Director, IT Applications

Position Overview

Nektar has an exciting opportunity for a Director, IT Applications to join their team.

Nektar has an exciting opportunity for a Director, IT Applications to join our growing team.

This is a key position in the Nektar IT organization , responsible for leading the team charged with the evaluation, selection, implementation and support of systems that enable Nektar's Finance, HR, and Manufacturing organizations to discover, develop, and deliver our therapies to our patients in need. 

The ideal candidate will be a hands-on manager, able to establish the direction for their team, provide technical consultation and leadership, and while bringing a passion for customer service, for project management, and for the delivery of outstanding value to Nektar. The candidate will serve as the application owner and subject matter expert for Nektar for the following applications:

• Financial (AP, AR, GL, FA, and budgeting) applications, currently supported by JDE, BPCS, and ScanMan.
• Manufacturing (Master Data setup and maintenance, Planning, Shop Floor, Work Centers, Manufacturing Accounting) - all JDE
• Distribution Management (Procurement, Inventory, Material Management, and Sales Order) applications, currently supported by JDE and TraceLink
• Human Resources applications (Talent Acquisition, Employee Performance Management, Employee Compensation Management) supported by Taleo and Oracle HCM
  
  Position Overview :

• Collaborate with designated business leaders and your staff to identify, evaluate, select, implement, and maintain those systems identified by the business groups as critical to their success.
• Understand and develop a three-year roadmap of existing systems and well as those will be required in the future and prioritize this list based on the business events that will trigger the need to implement these systems.
• Leverage existing resources to help automate manual processes especially in the area of data movement between systems.
• Develop a fundamental understanding of what data is needed by each group and ensure feedback mechanisms are in place to provide timely and appropriate distribution of this information to the appropriate parties.
• Provide technical leadership and development to existing staff, as well and workload planning to identify future staff resource needs to meet the business system implementation requirements.
• Perform problem analysis to resolve system or application issues along with complex diagnosis of problems, providing solutions within area of responsibility, and/or through partnering with others in the Nektar IT department and/or vendor provided support.
• Coordinate the implementation of fixes and enhancements, providing backup for other analysts as required.
• Respond to critical issues during off hours when necessary.
• Plan and execute application support work and or changes in response to planned changes in infrastructure and vendor application support.
• Manage application life cycles by using key needs and upgrade timelines to recommend and schedule projects.
• Develop and manage internal procedures, tools, and documents to provide a high level of application integrity and availability and to ensure timely, effective support.
• Develop scope documents and maintain technical support standards and procedures.
• Design, write, and maintain extensive system documentation, including but not limited to: requirements and designed specifications, tests plans and test scripts, requirement traceability matrixes, etc.
• Develop project plan, organize and lead project teams, monitor progress, and evaluate effectiveness of project execution
• Maintain on-going relationships with vendors. Conduct product evaluations, participate in vendor selection, negotiate price and support options, and foster vendor partnerships
• Stay current with technological developments in software development, systems and application support, as well as management and user support practices. This includes reading publications, participating in mail lists and on-line communities, attending conferences and workshops.
  
  Required Qualifications :

• A minimum of a Bachelor's degree in a Computer Science, Information Systems or related discipline is required. An MBA or Master's degree in Computer Science or other business related discipline is preferred. Equivalent experience may be accepted.
• A minimum of 13 years of experience in a multidiscipline environment is required. A minimum of 10 years application management experience is required.
• A minimum of 8 years of experience implementing and supporting regulated systems is required.
• Significant hands-on experience with Oracle's JDE application, including JDE security implementation, RDA, FDA, object management and CNC (Configurable Network Computing).
• Strong project management skills and several years of project management experience are required. Certification in project management is desired.
• Demonstrated experience assessing end-user issues and requirements demonstrating the ability to resolve and integrate solutions quickly and efficiently is required.
• Demonstrated experience creating and maintaining detailed system documentation and test scripts.
• Excellent communication skills with the ability to present ideas in a clear succinct manner, both verbally and in writing are required.
• Experience in managing applications that are compliant with GXP and SOX regulations, and in managing related audits
• Demonstrated knowledge of systems analysis and the ability to understand and evaluate organization wide impacts of application changes
• Knowledge and experience with systems development lifecycle and data modeling
• Must be able to work independently and efficiently on several tasks at once.

We are an Equal Opportunity Employer and do not discriminate against applicants due to race, ethnicity, gender, veteran status, or on the basis of disability or any other federal, state or local protected class. Nektar Therapeutics will consider for employment qualified applicants with criminal histories in the manner proscribed by the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance.