Vice President Americas Technology Leader

Job Summary

This position plays a critical role in both advising the Americas Region leadership as well as identifying, prioritizing and delivering technology projects and digital products that support the Americas Region near-term and long-term growth opportunities.  The Americas Technology Leader will help influence the Region strategy via technology subject matter expertise and deliver solutions that drive competitive advantage and growth. This is a true business technology leadership role requiring a point of view and the ability to make proactive recommendations and drive results.   

This multi-faceted position involves the ability to interact with Regional executives, Americas Leadership Team (e.g. Brand GM’s, Marketing, Supply Chain, Finance, Retail operations, Key Account leaders, etc.) and their respective teams to support the region’s growth through technology enablement. This position will provide subject matter expertise, management and oversight of all technology and digital solutions for the Region and will be accountable for all Region technology investments.  This executive role requires a visionary leader who combines strategic thinking, digital product expertise, regional market acumen, and strong relationship building to advance business growth through technology and consumer-centric digital experiences. The position requires strong communication, lateral influencing skills and strong business acumen.  

This position is based in New York City and reports into the SVP, Omnichannel & Consumer Products with a matrix relationship to the Region President.  

Responsibilities

• Leads the Americas Technology team, acting as the face-off to the senior leadership team for the Americas Region. Develops and manages strong, reliable relationships with customers/key stakeholders. Is an active member of the Regional Leadership team. Accounts for the overall customer relationship to ensure the technology and digital products are delivered on commitments and meeting business needs within agreed upon Service Levels. Maintains a high degree of customer satisfaction and tech performance.  
• Effectively balances local needs with global technology priorities as determined by the ELC corporate strategy. Ensures consistency as global business requirements are addressed. Ensures that current and future business plans and strategies are adequately reflected within tech strategies, developments and operational plans. 
• Influence global digital platforms and branded experiences by contributing regional needs, local insights, compliance considerations, consumer behavior data, and innovation opportunities.
• Lead and evolve the regional digital experience strategy, ensuring locally relevant, high-performance consumer journeys.
• Provides leadership to the Americas Region on managing customer demand and expectations for new technology and digital products. Directs tech and business resources onto the highest priority efforts that resolve the most critical issues or position the business for strategic advantage. Coordinates and collaborates with appropriate areas within tech to ensure effective project and service delivery to customers. Minimizes the impact or service quality issues. 
• Leads portfolio management for respective area of responsibility and coordinates project planning processes. Collaborates with various technology teams to secure commitments and ensure active, prioritized engagement from technology resources. 
• Continually seeks new opportunities to drive technology innovation and growth in the business. Works as part of the Technology Innovation Team to explore the latest technology innovations and evaluates their applicability to the customer. Identifies areas of business need that can be addressed/assisted by using innovative technologies. 
• Partners with Regional leadership to define the technology capital and expense budgets required to support customer needs. 
• Provides leadership and development for the Americas Regional Technology Team and matrix teams in Region.   
• Communicates technology policies to business units and partners with them to ensure compliance. Supports and participates in the governance framework, where applicable. 

Long Description

• Leads portfolio management for respective area of responsibility and coordinates project planning processes. Collaborates with various technology teams to secure commitments and ensure active, prioritized engagement from technology resources. 
• Continually seeks new opportunities to drive technology innovation and growth in the business. Works as part of the Technology Innovation Team to explore the latest technology innovations and evaluates their applicability to the customer. Identifies areas of business need that can be addressed/assisted by using innovative technologies. 
• Partners with Regional leadership to define the technology capital and expense budgets required to support customer needs. 
• Provides leadership and development for the Americas Regional Technology Team and matrix teams in Region.   
• Communicates technology policies to business units and partners with them to ensure compliance. Supports and participates in the governance framework, where applicable. 

Qualifications

• 15 years’ related experience with consumer products, retail sales, marketing, distribution or other related industries.
• 15 years’ experience in business processes, information systems, technology and partnering with customers at a senior level.
• Excellent business technology leadership skills and demonstrated experience with delivering business outcomes enabled by technology.
• Member of the Region’s leadership team – demonstrates outstanding communication, resiliency, interpersonal skills, ability to influence and provide technology thought leadership to Region leadership and act as a trusted advisor.
• High sense of urgency to influence changes and drive outcomes from conception to delivery.
• Effective performance in a highly matrixed and complex organization - demonstrates collaborative relationship building skills with various internal and external stakeholders, strong lateral influencing ability.
• Effective in managing ambiguity – create structure and develop creative ideas to solution challenges while focusing on results and outcomes.