Director, Brand Systems

Overview:
SPARC Group LLC is an operating partner to global brands, providing retail and ecommerce management, sourcing, design and other operational and administrative support. It currently operates Aeropostale, Nautica, Lucky Brand, Brooks Brothers, Forever 21, Eddie Bauer and Reebok in the United States and Puerto Rico. SPARC Group LLC is owned, through its parent company SPARC Group Holdings LLC, by Simon Property Group and Authentic Brands Group. With Aeropostale, Nautica, Lucky Brand, Brooks Brothers, Forever 21, Eddie Bauer and Reebok combined brands, SPARC Group operates retail locations, a strong wholesale business with thousands of points of sale in the U.S. and Canada, and the ecommerce platforms for all brands.

Responsibilities:
Provides strategic, functional and technical leadership for brand specific technologies and team members

Works collaboratively with brand business leadership and SPARC enterprise system owners to insure capabilities are prioritized and ongoing operational delivery is provided for their brand.

Oversees full life cycle support for legacy technologies including mainframe

Responsible for enabling brand growth through effective management and partnership with brand business executives and enterprise technology teams; deploying some technologies which are specific to the brand’s multiple channels.

Manages and coaches the brands dedicated technology associates

Actively collaborates and manages through positive feedback and proactive interaction.

Maintains strong relationships with business stakeholders and actively collaborates across all levels of the organization

Owns the brand technology portfolio and works in a matrixed team structure to insure data consistency, integration integrity across systems

Translates business request and objectives into technology requirements in order to help the team establish appropriate IT based solutions for the brand

Helps prioritize initiatives, resource allocation and operational issue resolution

Prepares budgets and manages project spend and operational expense insuring alignment and adherence to plan when actualizing; This includes invoice processing

Drives technology discussions and facilitates decision making with cross functional teams

In matrixed role, reports to the SPARC enterprise application team and oversees the full lifecycle of software and project implementations ensuring that business deliverables are consistently met and that solutions provided meet high quality standards

Leads continuous improvement exercises to drive effectiveness and efficiency in IT delivery

This is a “hands on” working IT leadership role.

Qualifications:
Must have 8-12 years of experience leading large scale enterprise solutions in retail or wholesale environments. Specialty apparel experience is a plus.

Must have end to end functional understanding of the retail/wholesale lifecycle from ideation to product delivery and customer sales

Must have experience with ERP, EDI and Mainframe technologies. SAP will be a plus

Must be highly organized, and have strong communication skills.

BS required; MS preferred. 10+ years of progressively responsible IT experience in leadership role, inclusive of 5+ years in IT applications management position.

Should have 3-5 years of experience with Mainframe application development teams

A businessperson’s perspective and the ability to manage issues rather than tasks

Experience with ERP package implementation and optimization projects, ongoing application modernization, enhancements, and support.

Understanding of the businesses processes and ability to map and define data requirements between multiple systems

Demonstrated professionalism, courtesy, and tact to others; and display high standards of ethical conduct

Requirements & EEO Statement:
SPARC Group LLC is an equal opportunity employer. We value a culture of inclusion and diversity within our workforce, and are committed to maintaining a workplace free from prohibited employment conduct, including discrimination or harassment on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, age, religion, disability, genetic information, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, marital status, domestic partner status, civil partnership, status as a covered veteran, status in the Uniformed Services of the United States, citizenship and any other characteristic protected by law (“Protected Characteristics”).