary technology partner for a North American business unit, connecting business priorities with practical technology solutions. This leader owns the business application portfolio, including ERP and related systems, day-to-day support, enhancements, demand management, projects, vendor relationships, and stakeholder engagement.
The role partners with enterprise application leaders to align business-unit initiatives with global architecture, standards, roadmaps, and modernization strategies. A key focus is helping define and execute a multi-year ERP modernization roadmap while identifying practical opportunities for AI, automation, and analytics.
Key Responsibilities
Business Partnership & Demand Management
- Serve as the primary IT partner for leaders across manufacturing, finance, sales, customer service, supply chain, and plant operations.
- Translate business priorities, process challenges, and technology needs into actionable plans and measurable outcomes.
- Manage application demand intake, prioritization, communication, budgets, capacity, and roadmaps.
- Identify opportunities to leverage AI, automation, and analytics and coordinate with appropriate delivery teams.
- Own the business application portfolio, including support, enhancements, integrations, upgrades, documentation, governance, and delivery.
- Partner with enterprise application leaders to align ERP investments and modernization efforts with global standards and architecture.
- Develop roadmaps focused on simplification, standardization, consolidation, modernization, and improved system utilization.
- Evaluate application functionality, process fit, maintainability, operational effectiveness, and risk.
ERP Modernization & Transformation
- Help define and execute a multi-year ERP modernization and consolidation strategy.
- Lead or significantly contribute to ERP migrations, upgrades, rationalization, assessments, and transformation initiatives.
- Drive business process harmonization and standardization to support future-state ERP strategies.
- Assess data dependencies, integrations, reporting impacts, process variations, and operational risks.
- Develop implementation strategies, sequencing, business cases, resource plans, risk mitigation, and change management approaches.
Application Support & Delivery
- Provide leadership for application support, escalations, recurring issues, and business-critical incidents.
- Ensure effective issue triage, resolution, root-cause analysis, corrective action, documentation, and communication.
- Coordinate with Infrastructure, Security, Service Desk, Data/BI, and Enterprise Applications teams on cross-functional needs.
- Oversee project delivery, requirements, testing, releases, and ongoing application improvements.
- Manage relationships with application vendors, consultants, and service providers.
- Oversee vendor performance, SLAs, deliverables, escalations, contracts, costs, and overall value.
- Ensure application activities follow appropriate security, compliance, change, release, documentation, and IT governance practices.
- Identify and communicate technology, operational, vendor, support, and transformation risks.
Requirements
- 10+ years of experience in IT, business applications, ERP, business analysis, or technology leadership.
- 5+ years leading application teams, analysts, vendors, projects, or business-facing technology functions.
- Proven experience with ERP migration, consolidation, rationalization, or modernization initiatives.
- Experience with ERP roadmaps, process harmonization, data migration, integrations, testing, cutover, and change management.
- Experience supporting ERP/application portfolios in manufacturing, industrial, distribution, finance, supply chain, or plant environments.
- Manufacturing ERP experience with platforms such as QAD, Solomon, SAP, Oracle, Microsoft Dynamics, Infor, Epicor, JD Edwards, or comparable systems strongly preferred.
- Strong experience with requirements, SDLC, project delivery, release management, vendor management, SLAs, KPIs, and cost/value analysis.
- Strong business acumen and communication skills, with the ability to translate technical concepts into business outcomes and make practical tradeoff decisions.
- Working knowledge of AI, automation, and analytics and their practical application to business processes and productivity.
- Bachelor’s degree in IT, Business, Supply Chain, Finance, Engineering, or related field preferred; equivalent experience considered.
Ideal Candidate
A strategic yet hands-on technology leader who combines strong business partnership skills with proven ERP transformation experience. The successful candidate can develop long-term modernization strategies while maintaining reliable day-to-day application operations, aligning business and IT priorities, and driving practical outcomes across a complex manufacturing environment.
Key Attributes
- Strategic ERP transformation mindset with strong execution discipline.
- Business-focused and outcome-oriented.
- Strong executive and operational stakeholder presence.
- Practical problem solver who balances urgency, governance, cost, and long-term supportability.
- Strong ownership, communication, collaboration, and follow-through.
- Comfortable operating at both strategic and hands-on execution levels.