Director, Technology Management

Requisition ID: 108971

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People are the heart of our business. As an American Water employee, you will be offered a competitive salary and health benefits package, along with opportunities to develop, grow, and evolve your career. Our benefits packages focus on key areas such as health & wellness, emotional & well-being, and savings for current & future goals.

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About American Water

American Water (NYSE: AWK) is the largest regulated water and wastewater utility company in the United States. With a history dating back to 1886, We Keep Life Flowing® by providing safe, clean, reliable and affordable drinking water and wastewater services to more than 14 million people across 14 regulated jurisdictions and 18 military installations. American Water’s 6,500 talented professionals leverage their significant expertise and the company’s national size and scale to achieve excellent outcomes for the benefit of customers, employees, investors and other stakeholders.

As one of the fastest growing utilities in the U.S., American Water expects to invest $40 to $42 billion in infrastructure repairs and replacement, system resiliency and regulated acquisitions over the next 10 years. The company has a long-standing history of executing its core operations, aligned with sustainable best practices, through its commitments to safety, affordability, customer service, protecting the environment, an inclusive workforce and strengthening communities.

American Water has been recognized on the 2023 Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index for the fifth consecutive year, ranked 18th on Barron’s 100 Most Sustainable U.S. Companies 2023 List, earned the U.S. Department of Homeland Security SAFETY Act designation and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s WaterSense® Excellence Award, among additional state, local and national recognitions.

For more information, visit amwater.com and join American Water on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Primary Role

The Director, Technology Management serves as the strategic partner and technology adviser to all Business Units and Functions at American Water. This role collaborates across IT and American Water to drive alignment between Business and Technology, acting as the central point of contact for all technology enhancements and new technology needs (not including AW2030). This role heads the group which manages overall IT financial management, Portfolio Management, Project Execution, Product / Solution implementation, ITSM, IT M&A and IT Vendor Management.

Key Accountabilities

- Partner with AW2030 and the business transformation team (change management) to ensure effective business transformation for all initiatives

- Provide direction to project managers and the portfolio management function to ensure a healthy and well-managed initiative portfolio with full transparency

- Partner with business leadership to plan new joint initiatives, evaluate proposals, and determine how they fit into business capability roadmaps and priorities

- Focus on business value rather than solutions to develop ideas, that include digital enablement, business risk assessments and business capability requirements

- Develop and implement IT vendor management function

- Oversee and manage the SDLC and ITSM functions for IT

- Ensure business value realization and optimization, from value plans through consultancy, business case development, financial awareness, managing expectations, and identifying technology opportunities to add value

- Ensure project and initiative progress, including consistent and effective communication, including managing escalation and avoiding risk

- Develop and implement process for IT to facilitate M&A integrations

- Establish communication processes and channels between business and technology functions

- Measure and communicate business value realized with the business partner on a periodic basis

- Develop and implement resource planning capabilities for IT team.

Knowledge/Skills

- Strong knowledge and experience with Enterprise Systems , SAP , Commercial off the shelf products

- Strong functional knowledge and experience with ERP applications related to Operations , Finance , Customer , HR & Legal

- Experience in the Utility Industry is preferred

- Ability to effectively drive business, culture, and technology change in a dynamic and complex operating environment

- Ability to analyze complex situations and to derive workable actions

- Ability to understand detailed impact while keeping an eye on the big picture

- Ability to convert abstract real world business scenarios into easy to understand models

- Ability to identify, prioritize and weigh different options and to recommend value-add solutions

- Ability to balance what is "right" with what is "realistic" and to stay focused on identified priorities

- Ability to make decisions in situations of ambiguity and the absence of complete facts

Experience/Education

- 15+ year’s experience working in Information Technology / Information Systems

- 7+ years’ experience in Business Partnership or Delivery role

- 5+ years’ experience in a leadership role

- Experience with implementing strategy across an organization

- Bachelors in Computer Science / Information Technology / Information Systems or related field of Engineering and/or Business . Masters or MBA preferred

Travel Requirements

As necessary , up to 20 %

Work Environment

Standard office environment

Other

Skills:

- Excellent interpersonal and communication skills and proven ability to work effectively at all levels in the organization

- Excellent verbal and written communication skills

- Strong strategic skills to develop long term visions and the ability to translate them into actionable roadmaps that are broadly accepted

- Proven track record of successful team leadership and development

- Strong customer and user experience focus

- Good presentation skills engaging a variety of audiences up to ELT

Competencies

Drives Safety Culture

Drives Vision & Purpose

Strategic & Learning Agility

Political & Organizational Savvy

Builds Effective Teams & Network

Situational Adaptability

Persuades

Join American Water...We Keep Life Flowing™

American Water is firmly committed to Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) and prohibits employment discrimination for employees and applicants based on his or her age, race, color, pregnancy, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin, religion, marital status, citizenship, or because they are an individual with a disability, protected veteran or other status protected by federal, state, and local laws.