Senior Expert, Global ERP Transformation & Application

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Senior Expert, Global ERP Transformation & Application

Full Time Information Tech Brecksville, OH, US

6 days ago Requisition ID: 1023

The Senior Expert, Global ERP Transformation & Applications is responsible for supporting, governing, and continuously improving Force Motion Group (FMG)'s ERP platforms, ERP-related integrations, business applications, and the critical data flows that enable global business operations. This role brings deep hands‑on technical expertise to the stability, security, performance, and continuous evolution of the ERP ecosystem, integrated systems, and connected business applications. The position contributes to technical standards, resolves complex technical challenges, guides service providers, and leads migrations, upgrades, system enhancements, and transformation initiatives throughout the full application lifecycle. Working closely with internal teams, service providers, and external partners, the role ensures ERP solutions remain reliable, scalable, secure, and aligned with evolving business requirements.

Key Responsibilities

• Provide senior technical expertise across FMG's ERP platforms, integrations, and specialist business applications, including platforms adopted, replaced, or acquired in the future.
• Configure, troubleshoot, test, and resolve complex technical issues while working closely with internal IT teams, external partners, and business stakeholders.
• Develop and maintain technical standards, environment strategy, change‑control practices, and technical documentation for systems within scope.
• Maintain the technical roadmap for assigned platforms, including upgrades, version management, technical‑debt reduction, and lifecycle planning.
• Maintain an accurate inventory of ERP applications, integrations, interfaces, dependencies, and recovery requirements.
• Administer ERP application‑level security, including user and group profiles, authority rules, access‑control tooling, and least‑privilege principles.
• Manage library and environment management, source and object promotion, and environment refreshes across the ERP estate.
• Own ERP job scheduling, batch monitoring, output and print management, and other operational routines required to keep ERP applications running reliably.
• Define ERP recovery requirements, including recovery time and recovery point objectives, restore sequencing, and validation of restores and disaster‑recovery tests.
• Plan and execute ERP cutovers and controlled outages, including weekend and out‑of‑hours work, with tested rollback positions and clear business communication.
• Act as the ERP technical counterpart to hosting and managed‑service providers, working closely with the IT Infrastructure Expert on the overall hosting and infrastructure relationship.
• Act as global application owner for specialist platforms surrounding the ERP, including accounts receivable, cash application and collections, accounts payable automation, expense management, labelling, trade and customs compliance, quoting, CRM, and e‑commerce solutions.
• Own assigned applications throughout their lifecycle, including configuration, business rules, user and role administration, releases, upgrades, and assessment of vendor‑delivered changes before production deployment.
• Manage incidents, service requests, and technical escalations in line with agreed service levels and operational priorities, keeping stakeholders appropriately informed.
• Take ownership of routine and complex technical and functional issues, including leading critical production incidents through to resolution and coordinating business users, service providers, and third‑party vendors.
• Support critical business periods, including month‑end close and planned maintenance activities, when required.
• Monitor service performance, identify recurring issues, perform root‑cause analysis, and implement permanent corrective actions.
• Define and track adoption and business‑benefit measures and drive improvements that maximize business value from the ERP and connected applications.
• Develop and maintain knowledge articles, operating procedures, and support documentation to improve service quality and operational efficiency.
• Translate business requirements into practical technical solutions and collaborate with stakeholders throughout design, delivery, testing, and implementation.
• Ensure integrations between ERP platforms and connected business applications remain reliable, secure, and effective, and assess change impacts across interconnected systems.
• Identify opportunities to improve business processes through technology enhancements and increased adoption of ERP capabilities.
• Coordinate managed service providers and third‑party partners, monitor performance, manage technical escalations, and ensure delivery against agreed service levels and quality expectations.
• Contribute to managed‑service budget management and review and validate service invoices against agreed scope and delivered work, recommending approval to the IT Lead.
• Own ERP and business‑application access governance, including role design, provisioning, periodic access review, segregation of duties, and timely removal of access on transfer or termination.
• Ensure IT general controls for systems within scope are documented, operating effectively, and evidenced for internal and external audit.
• Support FMG's information security and data‑privacy obligations as they apply to ERP systems, hosted environments, and third‑party or offshore access.
• Retain change, backup, recovery, and control evidence to an auditable standard.
• Collaborate with the wider IT team to provide morning, evening, weekend, and out‑of‑hours support when required to ensure global operational coverage.
• Travel occasionally as required to support global projects, site activities, and business needs.
• Perform other duties as assigned by the line manager.
• Act in accordance with FMG's Code of Business Ethics and Values.

