Senior Director of IT, Service Design

The Company is one of North America’s leading sales and marketing agencies specializing in outsourced sales, merchandising, category management and marketing services to manufacturers, suppliers and producers of food products and consumer packaged goods. The Company services a variety of trade channels including grocery, mass merchandise, specialty, convenience, drug, dollar, club, hardware, consumer electronics and home centers. We bridge the gap between manufacturers and retailers, providing consumers access to the best products available in the marketplace today.

What we offer:

• Full-Time Benefits (Medical, Dental, Vision, Life)
• 401(k) with company match
• Training and Career Development
• Generous Paid Time-Off 

Responsibilities:

Advantage Solutions IT in Chicago, IL is looking for a Service Design Leader to work a hybrid role; onsite potentially 1-3 days/week.  Advantage Solutions IT is a newly-established shared service capability within Advantage Solutions, and the Strategy & Architecture function is an entirely new concept within Advantage Solutions IT.  Our IT organization is focused on driving a significant amount of simultaneous IT & Business transformation while preparing for next new innovations in technology as those transformations take place.  The Strategy & Architecture team is responsible for driving technology strategies and architectures to connect and achieve those transformations while also innovating on new technology concepts to embed into the business at scale. 

We work in a matrixed environment alongside portfolio technology leaders / delivery teams and business stakeholders.  Together we are planning and implementing technology solutions that align with Advantage Solutions strategic goals and objectives.  The Strategy & Architecture team is a common shared IT service at the center of this journey.  The Service Design Leader role will focus primarily on partnering across Strategy & Architecture, IT Portfolio Leaders (Data, Commercial, Enterprise Systems), and Business Executives.  This partnership will involve conceptualizing new business strategy demand, defining IT investment opportunities, and guiding stakeholders through the Service Design process to shape that demand into business solution proposals for investment. 

This is a new practice area for Advantage Solutions IT, and so this Service Design Leader will define a service design process, method, tools, and techniques – pilot those with early demand opportunities to prove success, and with success lead in building Service Design skills and practices within the IT organization and with business partners.  The Service Design lead will educate the organization, coach emerging practitioners, and creatively build the service design practice and team.  The Service Design leader will communicate in plain language, visually, and with stories that drive toward consensus and understanding of new service concepts for the Advantage business strategy.  Together, with the wider team, the Service Design leader will build enabling processes that allow service design to flourish in the Advantage organization.  The role will also serve as a node of management responsibility for building Service Design people and capabilities within Advantage Solutions IT – to include defining priorities across the Architecture function, interfacing with other common service teams (IT Portfolio Teams, Process Excellence, and Business stakeholders). 

• Be a shared practice expert and leader, partnering and facilitating across executives in the business, product, core IT, and architecture domains
• Contextualize service design demand and lead definition of needs
• Personalize design approach to the demand and business / IT stakeholder audience using Service Design techniques
• Facilitate internal communication in order to build understanding of business opportunities, service options, and impacts among stakeholders involved
• Work with the involved teams to guide toward and shape different options to conceptualize new services
• Keep Advantage business strategy always in perspective as service design processes unfold
• Build Service Design awareness, understanding, and skillsets within the Advantage IT organizations and the business groups with which it partners

Qualifications:

• 10+ years of experience in a Technical Role (software engineering, architecture, portfolio management, etc.)
• 4+ years in a Design role (application, user experience, etc.)
• Experience with user experience architecture concept definition and use
• Experience with design thinking / workshop / facilitation with business and IT executives
• Experience with team staffing, building, development and coaching
• Exposure to enterprise / data architecture and IT delivery excellence
• Bachelors Degree
  Local to Chicago, IL (willing and able to go onsite a couple days/week)

Additional Experience Required:

• Service design leadership: Customer Journey Mapping, Service Definition and Design, Service Blueprint Definition, Continuous Improvement Design, Voice of the Customer
• Design Thinking: Cross-Team Collaboration, Workshop Facilitation, System Thinking and Coaching, Stakeholder Relationships
• User Experience: User Research, User Experience Architecture Standards and Design Definition, Customer Experience Design, Rapid Prototyping
• IT Delivery: Program and Project Management, Communication, Team Building, IT Architecture Principles, IT Delivery Processes
• Change Management: Education, Coaching, Relationship Building and Executive Communication
• Strong and influential voice with the ability to facilitate meetings with all levels of individuals (including senior leaders) to empower open discussions, discern critical information, and stay on track with meeting intention and come to decisions

Job Will Remain Open Until Filled

The Company is one of North America’s leading sales and marketing agencies specializing in outsourced sales, merchandising, category management and marketing services to manufacturers, suppliers and producers of food products and consumer packaged goods. The Company services a variety of trade channels including grocery, mass merchandise, specialty, convenience, drug, dollar, club, hardware, consumer electronics and home centers. We bridge the gap between manufacturers and retailers, providing consumers access to the best products available in the marketplace today.

