Title: IT Innovation Manager - Direct to Consumer - Retail
Location: United Kingdom-United Kingdom (County level)-Kingston upon thames-Kingston Head Office
Job Number: 15000C8N
Job Title:
IT Innovation Manager Direct to Consumer (Retail)
Salary: upto £50,200
Benefits: Agile Working, Bonus, Healthcare, Pension, Location Allowance £1,500
Location: Kingston upon Thames, Surrey
Business Context:
On any given day, two billion people use Unilever products to look good, feel good and get more out of life.
For a number of Unilever’s iconic brands, ‘multi-channel’ retailing or the ability to offer a seamless, innovative and unified customer experience across physical stores and digital channels (online) is becoming increasingly important.
Ownership of physical stores, enables some of our leading brands to own the full end-to-end experience with the customer, deepening our relationships and allowing us to offer a more rewarding and personalised experience.
Physical retail provides an important new revenue stream for Unilever at superior margin to our core business.
Unilever currently has 5 brands with retail stores (T2, Ben & Jerry’s, Happiness Station, Maille, Magnum).
Our premium tea business T2 recently opened its first stores outside Australasia with four new store openings in the UK.
Unilever’s oldest brand, Maille, has boutiques in New York, Dijon, Paris, London, Melbourne and Sydney complimented with an online boutique offering premium mustards, vinegars and gifting options.
Over the next five years Unilever expects to more than double our number of retail outlets / stores / boutiques.
A global retail operations group is being established to support the retail brands as they look to expand.
The retail operations group will helping ensure we have the right structures and support in place, build repeatable models and share best practices across the retail community and provide training, tools and technology to ensure we win in retail.
Main Purpose of the Role:
This role is within the Global Consumer IT Innovation team, responsible for partnering the Global Categories / Brands with a focus on developing and deploying solutions to grow the retail as a channel.
This specific role is responsible for:
Understand deeply the business requirements in Retail, across all brands
Creating retail IT solutions with a view to the development of a shared, Unilever retail ‘blueprint’
Help connect teams within ETC to develop and deploy E2E Retail solutions (Supply Chain, EBI, Information & Analytics)
Leverage existing solutions and partnerships, particularly in eCommerce and Digital Marketing
Lead the implementation of Retail IT solutions for Global brands with support from Cluster and Geography IT teams.
Retail IT solutions will include but are not limited to;
In-Store technology – to benefits the consumer and Unilever retail brands e.g.
Modern POS solutions opening up the in-store application environment
In-store payment processing
Digital signage and new methods of customer interaction
Back office systems - to help modernise, streamline the way our retail brands operate
ERP; buying, merchandising, logistics, finance
HR; staff scheduling, time & attendance, training, learning systems
Reporting; enabling store managers to see real-time stock levels etc.
BI & Data Warehouse; supporting live sales & performance dashboards
Contact centre solutions
This role is responsible for end-to-end delivery of implementing through managing relationships with key retail brands, technology & implementation partners and internal Unilever IT Innovation and Services teams.
Key Accountabilities:
Deep understanding of retail / multi-channel IT capabilities (store systems, ecommerce including CRM and marketing automation and back office systems; buying and merchandising, logistics, finance)
Business engagement on retail / multi-channel implementations
End to end project management and delivery of projects in retail / multi-channel (following Unilever project management methodology and global PMO innovation funnel)
Manage project plan, budget, risks, issues and action logs
Management of implementation partners and holding them to account on their delivery
Liaise with core team to ensure delivery to dates
Stakeholder management for each implementation
Chair regular implementation boards
Develop and manage cutover plans with the business
Develop and manage data migration and data cleansing plans
Management of relationship with Unilever digital marketing services and jointly deliver global DTC capabilities where relevant
Managing the relationship with the Unilever IT services organisation and on-boarding to service delivery
Ensure compliance with Unilever standards for each implementation (e.g. privacy, security, consumer data, PCI)
Manage the creation of business case (and other gate documents where required) and ensure benefits tracking and realisation mechanisms are in place
Liaise with Finance business partners to manage budget allocation, trade vs capex split and business benefits tracking
Main Accountabilities:
Build long-term relationships with retail stakeholders (global, market, brand levels)
Create, identify and respond to opportunities for providing products and services to the business community.
Promote products and services at a high level to business community. Encourage the development of new products to meet future needs.
Take full responsibility for the level of customer satisfaction, at regular intervals or after each significant delivery of product or service. Respond to customers’ queries and complaints. Ensure that corrective action is taken by own organisation and by the customer organisation. Facilitates customer involvement in the continuous improvement of the products and services supplied to them.
