Director of IT

Who We Are

Alene Candles LLC & Midwest is a private label, contract manufacturer that produces high-quality candles for some of the world’s most recognized retail, boutique, and cosmetic brands. With our headquarters in New Hampshire and locations in Ohio and New York, we’ve been in business for over 25 years. We are passionate about making the best products in the world, making safety our number one priority, and being an insanely great place to work. We have been selected as a "Best Company to Work For" in 2020 and 2021 by Business NH Magazine!

The Position

Alene Candles, a medium-sized manufacturing services company, has been leading and managing its double-digit growth (trend) for 10 years. Our success is partly due to tactical focus on core competencies (with strategic view toward efficiency improvements and capacity scaling) and partly due to the industry we serve (“home and beauty” has had a “good run” with formula and scent innovation into the fragranced products we develop, manufacture, and distribute). Business Systems Transformation and Training (BSTT) and Information Technology (collectively “IT”) have done a good job evolving applications, infrastructure, and services with the growing needs of the Company. Senior management has determined, however, that IT’s role and responsibility of “keeping up” with business challenges will no longer serve our forward-looking growth objectives. Simply stated, our business will not scale effectively without solid technology leadership, including internal control and accountability for technology performance. The Director of IT position is an immediate opportunity for (and an open invitation to) a qualified technology leader to complete 2023 projects, and to provide technical solutions guidance and related financial planning for 2024.

You will lead a fast-paced, manufacturing services company with your strategic technology vision, including getting “the right people in the right seats” to successfully implement key elements of your vision, setting expectations for quality and timing of performance, and implementing an accountability model aimed at visibility to, and timely completion of, your iterative milestones of performance. You are responsible for creating and implementing financial plans and budgets to serve our future goals and objectives. This includes capital and operational expenditure plans for the Company in addition to the IT departments reporting to you. You are responsible for setting technology standards for the Company. This responsibility includes controls over purchasing activities, system and application access, and change management (with documentation requirements) prior to updating infrastructure, applications, and databases in the Company. We look forward to you demonstrating: 1) leadership, including examples of cross-functional project management activities, ownership within a teamwork context, and presentation skills in your present position; 2) business communication skills, with clear communications to management regarding complex technology matters; 3) managerial ability, for example, how you organize your staff and create accountability for effective work-product delivery and timeline management and 4) problem solving ability, utilizing direct observation, research, testing discipline, and sensible decision-making. These skills are important to your overall responsibility for up-time reliability and speed-of-performance (technology services) supporting our multi-facility operations located in Ohio and New Hampshire.

Making decisions from your desk will not work; you must observe the real-world experiences of employees and seasonal workforce. The Director of IT thinks of others as “associates” rather than “users” and thoughtfully completes the “circle of communication” without regard to title or level in the organization. Professional to the core, the Director of IT builds credibility and trust with care and concern for how efficiently associates use technology to meet business process requirements. Where internal control (assertiveness) is required, the Director of IT is organized and patient with verbal and written explanations.

The Location

We are located at 8860 Smith's Mill Road, New Albany, OH. The position a hybrid position with the ability to work from home once training is complete as agreed upon by the supervisor. This position will require about 20% travel to our New Hampshire headquarters.

Who We Are Looking For3
Leadership Experience
We are looking for someone who has 10-15 years of progressively increasing technology leadership experience with the following responsibilities:

• People, process, and technology leadership (tactical and strategic).
• Managerial leadership through influence, motivation, and teamwork.
• Timely, forward-looking capital and operating expenditure planning.
• Establishing and controlling technical standards for the Company.
• Change management, implementation management, and access control.
• Business uptime and continuity (technical service delivery).
• Cybersecurity, intrusion, and ransomware prevention.
• Timely recovery of transaction processing and related databases.
• Project management / timeline management.
• IT vendor management, including 3rd party service relationships.
• Technical metrics which monitor IT performance.
• Quality and accessibility of good documentation.
• Relevant, useful training materials.

Prior work experience in “middle management” is a plus; for examples, Solutions Architecture, Systems Engineering, and ERP Applications Management will be viewed favorably with your application.

Technical Experience and Certifications

We will screen resumes for desired technical experience and evidence of certification.

• ERP implementation, management, and scaling experience with a Tier-1 or Tier-2 ERP (software) solution is important (manufacturing and distribution focus is preferable). IFS implementation experience is preferred but not required.
• One Microsoft certification and one additional certification listed below below will provide evidence of your prior network technical interests and proficiencies:
  • Microsoft: MCSE, MCSA
  • VMware: VCAP, VCP
  • Cisco: CCNP, CCNA
  • SonicWall: SNSP, SNSA
• Two additional accomplishments will count toward our certification requirements:
  • Microsoft Azure migration and management experience.
  • DBA certification, either Oracle or Microsoft SQL Server.

Requirements

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Management Information Systems or related field in an accredited four-year degree program is required. An undergraduate degree in Business Administration is not a related field. We’re looking for a good technical foundation in your educational background.
• 10-15 years of progressively increasing technology leadership experience (see Who We Are Looking For section for additional information).
• Certifications as listed above in the Who We Are Looking For section.
• Ability to travel 20% of the time.

Preferred Qualifications:

• MBA degree is a plus. On-going, multi-year involvement in a recognizable leadership program may be substituted for an MBA degree.

LAN, WAN, VLAN, VPN, ISP, COLO (FIRST LIGHT), SECURITY (SOPHOS, MIMECAST), FIREWALL (SONICWALL), HOST (VMWare, vSphere, HYPER-V), SERVER (WSVR16 ), AD, GPO, DHCP, DNS, IP CONFIG, PORT CONFIG, SWITCH (ADTRAN, CISCO), POWERSHELL, PRTG, MANAGEENGINE DESKTOP CENTRAL, SERVICE DESK, W10, M365.

• IFS ERP Apps 10 (and later versions):

• Subject matter expert for order to cash, procure to pay, scheduling and planning.
• Shop Floor Workbench experience would be a plus.
• Dynamic order processing and advance planning experience is a plus.
• IFS Workflow
• IFS Lobbies
• IFS Business Reporter
• Click Learn (integrated training application)
• Experience with Azure Managed Cloud Services is a plus.

• ShopVue Application Software:
  • Shop Floor Control
  • Time and Attendance w ADP integration
  • PLC integration

• Query and Database:
  • QLIK
  • Oracle
  • T-SQL
  • PL SQL
  • MS SQL Server
  • Database Maintenance Plans and Security
  • MS Excel
• Programming and Rendering:

• C#
• VB.NET
• Crystal
• Python
• Javascript/VBScript
• XML and XSLT
• MS Office and Visio

• Flokzu (or other major) Workflow Tool

Benefits

Alene offers a host of competitive benefits for full-time employees, some of which include: Medical, Dental, and Vision with a Healthcare Reimbursement Account, 401(k) with company match, Basic Life Insurance (100% company paid), Employee Assistance Program, Flexible Spending Account, Paid Holidays, Paid Time Off, Voluntary PTO Donation Program, Tuition Reimbursement and “Alene Gives Back” – our paid volunteer program.

Alene Candles provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws.

Should you require assistance completing this application or during any phase of the interview process, please contact recruitment@alene.com or call 603-673-5050 and ask to speak to Human Resources. We will make every effort to accommodate your needs in a reasonable amount of time.