Manager IT Application Operations

Education:

• Bachelor’s degree in a relevant field of study or equivalent years of related work experience required.

Work Experiences:

• At least 8 years of related management experience in the retail industry IT field.

• Prior people leadership experience, including management of employees, contractors, and/or managed service providers

• Experience supporting enterprise‑scale applications across one or more business domains (e.g., Supply Chain, Retail Operations, Finance, Digital, Corporate Systems)

Skills:

• Possess the capability to manage direct reports who may be contractors as well as employees in a managed services environment

• Experience managing a technical staff with a variety of technical skills, administering and supporting a portfolio of enterprise applications and systems

• Experience managing a technical team providing 24/7 on-call support

• Experience supporting enterprise application platforms across one or more business domains, with oversight to related support towers such as Stores, BI/Reporting, Financials, or Digital as required.

• Experience in building and maintaining a comprehensive Application Catalog of applications and business customers

• Working knowledge of the latest technological trends, including observability, automation, and AI.

• Coordinate with project managers, business analysts, development managers, and the Infrastructure teams on new application projects, and ensure application and database performance and stability

• Provide regular and proactive communication to senior IT management on project status, potential risks, concerns, team successes and challenges, as well as the progress of individual performance

• Maintain current knowledge on new IT tools, hardware, software, and technology, and make recommendations to meet current and future business challenges

• Must possess excellent customer service, inter-personal, leadership, conflict resolution, and problem-solving skills

• Must be able to work in a fast-paced environment and ensure Business SLA’s and project deadlines are met

• Experience in product-based IT Operations and SRE principles is a plus

• Acceptable level of hearing and vision to perform job duties

• Communication - effective listening, speaking, and writing

Responsibilities:

• Provide leadership across assigned enterprise application support teams and platforms

• Manage the application lifecycle for Warehouse Management Systems (WMS), Transportation Management Systems (TMS), and Labor Management Systems (LMS)

• Oversee the IT interface with automated Material Handling Equipment (conveyors, sorters, robotics, and ASRS). Ensure high availability for mission-critical distribution center hardware/software interfaces

• Maintain the "source of truth" for inventory data as it moves through the supply chain into Merchandising and Store systems

• Maintains smooth and efficient operation of assigned departments

• Responsible for service reliability, cross-functional incident/problem/change governance

• Performs general managerial duties, including hiring, training, coaching, reviewing, performance, compensation, and termination for regular and contract associates as applicable

• Able to enumerate and assign tasks to staff and establish metrics to assess performance

• Mentor team members to ensure continuous learning and engagement, maximizing individual talents and strengths where they serve the team(s) best, and report on these to management

• Maintains budget including project expenses, salaries, training, travel & entertainment

• Own execution of IT General Controls (ITGC) for assigned application portfolios; lead quarterly access reviews and ensure Segregation of Duties (SoD) is maintained

• Maintain internal control documentation, effectively perform assigned internal controls, remediate internal control exceptions, and respond to internal and external audit requests

• Ensure adherence to all Academy standards and policies and effectively maintain SOX, PCI, ISO, and other compliance standards where assigned

• Define and manage observability roadmaps (logs/metrics/traces, AIOps); drive alert hygiene and signal-to-noise across Splunk/Dynatrace/Grafana.

• Define and manage self-healing and diagnostics automation; quantify value (hours saved, incidents avoided, risk reduced).

• Own DR/BCP readiness for critical apps; validate playbooks, RTO/RPO targets, and periodic exercises in partnership with the DR team.

• Supports the corporate goal of Academy – For All, For Less

• Continuous reviews and, when necessary, realigns department strategies to fit the changing business needs of the company

• Guards against the installation of any technology that does not have a direct business benefit associated with it

• Own MSP/SaaS vendor scorecards, QBRs, penalties/incentives, and remediation plans; ensure RCAs and SLAs are contractually upheld.

• Manage OpEx budgets, forecasts, and cost-to-serve; optimize onsite/offshore mix and licensing/observability spend.

• Represent service posture to executives and business leaders; publish simple, actionable health reports and narratives.

• Translate business priorities into operational plans; align intake/prioritization with the Product team and PMO.

• Required to learn company policies, procedures, and safety rules

• Duties may change, and associates may be required to perform other duties as assigned

Physical Requirements & Attendance

• Acceptable level of hearing and vision to perform job duties

• Adhere to company work hours, policies, procedures, and rules governing professional staff behavior

• Regular in-office attendance is required