Essential Job Duties and Responsibilities
Team Management

- Handle personnel issues relating to staff conflicts, absenteeism, performance issues, etc.
- Work with each direct report to establish goals and objectives for each year and monitor and advise on the progress to enhance the professional development of staff.
- Recruit, select, orient, train, coach, counsel, and discipline employees
- Communicate values, strategies, and objectives
- Assign accountabilities; plan, monitor, and appraise job results
- Delegate work duties to staff to attain objectives

Business Development
- Work with Business Development, Account teams and Project Management team to respond to RFPs and meet with prospective clients to win new business
- Engage with existing customers on assigned accounts to determine additional ways we can serve their business needs in order to grow the accounts
- Consult with business units to understand current business processes and provide recommendations on how to leverage technology to streamline processes.

Technical Leadership
- Hold monthly team meetings to develop and grow the technical competency of their team
- Work with other technical leaders to technical areas that need additional growth within the teams
- Act as Tech Lead or Architect on major projects
- Provide technical mentorship to team members both on and off your specific projects
- Contribute to projects as an individual contributor as needed; be the glue when projects need help

Vendor Engagement
- Work with platform and software vendors to build and maintain partnerships

 
Supervisory Responsibilities:

Direct Reports
- Hires, retains, trains, coaches, guides, directs, and develops direct reports using company-wide processes, tools and resources

Indirect Reports
- May delegate work of others and provide guidance, direction and mentoring to indirect reports

Travel and/or Driving Requirements:
- Travel is an essential duty and function of this job
- Travel up to 30%

Minimum Qualifications The following are the minimum job-related qualifications which an individual needs in order to successfully perform the essential duties and responsibilities of the job
Education Level: (Required): Bachelor's Degree or equivalent experience
Field of Study/Area of Experience: Must have an undergraduate degree in business, management information systems, computer science or equivalent job-related experience. PMI Certification is desired but not required.
- 12+ years of experience in technical architecture, technical development and/or leading technical teams

Skills, Knowledge and Abilities:
• Excellent written communication and verbal communication skills
• Well-organized, detail-oriented, and able to handle a fast-paced work environment
• Ability to work effectively with clients and technical teams
• Strong technical skills in one or more web and/or application development areas, e.g., HTML/CSS, JavaScript, .NET, PHP, Java, iOS, Android, NodeJS, DevOps, Cloud (AWS/Azure), Server OS (Linux/Windows)
• Flexible and adaptable, able to change and alter according to changes in projects or business environment
• Strong computer skills including proficiency with Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, Outlook, and web-browsers

Environmental & Physical Requirements:
Office / Sedentary Requirements: Incumbent must be able to perform the essential functions of the job. Work is performed primarily in an office environment. Typically requires the ability to sit for extended periods of time (80%+ each day), ability to hear the telephone, ability to enter data on a computer and may also require the ability to lift up to 10 pounds.

Additional Information Regarding Advantage Solutions Job Duties and Job Descriptions
Job duties include additional responsibilities as assigned by one’s supervisor or other manager related to the position/department. This job description is meant to describe the general nature and level of work being performed; it is not intended to be construed as an exhaustive list of all responsibilities, duties and skills required for the position. The Company reserves the right at any time with or without notice to alter or change job responsibilities, reassign or transfer job position or assign additional job responsibilities, subject to applicable law. The Company shall provide reasonable accommodations of known disabilities to enable a qualified applicant or employee to apply for employment, perform the essential functions of the job, or enjoy the benefits and privileges of employment as required by the law.
Any estimate, schedule, or guideline provided to associates in this job description or elsewhere in connection with their jobs is only intended to help describe job duties and for planning purposes. Regardless of any such estimate, schedule, or guideline, associates must always record all time worked for our company (which includes but is not limited to on-site work time in an assigned store, office, or other work location; required waiting time; administrative time; and work-related travel time).

The above statements are intended to describe the general nature and level of work being performed by people assigned to this position. They are not intended to be an exhaustive list of all responsibilities, duties and skills required of associates so classified.

The Company is committed to providing equal opportunity in all employment practices without regard to age, race, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, religion, physical or mental disability, or any other category protected by law. As part of this commitment, the Company shall provide reasonable accommodations of known disabilities to enable an applicant or employee to apply for employment, perform the essential functions of the job, or enjoy the benefits and privileges of employment as required by the law.