Dir, Strategy Portfolio Management
The Our Grainger business environment requires business functional leaders to thoroughly understand the technology required to operationalize their long term plans. The Director Strategy Portfolio Management enables cross functional strategic planning by partnering with key business stakeholders to translate the functional long term plans into actionable technology roadmaps. This role helps Grainger's executive leaders and their teams bring technology forward to create a competitive advantage for how we grow and develop our global organization. This mandate is accomplished through recommendations linked to the organization's strategy and financial goals, reflecting an awareness of external dynamics. He/She leads and facilitates executive and senior business and technology leaders to refine business strategy, create technology roadmaps and translate business roadmaps into specific capabilities and features that align with business goals and objectives. He/She will also identify and act upon opportunities for continuous improvement. The Director Strategy Portfolio Management leader will report to the VP, Business Technology Planning.
The Strategy Portfolio Management (SPM) Leader develops a strong understanding of the business function including business drivers and strategies, industry trends, key strategic partner relationships, as well as key executives and decision makers, competitive position in the marketplace, etc. The SPM Leader works directly with executive functional leaders and is a member of their global, senior leadership team by positively contributing to the development of the overall strategy and increasing the company's competitive advantage through gathering and shaping IT and/or Digital requirements to deliver on that strategy. Additionally, the SPM Leader builds, enhances and executes trusted relationships, strong partnerships and communication at the senior management level. With those key stakeholders, he/she acts as a trusted advisor to those executives to align business and IT strategy.
The Leader provides a primary point of contact with Enterprise Systems (IT) for our strategic IT needs and points of escalation. This Leader is focused on inspiring, influencing and managing IT demand to ensure the most valuable and effective use of IT investments and resources. Successful engagements result in functional plans that clearly document how scope, timeline and resource investment will be optimized across development objectives as well as align to long term corporate objectives. He/She will function as a technology thought leader and strategic partner across functional business areas and geographies. Additionally, he/she mobilizes others to support change through times of stress and uncertainty. This role is responsible for multiple concurrent, global, portfolios/programs across business areas and products, leveraging multiple production groups.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:
- Serve as the strategic interface to ES (IT) business units for the purpose of aligning business, digital and IT strategies. Providing service management, risk management, and relationship management services ensuring the business achieves their objectives through the effective use of products and technology.
- Create added value to the business function through proactively identifying and advocating IT enabled opportunities to drive growth, improve competitive edge, improve customer experience, and ultimately improve profitability.
- Assist the business in forecasting, documenting and planning for future needs and translate business strategies into IT development plans and forecasts.
- Conduct needs and impact analysis on business requests to identify opportunities to link programs, processes and systems throughout the organization to achieve optimal efficiency.
- Ensures consistent representation across Product Management, Solutions Engineering & Enterprise Architecture.
- Collaborate with other IT business partners to develop strategies to align business groups where appropriate across the enterprise.
- Ensure thorough cost-benefit analysis/business cases to support initiatives for assigned operational groups.
- Identify and create opportunities to collaborate with others across organization and geographies to develop innovative solutions and find points for leverage.
- Work with a long-term and cross- organization perspective to fairly and equitably address issues and problems.
- Work with business to collaboratively define, shape, articulate and prioritize requirements and business cases for new/changed IT services and develop short term to medium term strategic IT enabled roadmaps required to support the overall business area/functional strategy and roadmap.
REQUIRED EXPERIENCES AND COMPETENCIES:
- A Master's degree in information technology, computer science, management or related field is preferred.
- Broad range of exposure to various technical environments and business segments.
- Experience managing teams.
- Strong business/financial and technology acumen.
- Strong background in IT service delivery and direct business engagement roles.
- Extensive experience in strategic planning, business development, client management and change management.
- Built, maintained and improved trusted senior management relationships.
- Led the design and implementation of system wide IT projects.
- Experience with program and portfolio management.
- Played a key role in the development and led the deployment of a strategy in a large function.
- Developed an external network of industry contact and advisors.
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