Vice President of Information Technology

Description

Company Description

FKA Brands is a privately-owned multinational company headquartered in Commerce Township, Michigan. The company was founded in 1987 as Homedics and over the past 35 years, FKA Brands has grown into a world leader in developing, marketing and distributing personal care, wellness and consumer electronics products. The Company’s products are sold under the Homedics brand name, as well as other recognizable brands, including HMDX, Jam, Obusforme, Salter, Ellia, and House of Marley.

This success is attributable to innovation, speed to market, and depth/breadth of distribution. Growth has been both organic and through acquisitions. Homedics extensive line of personal wellness products strives to promote overall well-being and create a healthy home environment that helps relax the body, renew the spirit, de-stress and simplify life. Homedics has a full line of wellness products, including back, neck, foot and handheld massagers, sound spas, footbaths, essential oils and diffusers, humidifiers, air purifiers, blood pressure monitors, and more. The Homedics brand is synonymous with innovation, especially in the massage category where the brand enjoys dominant market share. House of Marley continues to grow strongly in our international markets and continues to grow domestically in the US. Its’ position of better sound and style for a great value, manufactured in sustainable materials, is uniquely positioned in the market to be an alternative to the CE giants in industry. House of Marley competes in turntables, speakers, earbuds and earphones categories. The newest addition to the FKA Brands portfolio is MotorDayz, a leader in the remote-control cars category within toys. FKA has secured all the tooling and license agreements to take over where the incumbent company left off as #1 market share in RC toy car industry.

FKA Brands products are sold in more than 60 countries throughout North and South America, Central America, the Asia-Pacific region, Europe, Middle East and Africa, with North America representing 65% of the Company’s revenues. Products are sold in brick and mortar and online retail across all channels of distribution including mass, specialty, department store, club and drug, as well as independent distributors. As a private, family-owned organization, culture is a very important part of the experience at FKA Brands. The operating style is fast paced, innovative, and commercially driven. Adequate structure, nimbleness, entrepreneurial self-starting spirit, and speed-to-market are key attributes of the Company’s culture and critical reason behind continued successes.

Key Criteria

• 15 years of progressive experience in IT in varying roles, along with a minimum of eight years in an IT leadership role.
• Bachelor’s degree or higher in a related Information systems field is required, Master’s degree preferred.
• Thorough understanding of all aspects of IT management (infrastructure, applications, service desk project management and IT strategy)
• Proven track record developing the IT strategy and roadmap linked to business objectives in mid-sized CPG companies. A demonstrated passion, energy and drive to understand requirements in a complex supply chain and CPG environment will be important.
• Previous experience in a transformational environment is preferred. The successful candidate must have led IT in a company that has experienced significant times of change to position the company for success in the long term is expected.
• Integration experience is preferred. As the company continues to optimize the business, the successful candidate must be able to seamlessly integrate disparate pieces of business into an integrated, standardized technology platform.
• Experience managing and supporting full spectrum infrastructure, business systems, solutions, BI & Analytics and IT staffing in CPG / Retail / Direct to Consumer distribution businesses (preferably on a global basis), with understanding and ability to prescribe and define "right sized" solutions for the FKA business. Experience managing a best of breed solution environment preferred.
• Experience with selecting, implementing, and supporting fully integrated ERP and related solutions in a CPG/Retail/D2C environment, with the ability to assume oversight of an ERP migration in process, transitioning systems with minimal business disruption.
• Ability to work with existing staff, to formulate and move forward with appropriate localized and global IT resource plans (best using existing staff and augmenting as needed), and to support, mentor, and provide advancement for present and new staff, and foster genuine, quality relationships with IT staff, user community, and executive staff.
• Experience working with and meeting the ongoing needs of a retail centric, consumer packaged goods company with a broad brick and mortar retailer and direct to consumer (owned and operated eCommerce, retailer drop ship, and various marketplace arrangements) customer base, is highly preferred.
• Strategic and able to see the big picture, but at the same time have the ability to roll up the sleeves to understand and resolve time critical issues.
• Strong leadership skills with a proven track record of solving complex problems.
• Someone who is a strong consensus builder with an ability to build a strong rapport with leadership, IT staff, and user community alike, and work collaboratively in a team setting.
  
