Director of Technology

Alliance Material Handling Inc • Jessup, MD

14d • $175,000 - $195,000 • Onsite

About The Position

The Director of Technology is the single accountable owner of technology at Alliance Material Handling. The role sets and maintains a multi-year technology roadmap covering software, security, data, and the skills needed to operate technology. It leads evaluation and implementation of the next ERP platform, builds the data and integration layer, brings AI and automation into operational use, and owns the project discipline used to deliver initiatives.

This is a build role in a business with fourteen systems that have limited integration, an ERP without project accounting, and a Warehouse Solutions business that manages job costing, work in progress (WIP), and milestone billing in Excel. The role prioritizes complex, cross-functional project delivery and process mapping and redesign, with technical fluency supporting program leadership.

The position is onsite in Jessup, Maryland, five days a week, with periodic domestic travel to branch and customer locations. It leads the existing and future IT team and works with executives, department leaders, vendors, implementation partners, and outside advisors.

Requirements

• At least 7 years leading technology programs in an operating business such as distribution, construction, field service, manufacturing, or logistics.
• Demonstrated delivery of at least one significant ERP evaluation, selection, or implementation.
• Bachelor’s degree in business, engineering, information systems, or a related field, or an equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Proven ability to complete complex, cross-functional projects and describe measured results in detail.
• Process mapping and redesign capability, including documenting how work is performed and designing improved processes people will use.
• Strong data and analytics fluency, including understanding sound data architecture and evaluating vendor claims.
• Vendor and partner management experience, including holding partners accountable, renegotiating scope, and recommending when to end a relationship.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including explaining technology trade-offs to executives in business terms and process changes to technicians or coordinators in technical terms.
• Ability to travel periodically to domestic branch and customer locations.
• Ability to sit and work at a computer for extended periods while performing essential job duties.

Nice To Haves

• ERP experience in a project-based or job-costing environment.
• Experience in a multi-site business with field operations.
• Exposure to Microsoft Dynamics 365, NAV, Business Central, NetSuite, or other equipment dealer management systems.
• Practical AI or automation experience deployed to production rather than piloted.

Responsibilities

• Own and maintain a multi-year technology roadmap covering software, data, staffing, and skills, aligned with business direction.
• Consolidate technology ownership and serve as the single point of accountability for technology decisions and outcomes, including networking and security.
• Present recommendations to the leadership team with costs, risks, payback, and a phased plan, and deliver approved recommendations.
• Maintain and regularly revisit a prioritized, quantified backlog of technology investments.
• Run an evidence-based evaluation of ERP candidate platforms against documented business requirements and customer demands.
• Own the relationship with the current ERP vendor, including support obligations, end-of-life exposure, licensing, and renewal pricing.
• Lead ERP implementation after platform selection, covering scope, sequencing, budget, data migration, testing, training, and cutover.
• Build on the completed third-party assessment and open ERP recommendation.
• Build and maintain a prioritized, quantified AI and automation use-case backlog tied to processes and financial value.
• Move selected AI and automation use cases into production, demonstrate their value in hours and dollars, establish security, accuracy, and human-review guardrails, and report outcomes honestly, including unsuccessful use cases.
• Replace Excel as the reporting layer for job costing, WIP, milestone billing, and other core processes.
• Establish a single source of truth for operational and financial reporting across the dealership and Warehouse Solutions businesses.
• Reduce finance and operations time spent assembling data instead of analyzing it.
• Select, scope, and manage software vendors, implementation partners, and development partners; manage the existing third-party help desk, network, and security vendor and ensure effective support at a competitive cost.
• Hold partners accountable to written acceptance standards and dates, renegotiate scope when needed, and end relationships that are not working.
• Direct outside advisors and review and negotiate technology agreements, renewals, and pricing with Finance.
• Own systems responses to customer reporting requirements, including weekly progress reports, daily reporting when a phase slips, material readiness confirmation by component, and consistent units of measure throughout a project.
• Work with Warehouse Solutions leadership to translate customer requirements into system and process requirements, and deliver timely solutions, including interim manual answers when necessary.
• Lead the existing and future IT team and identify critical functions that depend on one individual; reduce those dependencies through documentation, cross-training, and system changes.
• Build and maintain documentation standards and partner with department leaders to build technical fluency across the business.
• Establish and enforce a project standard that includes a named decision to change, a measured baseline, one named owner, a date with a decision gate, and a named person to run the solution after launch.
• Apply project standards to every company technology initiative, including initiatives led by other departments.
• Regularly report project status, risks, and gate decisions to the leadership team and close projects with measured before-and-after results.

Benefits

• Employee ownership through an ESOP.
• 401(k) with company match.
• Multiple healthcare options, including a company-paid medical, dental, and vision plan.
• Paid time off and holidays.
• Company-paid short-term disability, long-term disability, and life insurance.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Director