Skills & Qualifications:

• Minimum 10 years of experience in enterprise ERP, including at least 5 years in a senior hands‑on technical or platform‑ownership capacity; recent hands‑on operational experience in enterprise ERP environments is essential.
• Demonstrated hands‑on experience configuring and supporting a tier‑one ERP in a live manufacturing environment; experience with Infor System 21 Aurora, JBA, or M3 is directly applicable to the current estate.
• Proven experience owning the host environment behind a business‑critical ERP, including security administration, change management, backup, and recovery; IBM i (iSeries) experience is directly applicable.
• Demonstrated ownership of specialist finance or supply‑chain applications alongside ERP, including configuration, upgrades, user administration, and vendor management.
• Track record leading ERP migrations, data‑center moves, upgrades, or carve‑out separations through to a clean go‑live.
• Proven experience leading application implementation and upgrade projects as project lead, with accountability for scope, schedule, risks, dependencies, and delivery.
• Experience managing multiple vendor relationships and holding service providers to delivery commitments.
• Experience operating in a global, multi‑entity, multi‑region environment across several time zones.
• Proven ability to run day‑to‑day operational responsibilities and project delivery in parallel without either being dropped.
• Experience supporting financial close cycles and working directly with finance and controlling stakeholders.
• Deep technical judgment and the ability to diagnose complex cross‑system problems under pressure and distinguish root cause from symptoms.
• Strong understanding of core ERP process areas, including record to report, customer to cash, source to settle, plan to produce, and stock to ship.
• Strong working knowledge of associated platform tooling and middleware; current‑estate experience with WebSphere, Auto release, Spool‑IT, Forms Print, Prodata, and IBM i workspace/server components is directly relevant.
• Strong knowledge of host operating environments, security models, access‑control tooling, and source/object change‑management tooling; IBM i experience is directly relevant.
• Experience with integration techniques including EDI, file‑based transfer, ODBC, APIs, and web services, together with error‑handling and monitoring practices.
• Working understanding of relational databases, data warehousing, query tooling, and enterprise business‑intelligence platforms.
• Working understanding of enterprise infrastructure, including servers, networks, VPN, cloud hosting, backup, and recovery, sufficient to work effectively with the IT Infrastructure Expert.
• Experience administering cloud and SaaS business applications, including tenant configuration, role and user management, release cycles, and vendor‑support models.
• Strong project planning and tracking capability, sufficient to run a multi‑workstream application project without external project‑management support.
• Strong IT service‑management practice across incidents, problems, change, and release management using an enterprise service‑management platform.
• Strong business literacy across finance, supply chain, and manufacturing processes, with the ability to communicate effectively with technical and non‑technical stakeholders.
• High level of ownership, accountability, attention to detail, resilience, adaptability, and continuous‑improvement focus.
• Proficiency in Microsoft 365, particularly Excel and PowerPoint, for analysis and stakeholder reporting.

Education:

• Bachelor's degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, Engineering, Business, or a related field, or equivalent professional experience.
• Certifications in ERP platforms currently in use, including Infor System 21 Aurora, JBA, or M3, or in IBM i administration, are an advantage.
• Project‑management certification (for example PMP, PRINCE2, or equivalent) is an advantage but is not required where a strong delivery track record can be demonstrated.

Physical Demands:

The characteristics listed below are representative of the physical demands required by an individual to successfully perform the essential duties of this position. Reasonable accommodation may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential duties.

• While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to stand, walk, and sit; use hands and fingers to handle paperwork, boxes, files, cabinets, or feel; and reach with hands and arms.
• The employee is frequently required to talk and/or hear.
• Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, color vision, depth perception, and ability to adjust focus.
• The characteristics listed below are representative of the work environment typically encountered by an individual while performing the essential duties of this position. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential duties.
• While performing the duties of this job, the employee has exposure to a normal office environment.