  

Scope And Responsibilities

The Vice President, Information Technology, will lead the company’s IT strategy and oversee all aspects of its information systems with a focus on driving innovation and planning future states. S/He will manage all business-critical technology functions, including systems design, software development, enterprise and network architecture, technical support and implementation of hardware, software, security and disaster recovery. The VP, IT, will be responsible for developing and executing a suitable technology roadmap to support, safeguard and empower the company’s growing brands. S/He will be a hands-on, decisive and practical leader who can lead the team and business from big picture down into the details as appropriate.

The Vice President will leverage IT staff talent and support vendors to ensure a sound technical infrastructure, applications management, and service desk functions, and oversee the mitigation of technology risks. This role requires a proactive leader who has a high degree of business acumen, is solution focused, and who possesses exceptional leadership, communication and collaboration skills, and can develop consensus and drive technology solutions throughout the organization. It is important to factor in existing staff, projects, and corporate direction in these strategies.

Specific Responsibilities

• Lead the development and refinement of both regional and global IT strategy and roadmap; ensure integration with the business’s strategic priorities, activities, and functions.
• Inform, educate, and guide senior leadership, colleagues, and strategic partners to advance the appropriate strategic organizational goals through a well thought out change management process and in an innovative and cost-effective manner.
• Provide strategic direction and oversight of the design, development, operation and support of IT systems and programs that fulfill the needs of the business including enterprise architecture management, application management, security and risk management, infrastructure, and operations management and entrusting actual execution of such initiatives to the IT staff and technology providers.
• Oversee the establishment and maintenance of effective IT controls. Taking into account controls, policies, and protocols already established.
• Manage technology obsolescence and vendor risks. Establishing and managing vendor relationships. Ensure the appropriate administration of technology contracts.
• Instill a culture of high performance, compliance and continuous improvement that values learning within the IT team. Fostering a culture of governance and accountability across the business.
• Company-wide data/network security and compliance
• Continuous improvement of internal and customer-facing systems-Implementation of hardware and software solutions.
• Define and execute forward-looking plans to leverage contemporary technology skills and capabilities.
• Lead, coach and develop IT staff. Design educational plans to enhance technology skill development for association staff.
• Ensure the security, functionality, and integrity of the association’s internal and external networks, web sites, and applications.
• Develop and oversee annual technology operating and capital expenditure budget to ensure it is consistent with overall strategic priorities of the enterprise and is within plan.
• Build effective relationships across the business and oversee the preparation of business cases to support proposed IT initiatives. Work closely with business leaders to understand opportunities for IT to enable business operations, maximize revenue streams and improve profitability.
• Optimize software and hardware solutions to reduce variability across the businesses in the group. Manage and champion Cybersecurity and align strategies with Corporate policies.
  
  

Current Systems

The current US & Canada technical environment at FKA includes:

• Current Systems:
  
  

The current US & Canada technical environment at FKA includes:

• ERP: JD Edwards E1 8.12 / IBM iSeries 7.1
• WMS: Manhattan WM/TE (formerly PkMS) / IBM iSeries 7.3
• Middleware (B2B/EDI/EAI): webMethods 10.1/10.5
• ETL Tools: DBMoto (iSeries to SQL Repo), SAP Data Services (SQL Repo to SQL Marts)
• Reporting Tools: SQL Server, Qlikview, Business Objects, Crystal Reports, DAS, DB2 WebQuery
• eCommerce: Big Commerce, Shopify
• Other Technologies in play: Visual Basic .NET, Sharepoint, Sharepoint 365, Microsoft Office

• Other Applications in play: ETQ (training and document management), CRM Dynamics 365, Hyperion (on prem) for Financial Consolidations.
  
