Foundational Platforms Manager, IT

Position Overview: The Foundational Platforms Manager drives the strategic vision, operational resiliency, and lifecycle management of our enterprise container and foundational platforms. Combining cloud-native platform engineering leadership with direct oversight of Tier II technical support operations, this role supervises the architecture, configuration, and maintenance of our container orchestration systems, and critical software assets. As a vital bridge between operational stability and technology modernization, the IT Manager leads Tier II incident escalation, prioritizes high-impact system projects, and partners with business units to deliver secure, scalable, and innovative technology solutions.

As part of the leadership team, the IT Manager implements strategic plans, monitors and contributes to developing the departmental budget, and recruits, trains, supervises, and develops IT staff.

Essential Job Functions 

• Develop, deliver, and maintain foundational technology platforms, and achieve business strategies as defined by senior management
• Provide platform administration and support for application servers, messaging, and container platforms including Tomcat, Wildfly, Artemis, Kafka, Kubernetes, and Docker
• Troubleshoot complex, cross-domain issues spanning security, monitoring, API gateways, container platforms, and load balancers across applications and services hosted on varied platforms
• Identify problems and evaluate trends in collaboration with senior management to develop technology and business strategies
• Negotiate complex business functions and requirements with technical and non-technical coworkers to accomplish company goals
• Ensure standardized operating procedures (SOPs) are executed at the highest level of quality in communication and service
• Evaluate the established key performance indicators (KPIs) that inform key business decisions and use metrics to achieve department goals
• Align staff to IMC reference architecture and Agile development processes where applicable
• Ensure all project deliverables and the creation and review of documentation comply with the IMC global development process
• Complete projects by coordinating resources, dependencies, and timelines with user departments
• Preserve assets by implementing disaster recovery, back-up procedures, information security, and control structures
• Oversee the communication and maintenance of security protocols and disaster recovery systems within the organization
• Delight customers and maintain quality service by establishing and enforcing organization standards which include but aren’t limited to secure coding practices, utilizing the reference framework and architecture, code reviews, testing, and move-to-production
• Develop and deliver effective communications to peer teams through executive-level business partners and IT executives
• Plan, monitor, and appraise job results
• Develop personal growth opportunities among teams
• Coach and counsel employees, and address performance gaps properly
• Maintain professional and technical knowledge by attending educational workshops, reviewing professional publications, establishing personal networks, and participating in professional societies
• Contribute to a culture of continuous improvement and operational excellence by identifying and implementing process improvements where appropriate
• Conduct all business in a highly ethical manner, exhibiting behavior, practices, and standards that uphold IMC core values
• Create a safe and positive working environment where employees feel included, recognized, and heard
• Perform other duties as assigned

Job Requirements 

• 5+ years of qualifying work experience in information technology or engineering environment
• Bachelor's degree in computer science, engineering, information systems, business, or related field and/or equivalent formal training or work experience (advanced degree preferred)
• Demonstrated leadership experience
• Proven track record of organizing and leading complex technical projects across multiple functions
• Extensive experience and expert level business and/or IT knowledge of multiple OpCo divisions/functions supported and multiple functional areas (e.g. shipment systems, infrastructure, logistics, customer systems, financial systems, back-office systems)
• Expert knowledge of IT and business partner strategies
• Working knowledge of the Red Hat OpenShift Kubernetes Container platform
• Working knowledge of the Docker container platform
• Working knowledge of typical supply chain software and infrastructure technologies 
• Working knowledge of technical and architecture concepts such as message/event-oriented architectures, data modeling, workflow management, and real-time streaming
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills at all levels, including experience presenting to executive-level business partners and IT
• Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills
• Positive attitude and self-motivated
• Availability to travel when needed

Other Skills/Abilities 

• Strong understanding of and experiences with Business Agility, Agile/Scrum, and other SDLC development processes with the ability to mentor, build consensus and lead others in these areas