Sr Platform Specialist / Blue Yonder

The Senior Platform Specialist is a unique role combining part business analyst, part platform expert, and part program/project manager to help lead the platform roll-out and support the business after the successful execution.  The ideal candidate will possess deep expertise in TMS systems, have a solid understanding of supply chain logistics, know or be able to coordinate needed expertise to provide solutions, and be adept at collaborating with cross-functional teams to ensure a seamless platform rollout and SLAs and enhancement needs are managed during steady-state.

The Senior Platform Specialist helps to shape the overall application/platform strategy and project portfolio by assisting in soliciting demand from the various business areas as well as ensuring valuable innovative technical solutions are brought forward and considered. 
 

• Quickly learns the various current core business processes within all the trucking markets globally and the underlying systems and manual processes that support those processes at a very high level
• Maintains and develops internal business relationships and IT relationships to learn and influence the various key business and IT stakeholders. 
• Partners with business and technology partners to elicit, analyze, translate, and document requirements/needs and drives solutions to solve those needs
• Determines operational feasibility by evaluating analysis, problem definition, requirements, solution development, and proposed solutions.
• Determines platform solutions or configurations by studying information needs, conferring with users, and studying systems flow, data usage, and work processes.
• Works with executive and senior leaders to create and maintain an operating plan to achieve the strategic vision and operating platform that defines the people, processes, tools, and technology
• Provides internal support for evaluation of needed system functionality in existing and proposed applications to ensure solutions are optimized for quality and ongoing support.
• Helps to design and maintain integrations between the BY platform and other standard/strategic solutions globally.  Evaluates non-standard integration needs to determine the best step for those needs.
• Manages the delivery of configuration and/or development needs to mitigate business requirements.  Guides the business in the proper solution for those needs.
• Coordinates with business areas to ensure proper testing, documentation, and training for solutions
• Coordinates the project resources to ensure that projects are delivered on time and within budget
• Helps to ensure proper support and maintenance for IT systems are in place and participates in major incident management processes
• Helps to ensure proper licensing agreements are in place for COTS/SaaS application, cost are managed properly, and renewals are timely
• Helps to ensure proper SOX controls and security protocols are in place for systems within the Redistribution division
• Monitor system performance and propose enhancements to improve efficiency and user experience.
• Stay updated on industry trends and advancements in transportation management systems.

• In depth knowledge of Blue Yonder’s TMS SaaS solutions with implementation or upgrade experience
• Strong understanding of transportation, logistics and supply chain processes.
• Proven project management skills with the ability to manage multiple tasks, situations and deadlines.
• Able to understand business functionality (distribution business preferred) and translate it into application requirements
• Excellent understanding and experience with managing business complexity, project interdependencies, and organization change
• Intellectual curiosity and the ability to question thought partners across functional areas
• Outstanding written, verbal, and visual communication skills
• Profiecient in data analysis and problem-solving skills.  The ability to quickly troubleshoot problems that may arise from the transportation business area
• Ability to partner with other technical subject matter experts (SMEs) both internally and externally to identify the path (or paths) of resolution
• Strong understanding of basic system engineering, information risk and security guidelines, and architecture standards
• In depth understanding of the various software development lifecycles (e.g. Agile, Waterfall, etc.)

• Minimum of 12 years of IT experience