  

With The Current ERP Project Under Consideration, The Future Technical Environment May Shift Away From Current ERP (JDE) And Reporting Tools And Shift To Infor M3 Distribution On The Multi-Tenant Cloud. And May Also Include

• IBP for forecasting and Demand Planning
• d/EPM for budgeting and Ad Hoc Finance reporting, replacing spreadsheet process and BO universe ad hoc reporting
• Supplier Exchange for procurement/logistics management
• Oracle FCCS for Financial Consolidations, replacing on prem Hyperion
• Infor ION (integration and ETL) / webMethods will continue to be used for EDI/B2B and also for talking directly with ION for that use / ION will be used more directly for WMS/3PL integration
• Infor Birst for analytical reporting
• IBM iSeries/DB2 / Manhattan WM/TE (formerly PkMS) will remain on premise.
  
  

Position Requirements

Role

The VP, Information Technology, will bring 15 years of progressive experience in IT in varying roles, along with a minimum of eight years in an IT leadership role. S/He will possess a thorough understanding of all aspects of IT management (infrastructure, applications, service desk project management and IT strategy), leading cross-functional teams and enterprise-wide initiatives, along with significant, demonstrated experience in IT strategic planning. Additional key selection criteria will include the following:

• Proven track record developing the IT strategy and roadmap linked to business objectives in mid-sized CPG companies. A demonstrated passion, energy and drive to understand requirements in a complex supply chain and CPG environment will be important.
• Previous experience in a transformational environment is preferred. The successful candidate must have led IT in a company that has experienced significant times of change to position the company for success in the long term is expected.
• Integration experience is preferred. As the company continues to optimize the business, the successful candidate must be able to seamlessly integrate disparate pieces of business into an integrated, standardized technology platform.
• Experience managing and supporting full spectrum infrastructure, business systems, solutions, BI & Analytics and IT staffing in CPG / Retail / Direct to Consumer distribution businesses (preferably on a global basis), with understanding and ability to prescribe and define "right sized" solutions for the FKA business. Experience managing a best of breed solution environment preferred.
• Experience with selecting, implementing, and supporting fully integrated ERP and related solutions in a CPG/Retail/D2C environment, with the ability to assume oversight of an ERP migration in process, transitioning systems with minimal business disruption. Demonstrated track record of leading a major ERP conversion in a multi-location / region environment is required. Exposure to the project planning, execution and organization change management efforts required to successfully complete a complex ERP conversion is critical. Working with PM resources and other staff responsible for planning and executing against a detailed project plan that incorporates milestones, timetables, financial investment and systems metrics will be important.
• Ability to work with existing staff, to formulate and move forward with appropriate localized and global IT resource plans (best using existing staff and augmenting as needed), and to support, mentor, and provide advancement for present and new staff, and foster genuine, quality relationships with IT staff, user community, and executive staff.
• Experience working with and meeting the ongoing needs of a retail centric, consumer packaged goods company with a broad brick and mortar retailer and direct to consumer (owned and operated eCommerce, retailer drop ship, and various marketplace arrangements) customer base, is highly preferred.
• Strategic and able to see the big picture, but at the same time have the ability to roll up the sleeves to understand and resolve time critical issues.
• Strong leadership skills with a proven track record of solving complex problems.
  
  

About the Organization Founded in 1987, FKA is a leader in consumer health, wellness, home environment, consumer electronics, and lifestyle products. Our family of brands includes HoMedics, the #1 brand in massage; and The House of Marley, a high-performance audio brand developed in partnership with the Bob Marley family. We distribute our products to more than 60 countries throughout North and South America, Central America, the Asia-Pacific region, and Europe, Africa, and the Middle East.

EOE Statement We are an equal employment opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status or any other characteristic protected by law.