Director of Enterprise Resource Planning

Chicago Public Schools (CPS) is a district on the rise, serving over 320,000 students in 500 schools and employing over 44,000 people, most of them teachers. CPS has set ambitious goals to ensure that every student, in every school and every neighborhood, has access to a world-class learning experience that prepares each for success in college, career, and civic life. In order to fulfill this mission, we make three commitments to our students, their families, and all Chicagoans: academic progress, financial stability, and integrity. Six core values are embedded within these commitments – student-centered, whole child, equity, academic excellence, community partnership, and continuous learning.

The Office of Information and Technology Services (ITS) works to build the capacity of schools to use information and technology, maintain network infrastructure, security standards, and support other departments to meet district goals. ITS provides innovative technology solutions that improve the quality of education for students, reduce the administrative burden on educators, facilitate parent interaction, increase community engagement, and support CPS’ mission of transparency by focusing on the ease and equity of access to information.

The Director of ERP Portfolio Management will lead the CPS Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Modernization Program and processes, partnering closely with IT and business leadership from departments including Finance, Budget, Procurement, and Human Resources/Talent to ensure the successful delivery of our 4-Year ERP Modernization Program in alignment with CPS business initiatives and priorities. This position will oversee all project management and processes of the Program rollout while delivering a greenfield ERP implementation on budget, on schedule, on quality, and within scope. The Director of ERP Portfolio Management will report to the Chief Information Technology Officer (CIO) and will build and lead a team of direct reporting professionals. This is a full-time exempt position that will be paid for time worked on a salary basis.

The Director, ERP Portfolio Management will be held accountable for the following responsibilities:

• Drive the planning, overall assessment, implementation, and execution of a highly-complex value-capture portfolio of ERP projects
• Recruit, onboard, and provide direction, guidance, and strong leadership to the ERP portfolio management team to ensure robust learning and career development consistent with the CPS values and mission; foster collaboration and effective integration of efforts with division-wide initiatives
• Deliver excellent reporting and clear/concise communication to key stakeholders within and across the organization to ensure successful project completion
• Ensure that project results contribute positive business value and meet agreed-on scope, cost, schedule, and quality objectives all while providing effective project and program delivery
• Establish and maintain a standard project management approach to drive project initiation, planning, and execution, tailored to deliver innovative new technologies with timeliness, readiness and reliability
• Collaborate with the ITS department and functional leaders to ensure appropriate leveling and allocation of resources to projects and to resolve competing project needs
• Partner and collaborate with business stakeholders to define success metrics and criteria, project size and complexity, cost, urgency, risk, and stakeholder value
• Ensure that investments and initiatives in project management services are aligned with business strategy and priorities able to meet success parameters and ROI targets stated in the business case
• Incorporate industry best practices, define metrics and key performance indicators, and clarify ownership for delivery at all levels of the organization, driving for focused delivery based on commitments
• Monitor value metrics to make informed decisions that maximize returns across enterprise projects and programs
• Develop an overall communication strategy and a reporting process for updating the organization and relevant business stakeholders on project and pipeline progress, decisions and impacts
• Monitor the delivery of business objectives and client experience for ERP portfolio management services
• Conduct regular program and project reviews, proactive risk management, and think critically to ensure predictability, quality, and communication; conduct post-project reviews
• Create and implement a systematic approach to improving project planning accuracy and project cycle time
• Drive the implementation of a resource management and reporting process to facilitate prioritization, management trade-offs, and efficient project intake based on changing functional needs, resource capacity constraints, risks, and interdependencies meeting deadlines
• Identify critical skills and competencies necessary for success in ERP roles and related positions; assess cross-functional project team capability and skill gaps (where present), and initiate activities to close those gaps; define specific improvement actions and recommend training to improve collaborative development and project results
• Effectively motivate team members and colleagues while pursuing opportunities for continuous improvement in department processes to drive a nimble and fast-paced business environment
• Other duties as assigned

In order to be successful and achieve the above responsibilities, the Director, ERP Portfolio Management must possess the following qualifications:

Education Required:

• Bachelor’s degree in a relevant field from an accredited college or university
• Master’s degree preferred

Experience Required:

• Minimum of eight (8) years of relevant professional project and program management experience in roles with increasing complexity, including the following, is required:
• Minimum of five (5) years of experience working with ERP technical applications and/or information systems (or equivalent), including managing information technology projects, Oracle Cloud or SAP S/4 HANA Cloud
• Minimum of three (3) years of experience in a supervisory/management position responsible for leading teams of direct reports in the ITS or technology field
• Experience managing enterprise-wide projects including a focus in Education industries, supporting Finance, Budget, Procurement, and Human Resources functions
• Experience leading projects and programs, both within and outside IT, that involved external providers
• Experience working on project and portfolio management resource planning, reporting, prioritization, and budgeting, and using related project and portfolio management tools (e.g., Microsoft Project, Smartsheet, Clarizen, Jira, Azure DevOps, GanttPro, etc.)
• Experience leading multi-functional activities with accountability for portfolio, budgetary and resource allocation
• Experience in ERP Implementation Methodology (Oracle, SAP, Workday) Agile Project Management Methodology (Scrum, SAFe) is preferred
• Minimum of ten (10) years of the above experience, including five (5) years in a supervisory/management position, strongly preferred

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:

• Extensive knowledge and expertise in all areas of project management, including processes, systems development methods, organizational change management concepts, and business process improvement methods
• Effective strategic planning capabilities, including the ability to establish long-term vision and goals, and align/manage activities toward goal fulfillment
• Ability to articulate a vision, set high standards, and effectively guide teams and stakeholders in the realization of expectations set
• Excellent interpersonal, verbal and written communication skills, including the ability to create and facilitate effective presentations and communicate technical concepts to non-technical partners
• Demonstrated business acumen; knowledge of operations, budget/finance, management and organizational development
• Strong leadership and team building skills, e.g. ability to develop high-performing teams united around a clear vision for serving schools and achieving student success
• Ability to build effective, collaborative relationships with a variety of stakeholders at all levels of the organization, including external partners, to ensure the entire system operates in the most effective manner possible to support schools and principals
• Ability to define problems, analyze data, and outline valid conclusions and action steps
• Capable of following Company policies and practices while representing CPS in an ethical and professional manner in all interactions with employees, governmental agencies, vendors, contractors, suppliers, students, and the Chicago community

Conditions of Employment

As a condition of employment with the Chicago Public Schools (CPS), employees are required to:

• Establish/Maintain Chicago Residency - Employees are required to live within the geographic boundaries of the City of Chicago within six months of their CPS hire date and maintain residency throughout their employment with the district. The Chicago residency requirement does not apply to temporary/part-time positions, however, all CPS employees must be residents of Illinois.