Vice President of Information Technology

Join to apply for the Vice President of Information Technology role at Homedics

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.

Description
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.
• Previous experience in a transformational environment is preferred.
• Integration experience is preferred.
• Experience managing and supporting full spectrum infrastructure, business systems, solutions, BI & Analytics and IT staffing in CPG / Retail / Direct to Consumer distribution businesses.
• Experience with selecting, implementing, and supporting fully integrated ERP and related solutions in a CPG/Retail/D2C environment.
• Ability to work with existing staff, to formulate and move forward with appropriate localized and global IT resource plans.
• Experience working with and meeting the ongoing needs of a retail centric, consumer packaged goods company.
• 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.

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 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.

Specific Responsibilities

• Lead the development and refinement of both regional and global IT strategy and roadmap.
• Inform, educate, and guide senior leadership, colleagues, and strategic partners to advance appropriate strategic organizational goals.
• Provide strategic direction and oversight of the design, development, operation and support of IT systems and programs.
• Oversee the establishment and maintenance of effective IT controls.
• Manage technology obsolescence and vendor risks.
• Instill a culture of high performance, compliance and continuous improvement within the IT team.
• Company-wide data/network security and compliance.
• Continuous improvement of internal and customer-facing systems.
• Define and execute forward-looking plans to leverage contemporary technology skills and capabilities.
• Lead, coach and develop IT 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.
• Build effective relationships across the business and oversee the preparation of business cases to support proposed IT initiatives.
• Optimize software and hardware solutions to reduce variability across the businesses in the group.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

Seniority level

• Executive

Employment type

• Full-time

Job function

• Information Technology
• Manufacturing