Director, IT Applications

Overview:

The IT Director, Enterprise Applications & Architecture is a strategic business and technology leader who shapes the enterprise technology landscape and delivers scalable, secure, and high-value solutions. This role builds trusted partnerships with senior business leaders, translates strategy into executable roadmaps, and leads high-performing teams that enable operational excellence, growth, and digital transformation.

The Director leads Enterprise Applications and provides executive oversight of Enterprise Architecture and Business Intelligence & Analytics through the Enterprise Architect, who leads both the Enterprise Architecture team and the Data & Analytics team. The role is accountable for SAP ECC, SAP S/4HANA, application modernization, architecture governance, process optimization, reporting, analytics, and global solution delivery, balancing reliable day-to-day operations with long-term modernization and readiness to resume the SAP ECC-to-S/4HANA transformation when business priorities and timing are confirmed.

Success requires an influential, outcomes-oriented leader who can simplify complexity, develop talent, strengthen governance, and guide investment decisions across a global application and technology portfolio.

Responsibilities

Business Relationship Management

• Serve as a trusted advisor to senior business leaders, translating strategic priorities and operational challenges into clear technology roadmaps and investment decisions.

• Build strong partnerships across Finance, Human Resources, Procurement, Manufacturing, Supply Chain, Commercial, and other business functions.

• Establish shared priorities, decision rights, ownership, and measurable outcomes across business and technology teams.

• Engage senior stakeholders regularly to assess satisfaction, identify emerging needs, and address concerns early.

• Communicate complex technology topics in clear business language and influence decisions through transparency, listening, and follow-through.

• Co-create multiyear capability and application roadmaps with business leaders, supported by clear value cases, adoption plans, and sustainable operating models.
Application Strategy and Portfolio Management

• Define and execute a global enterprise technology and applications strategy aligned with business priorities, architecture principles, and digital transformation goals.

• Lead the governance, support, enhancement, and optimization of Trinseo's application landscape, including SAP ECC, SAP S/4HANA, and integrated business systems.

• Own the application lifecycle and multiyear roadmap, improving resilience, standardization, user experience, modernization, and return on technology investment.

• Provide strategic direction and executive oversight for Business Intelligence & Analytics capabilities through the Enterprise Architect and Data & Analytics team, ensuring reporting, dashboards, analytics, and business insights support decision-making and operational performance.

• Partner with business leaders to improve end-to-end processes across manufacturing, procurement, supply chain, commercial operations, finance, and HR.

• Oversee application projects, upgrades, transformations, and continuous improvement initiatives that improve business performance and user experience.

• Drive portfolio decisions using transparent measures of business value, risk, cost, technical health, strategic alignment, and capacity.
Organization Leadership and Talent Development

• Build a forward-looking workforce strategy for Enterprise Applications and, through the Enterprise Architect, the Enterprise Architecture and Data & Analytics teams, addressing critical capabilities, team capacity, succession, career development, and readiness for evolving business and technology needs.

• Build a culture of trust, collaboration, inclusion, and continuous learning.

• Lead, coach, and inspire a globally distributed team with clear goals, empowered decision-making, meaningful feedback, and development opportunities.

• Build an effectively blended workforce of employees, contractors, managed-service providers, and strategic partners.
Enterprise Architecture and Transformation Readiness

• Provide direct leadership, coaching, and performance management for the Enterprise Architect, who reports to this role and leads both the Enterprise Architecture team and the Data & Analytics team; oversee the teams' capabilities, priorities, performance, and collaboration, and set the vision, standards, governance, and roadmaps that connect business strategy with technology investment.

• Guide the evolution of the current and target-state application landscape, ensuring roadmaps, integrations, and modernization initiatives align with enterprise architecture principles and business outcomes.

• Maintain ERP transformation readiness through proactive assessment of architecture, application rationalization, integrations, technical debt, process alignment, data dependencies, and delivery capacity.

• Support and optimize SAP ECC and SAP S/4HANA environments while preserving the plans, knowledge, and capabilities needed to restart the transformation when authorized.

• Oversee data architecture, data platforms, and analytics delivery through the Enterprise Architect, who retains day-to-day leadership responsibility for the Enterprise Architecture and Data & Analytics teams and ensures close alignment with Enterprise Applications, AI, Infrastructure, Cybersecurity, and business stakeholders.
AI and Application Innovation Support

• Partner with IT's AI Lead, business stakeholders, and vendors to identify and scale responsible AI-enabled capabilities that improve business outcomes, productivity, and user experience.

• Align application AI opportunities with company AI strategy, governance, security requirements, and business priorities.

• Develop Applications team skills to support AI-enabled application capabilities, embedded intelligence, and automation opportunities.

• Partner with the AI, Infrastructure, Cybersecurity, and business teams to assess technical, operational, architectural, data, analytics, and governance impacts.
Operational Excellence and Governance

• Ensure secure, reliable, and compliant application, architecture, data, and analytics operations in partnership with the Enterprise Architect, Infrastructure, Cybersecurity, and other technology teams.

• Provide executive oversight of the support, governance, and continuous improvement of Business Intelligence & Analytics platforms through the Enterprise Architect and Data & Analytics team, informed by business stakeholder priorities.

• Manage application budgets, vendor relationships, software licensing, and technology investments.

• Define and monitor service levels, experience measures, delivery performance, and operational health, using insights to drive continuous improvement.

• Ensure effective governance, risk management, and compliance processes across the application portfolio.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in IT, Computer Science, Engineering, Business Information Systems, or a related field; advanced degree preferred.

• 10+ years of progressive technology leadership in enterprise applications, architecture, or related digital capabilities within a complex global environment.

• Experience leading SAP ECC and SAP S/4HANA environments in global manufacturing.

• Experience with large-scale ERP transformation, application modernization, or migration.

• Experience leading enterprise architecture governance, standards, and roadmaps aligned with business strategy.

• Experience assessing, developing, and leading technical teams through organizational and technology change.

• Experience evaluating emerging technologies and AI-enabled applications preferred.

• Executive oversight of Data & Analytics, including platforms, reporting, analytics, governance, and performance insights.

• Strong knowledge of manufacturing, supply chain, procurement, finance, HR, and commercial processes.

• Success managing large technology initiatives, vendors, budgets, and cross-functional partnerships.

• Knowledge of IT service management, Agile delivery, application governance, and AI governance.
Key Competencies

• Talent Development

• Strategic Leadership

• Business Partnership

• SAP and ERP Expertise

• Application Portfolio Strategy

• Enterprise Architecture

• Talent Development

• Innovation and AI

• Data & Analytics Oversight

• Financial and Vendor Management

• Change Leadership and Influence

• Problem Solving and Decisions

• Customer and Business Value Focus