Works with the CoE / CoP / Process Office to establish the contribution that IT can make to business objectives; defining strategies, drawing up requirements specifications, conducting feasibility studies, producing high level and detailed business models, overseeing development and implementing solutions, taking into account as necessary any safety related implications of systems considered.
Works with CD eCommerce community, to ensure maximum improvements are made in the business operations as groups of projects deliver their products into operational use.
Plans, organises and carries out consultancy assignments alone, or leads a team
Initiates investigation and development of innovative methods of exploiting IT assets, to the benefit of organisations and the community. Carries out analysis at a strategic level, and develops business proposals to exploit technology in line with the organisation’s mission, objectives and strategy.
Initiates and influences relationships with and between key stakeholders, in business change design, management and implementation, acting as a primary point of contact for senior stakeholders and influencers
Plans and directs strategic process improvement projects, ensuring the smooth integration of new business processes with organisational structure and culture.
Ensures transparent and effective business governance of IT investment and adherence to IPIX governance processes.
Develop strong relationships, with key stakeholders in BP, ES IT, S&T, with key business owners and Process Offices, with strategic suppliers and 3rd party IT service providers
Work with other Innovation Managers and CD stakeholders to build and maintain a strong governance process for Innovation to ensure high quality project and programme delivery
Prioritise and own sequence of changes and linkage to specific releases; identify synergies between projects and change requests in similar process areas for more effective delivery.
Drive simplification to support the lowest possible TCO in the systems landscape.
Provide change impact assessment to drive scope of testing programme and improve quality and reduce risk/impact of change; ensure cross functional design risks are identified and mitigated
Understand and interpret IT strategic architecture, ensure all projects follow the principles, guidelines and standards set out by Unilever’s S&T
Own and maintain the road map for IT systems architecture change/refresh in line with destination architecture and aligned with business priorities for change projects and programmes
Skills/ Experience/ Qualifications:
Essential:
Proven experience in managing complex projects and programmes
Business Partnering or account management experience
Experience of managing external service providers delivering projects and support
Extensive knowledge of eCommerce and related IT solutions
Extensive knowledge of direct to consumer eCommerce operations and technologies
Demonstrated ability to deliver through others
Successful track record of leading mid-size business change projects
Proven ability to work as part of a global and /or regional virtual team
Experience of working with an eCRM platform
Experience in fast moving / entrepreneurial environments, particularly involving Internet and eCommerce
Strong appreciation of the processes and challenges facing the relevant function being partnered
Experienced in the Application Development Life Cycle
Desirable:
Proven experience in requirements gathering
Experience of working in sales function in eCommerce
Experience in working specifically on digital innovation (client and / or agency)
Experience in working with Unilever brands
Deep appreciation of IT systems landscapes and impact of architecture decisions on quality and delivery
Excellent financial awareness and understanding of TCO models
Experience of Unilever Innovation Funnel (and project delivery processes)
Ohers:
Demonstrated leadership and communication skills (written and oral) are critical to the role’s success. Excellent understanding of IT application systems and the infrastructure that enables them – particularly in the retail and web enabled spaces.
Possesses the perception to devise solutions and recognise opportunities across a very broad front and shows the ability to take action to exploit opportunities that will have a measurable effect on profit/operational effectiveness.
Must possess a good external view of the marketplace to ensure that future strategies are relevant to the business.
KPI’s:
Delivery of implementations on time in full on budget
Project plans in place and tracked
Stakeholder buy in
Service introduction complete and exit of PGLS for each implementation
Client Satisfaction
Realisation of benefits (jointly with Business)
Standards of Leadership:
Bias for Action
Building Talent and Teams
Growth Mindset
Consumer and Customer Focus
Accountability & Responsibility
COMPANY OVERVIEW
Unilever is a global Fast-Moving Consumer Goods company in the UK and Ireland.
We are already on target to achieve our huge ambition to double the size of our business globally whilst reducing our environmental impact. We are growing our business and also doing what is right for our consumers, community and environment.
We are developing brands for people’s lives today and for the changing environment tomorrow - making sustainable living commonplace.
Working at Unilever means that you get to take part in this exciting journey and work with amazing people who are really passionate about our large portfolio of famous brands. We want to improve billions of lives and you too can join us in making a sustainable difference.
HOW TO APPLY
Hear stories from our Unilever Makers and understand how you can start your own Unilever career at:
http://www.unilever.co.uk/careers-jobs/professionals/.
Or to apply now, click on “Apply to this job”. All candidate applications are reviewed in accordance with the criteria outlined for the job role. Please note that the closing date for the receipt of applications is 15 th
July 2015
Candidates who have applied online can track their application through the candidate tracking link or, if you have any additional queries, you may contact the Recruitment hotline number on 0800 0284390 .
Job: Information Technology