Delivery Manager

POSITION SUMMARY

The Delivery Manager owns the delivery of assigned Digital Transformation initiatives end to end, from discovery through go-live and stabilization. This role is accountable for scope, schedule and business adoption on the workstreams it carries, and is the primary Digital Transformation point of contact for the operating unit leaders those workstreams serve.

This is a delivery role, not a technology role. The Delivery Manager does not configure the systems and does not architect them. They own the plan, the commitments, the partner relationships and the outcome, so that platform specialists and operating unit leaders can stay focused on their own work.

WHY THE ROLE EXISTS

For 2027, Digital Transformation has committed to a portfolio of initiatives requested directly by operating unit presidents. The portfolio spans ERP implementation and upgrade work, a PLM rollout, a cost accounting overhaul, material handling and finance automation, engineering automation, and a data platform feeding enterprise reporting.

The binding constraint on that portfolio is senior delivery capacity, not technical expertise and not vendor availability. The platform specialists and the implementation partners are in place. What is missing is someone who can take whole workstreams off the Delivery Excellence manager and be accountable for them independently.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Workstream ownership

• Own assigned workstreams end to end, from discovery through go-live and post-implementation stabilization, accountable for scope, schedule and adoption.

• Act as the primary Digital Transformation contact for operating unit presidents and their leadership teams on those workstreams.

• Negotiate scope, sequencing and trade-offs directly with operating unit leadership, escalating genuine conflicts rather than routine decisions.

• Commit to dates on behalf of Digital Transformation, and own the consequences of those commitments.

Project execution

• Build and maintain integrated project schedules across concurrent workstreams, each with its own discovery and delivery phases.

• Manage dependencies, decisions, risks and issues, and drive them to closure rather than only recording them.

• Identify schedule slippage early and bring a recovery plan, not only a red status.

• Run steering and working sessions with the discipline that keeps decisions moving between them.

Requirements and discovery

• Lead discovery with operating unit stakeholders, including shop floor, quality, engineering and finance users.

• Own current-state process documentation, future-state requirements, gap analysis and acceptance criteria.

• Convert business requirements into scope that vendors and internal specialists can act on, and control that scope once it is set.

Vendor and partner management

• Own the working relationship with third-party implementation partners across ERP, PLM, data and quality platforms.

• Review and challenge statement-of-work scope, estimates and change orders before they are accepted.

• Hold partners to milestones and deliverable quality, and give leadership a clear-eyed read on partner performance.

Data, testing and cutover

• Direct data cleanup, mapping and validation with operating unit data owners.

• Own test strategy and plans, and drive user acceptance testing through to sign-off.

• Own cutover and go-live readiness, including training logistics, readiness criteria and post-go-live support.

Reporting and governance

• Produce accurate, current status for every owned workstream on a consistent cadence.

• Prepare and present steering committee and executive review materials.

• Maintain documentation so any workstream can be picked up by someone else without a verbal handoff.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Five or more years delivering business system projects such as ERP, PLM, CRM or BI, in manufacturing or industrial operations.

• At least two full-lifecycle implementations personally owned from discovery through go-live, with accountability for the date.

• Demonstrated ability to carry several concurrent workstreams without losing control of any of them.

• Experience presenting to and negotiating with senior business leadership at plant manager, general manager or president level.

• Proven vendor management, including challenging scope, estimates and change orders on a statement of work.

• Strong requirements elicitation and process documentation skills, with artifacts to show.

• Comfort working directly with shop floor and operations personnel, not only with office staff.

• Practical, day-to-day use of AI tools in the normal course of work - drafting and reviewing documentation, summarizing meetings and requirements, analyzing data, preparing status and reporting - with the judgment to know when output can be relied on and when it must be verified.

• Willingness to keep pace as these tools change, and to bring what works back to the wider team rather than keeping it personal. Digital Transformation delivers AI initiatives of its own, and this role is expected to be credible on that ground.

• Willingness to travel to operating unit sites, estimated at 25 to 35 percent.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Hands-on delivery experience with one or more of: Epicor Kinetic, Acumatica, PTC Windchill, Salesforce, JobScope.

• Working knowledge of discrete manufacturing processes, standard costing, quality systems or engineering change control.

• Multi-site or multi-entity rollout experience.

• Experience establishing delivery governance or project management practice where little existed before.

• Data migration or data quality leadership on a system implementation.

WHAT SUCCESS LOOKS LIKE

First 90 days

• Has taken full ownership of at least one active workstream, including its operating unit relationship.

• Maintains an integrated schedule for all owned workstreams.

• Owns the standing cadence with at least two implementation partners.

• Has completed discovery documentation for at least one workstream end to end.

First 12 months

• Owned workstreams hit their committed 2027 milestones, or miss them with enough warning to act.

• Discovery phases complete on schedule, so delivery phases start when planned.

• The Sr. Manager, Delivery Excellence is no longer the single point of accountability for every initiative in the portfolio.

• Operating unit leadership treats this role, not the manager above it, as the owner of its projects.

WHAT THIS ROLE IS NOT

• Not an ERP configuration, customization or technical support role.

• Not a systems or solution architect role.

• Not a direct people management role at this time. This role manages projects, vendor teams and cross-functional participants rather than direct reports.

LOGISTICS

• Reports to the Sr. Manager, Delivery Excellence within Digital Transformation.

• Location and work arrangement: to be confirmed.

• Travel: estimated 25 to 35 percent to operating unit sites.

• Compensation range: to be confirmed with Human Resources.