Manager, Specification & PLM Systems

Morgan Street Holdings•Seattle, WA

5d•$145,000 - $155,000•Hybrid

About The Position

The Manager, Specification & PLM Systems sits within the Commercial Technology & Innovation team and reports to the Senior IT Category Services Director. The role owns the long-term evolution of the Centric PLM and Specright specification data management platforms, keeping them modern, scalable, and capable of delivering business value for Packaging, Category, and GMS organizations. As product owner and senior platform steward, the manager sets platform strategy, roadmaps, and investment priorities and translates business processes into requirements, configurations, prototypes, and delivered capabilities. The position combines strategic ownership with hands-on system administration. It is responsible for platform configuration, security and permissions, environments, releases and upgrades, data governance, and escalated support. The manager owns and grooms the delivery backlog, establishes operating and governance standards, manages vendor and service-provider relationships, and oversees integrations and data quality across enterprise systems. The role also leads and develops the business applications team, plans capacity and resources, and partners on budgets and total cost of ownership. Its overall purpose is to provide a trusted foundation for product and specification data that supports faster innovation, improved compliance, stronger data quality, and effective use of the company’s PLM and specification management investments.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, Engineering, Business, or a related field.
10+ years of experience configuring, supporting, and evolving enterprise SaaS business applications, including PLM or SDM platforms.
Hands-on experience with Centric PLM, Specright, or a comparable platform such as PTC Windchill, Siemens Teamcenter, Oracle Agile PLM, or Bamboo Rose.
System administration experience translating business processes into platform configurations, workflows, business rules, user and role administration, and environment management.
Experience owning escalated tier-2 or tier-3 application support, ticket triage, root-cause analysis, and vendor escalation.
Experience planning and executing platform upgrades, patches, and regression testing with minimal business disruption.
Experience owning a SaaS platform roadmap, including vendor-release adoption, capability expansion, and renewal or replacement decisions.
Ability to work strategically with senior stakeholders on platform direction and investment priorities and hands-on to configure, test, and troubleshoot systems.
Strong understanding of product development and NPD processes, including bills of materials, approval workflows, and product- and packaging-level specification data.
Working knowledge of the distinction between PLM and SDM, including trade-offs between templated, product-first structures and flexible, specification-first models.
Experience with packaging and sustainability specification data and related reporting or compliance requirements.
Experience collecting, documenting, and maintaining traceability of business requirements across releases and updates.
Experience partnering with business owners to map workflows and identify efficiency opportunities.
Vendor management experience, including SOW and SLA oversight, escalation, and recurring business reviews with a VMO or procurement function.
Experience managing vendor releases, including impact assessment, regression testing, validation, and production support.
Hands-on experience delivering and supporting integrations using APIs, middleware or iPaaS, EDI, or file-based feeds between PLM or specification systems and downstream ERP, PIM, DAM, sourcing, and supplier platforms.
Experience establishing and maintaining a product or specification data system of record, including data governance, versioning, master data alignment, and cross-system reconciliation.
Hands-on experience owning an agile product backlog alongside a Scrum Master, including user stories, acceptance criteria, story pointing, sprint planning, and velocity tracking.
Strong stakeholder management, communication, and facilitation skills with business and technical audiences.
Self-directed learning skills and ability to stay current on vendor releases and industry innovation.
Strong organizational and problem-solving skills, including managing multiple priorities in a fast-paced environment.
Working knowledge of Agile, Waterfall, and Hybrid delivery methodologies.
Proficiency with delivery and support tools such as Jira, Azure DevOps, ServiceNow, Smartsheet, and Microsoft 365.
Experience establishing governance, change control, and data integrity standards for business applications.
Demonstrated ability to lead, coach, and mentor analysts and support staff.

Nice To Haves

Centric PLM administration or implementation certification.
Experience in consumer products, retail, apparel, food service, or promotional merchandise supply chains.
Experience leading a global PLM or specification management rollout across multiple regions and business units.
Experience building master data management, reporting, or analytics capabilities for product and specification data.

Responsibilities

Own the PLM and SDM SaaS platforms throughout their lifecycle, from selection and onboarding through capability expansion, renewal, and replacement.
Define and execute the multi-year product vision, roadmap, and investment strategy for Centric PLM, Specright SDM, and related business applications.
Serve as product owner and senior platform steward, balancing business outcomes, platform sustainability, technical debt, and total cost of ownership.
Lead the application portfolio lifecycle, ensuring stable operations, predictable releases, effective support, and continuous improvement.
Partner with Packaging, Category, and GMS stakeholders to understand processes, define requirements, prioritize backlogs, and deliver capabilities.
Translate business requirements into platform configurations and solution designs; validate outcomes through prototyping, testing, and iterative delivery.
Define functional ownership across PLM and SDM processes, data domains, and capabilities, minimizing overlap and redundancy.
Govern specification, packaging, material, and product data standards, templates, workflows, ownership, version controls, and approvals.
Maintain Specright and/or Centric as systems of record and ensure data consistency, traceability, and synchronization across enterprise systems.
Own the integration strategy and roadmap linking PLM and SDM with ERP, SIM, DataSphere, sourcing, supplier, manufacturing, quality, and compliance systems.
Oversee integration design, testing, monitoring, and data reconciliation to ensure reliable downstream data consumption.
Manage vendor release cycles, assess new functionality, plan upgrades, validate business impacts, and encourage adoption while reducing unnecessary customization.
Monitor platform and market developments to identify opportunities for capability expansion, consolidation, process improvement, and vendor rationalization.
Establish platform governance, service expectations, support metrics, security controls, and operational processes for reliability and business continuity.
Manage software vendor, implementation partner, and managed service provider relationships, ensuring contractual commitments, service levels, quality, and delivery outcomes.
Administer Centric PLM and Specright configuration, workflows, attributes, templates, libraries, and business rules.
Administer users, roles, groups, and permissions; conduct periodic access reviews and maintain segregation of duties.
Manage environments, sandboxes, configuration migration, upgrades, patches, and regression testing while minimizing business disruption.
Own tier-1 and tier-2 application support, triage tickets, diagnose root causes, and escalate issues to platform vendors with clear reproduction details.
Maintain system and specification master data, including attribute libraries, templates, seasons, BOM structures, and reference data quality.
Administer licenses, seats, and system settings; monitor utilization and adjust provisioning as business needs change.
Document configuration decisions, administrative procedures, and runbooks, and train super users and business administrators.
Establish and maintain business application delivery, change-control, and governance standards, templates, and tools.
Standardize demand intake, prioritization, release reporting, RAID management, and platform health metrics.
Support adoption and effective use of PLM and specification tools, maintaining reporting accuracy and data integrity.
Own and groom the product backlog, partnering with the Scrum Master and/or Business Analyst to create user stories and acceptance criteria.
Partner with the Scrum Master on backlog refinement, sprint planning, reviews, retrospectives, story pointing, capacity, and velocity forecasting.
Partner with the Vendor Management Office (VMO) to manage application partners and deliver committed scope, schedules, and quality.
Work with the VMO on vendor business reviews and ensure agreements, roadmaps, and support obligations are met.
Partner with the VMO and Procurement on licensing, subscription, and support renewals to optimize cost and utilization.
Lead and develop the business applications team, providing guidance, coaching, and oversight of delivery and support.
Manage capacity planning and resource allocation across platform initiatives and ongoing support.
Partner with Finance, HR, and technology leaders on budgets, forecasts, and application portfolio total cost of ownership.
Promote operational discipline, documentation standards, and knowledge management across the team.