Senior Business Systems Manager

Apptronik•Austin, TX

About The Position

As Apptronik scales its humanoid robotics platform from prototype builds into volume production, we are seeking an experienced Senior Manager, Business Systems to build and lead the team responsible for the systems that carry a product from concept through design release into manufacturing. This leader will own the strategy, roadmap, and team accountable for our PLM, MES, and Quality systems, the design-to-build data thread that connects engineering to the shop floor, and the business process and business support systems that surround them. The ideal candidate brings proven people-management experience leading enterprise systems teams, a working command of engineering and manufacturing platforms sufficient to direct and evaluate the team's work, a strong track record of setting strategy and building durable business processes, and the judgment to balance speed of delivery with long-term system integrity in a fast-moving, high-growth environment. This is a player-leader role at the intersection of people leadership and systems delivery. You will build, hire for, and manage a team of systems analysts and engineers, setting their priorities and holding them accountable — while staying close enough to the work to sit in a requirements workshop with mechanical and electrical engineering, a configuration review with a systems integrator, or on the production floor watching an operator work. You will not simply track other people's plans — you will set the function's scope and direction, drive executive-level decisions, hold both vendors and your own team accountable, and be measured on whether your team delivers systems that get adopted and produce the outcomes they were funded to deliver.

Requirements

6+ years of enterprise systems leadership experience — managing project teams, systems analysts, or engineers — in a manufacturing, hardware, aerospace, automotive, medical device, industrial equipment, or robotics environment, including at least 2 years of direct people-management experience
Demonstrated ownership, as a people leader, of at least two full-lifecycle implementations or major upgrades of PLM, MES, QMS, or ERP — from requirements through go-live and stabilization
Working knowledge of Siemens Teamcenter strongly preferred, sufficient to direct and evaluate your team's configuration decisions; experience with comparable PLM platforms (PTC Windchill, Dassault 3DEXPERIENCE/ENOVIA, Arena, Oracle Agile PLM, or Duro) will be considered
Familiarity with Altium and the broader ECAD/MCAD toolchain, including how electrical and mechanical design data is released, versioned, and managed within PLM, sufficient to guide a technical team
Working knowledge of Salesforce and Mulesoft as a business support platforms, including its integration touchpoints with ERP and PLM, sufficient to set direction for your team's work
Working knowledge of at least one MES/MOM platform, such as Siemens Opcenter, Tulip, Rockwell Plex or FactoryTalk, DELMIA Apriso, AegisTec FactoryLogix, Critical Manufacturing, or SAP ME/DM, sufficient to direct a team delivering on it
Experience leading teams that deliver quality system capability in a dedicated QMS or PLM-embedded quality module, such as Teamcenter Quality, ETQ Reliance, MasterControl, Veeva QualityOne, TrackWise, or Greenlight Guru
Practical understanding of ERP integration touchpoints (Microsoft Dynamics 365, SAP, Oracle, or NetSuite) and of integration patterns and tooling — REST/SOAP and OData APIs, middleware, iPaaS, ETL, EDI, and file-based interfaces — sufficient to review and approve your team's architecture decisions
Fluency in engineering and manufacturing data: EBOM versus MBOM, routings, effectivity, revision control, serialization and genealogy, and engineering change process
Demonstrated ability to represent business requirements to executive stakeholders and hold a team accountable for translating them into well-architected system solutions
Strong process design background — able to direct a team mapping current-state processes, identifying gaps and inefficiencies, and designing future-state processes that scale within the constraints of the platform
Working knowledge of quality and compliance frameworks relevant to hardware manufacturing (ISO 9001, AS9100, IATF 16949, ISO 13485, or equivalents) and of computer system validation practices where applicable
Strong vendor and contract management skills, including SOW negotiation and holding integrators and internal teams accountable to committed deliverables
Excellent people-management and project management skills with the ability to run multiple concurrent workstreams, teams, and stakeholder groups
Outstanding written and verbal communication skills; able to move credibly between a design engineer, a production operator, a quality auditor, and an executive, and comfortable presenting trade-offs and recommendations to senior leadership
Proven ability to build, hire for, and develop a high-performing team; self-directed, pragmatic, and biased toward action in a fast-paced, high-growth environment where processes may not exist yet

Nice To Haves

Relevant vendor, professional, or leadership certifications (Siemens, Salesforce, PMP or PgMP, Lean Six Sigma, or people-management/leadership training) are a plus

Responsibilities

Lead and build the team accountable for end-to-end delivery of enterprise systems projects supporting engineering and manufacturing — business case, scope, schedule, budget, resourcing, risk, stage gates, and benefits realization
Direct your team's PLM implementation, configuration, and continuous improvement — CAD data management, part and BOM structures, item numbering, revision and effectivity control, engineering change (ECR/ECN/ECO and deviations), and configuration management
Own the design-to-build data thread: ensure your team delivers clean releases from the engineering BOM into the manufacturing BOM, routings, and work instructions, with traceable linkage back to the released design and as-built configuration
Oversee your team's integration of PLM with ERP, MES, and the ECAD/MCAD toolchain so that a change released in engineering propagates correctly to planning, procurement, and the shop floor without manual re-entry
Direct your team's delivery of MES capability for electronic work instructions, digital travelers, operation-level data collection, serialization, genealogy, station-level quality gates, and test data capture at the point of work
Lead your team's delivery of Quality systems capability — document and training control, nonconformance and CAPA, supplier quality, incoming and in-process inspection, calibration, audit management, and change control — and establish closed-loop routing of production and field findings back into engineering change
Set strategy for enterprise systems delivery on the Salesforce platform where it supports business processes adjacent to the product lifecycle — customer and program management, service and field support, warranty and returns, and case-to-quality handoffs
Represent the function to Engineering, Manufacturing, Quality, Supply Chain, Finance, and Program Management leadership to elicit, prioritize, and negotiate business requirements; direct your team in translating them into well-architected system configurations, workflows, and integrations
Set direction for the business processes that operate within these systems, ensuring your team designs and continuously improves them to be scalable, auditable, and aligned with internal controls
Ensure your team delivers data readiness for prototype, pilot, and production builds in support of new product introduction — long-lead part release, make/buy decisions, supplier data packages, and as-built records
Lead your team through implementation, upgrade, and module rollout projects end-to-end — planning, scoping, conference room pilot, testing, UAT, cutover, hypercare, and post-go-live optimization
Own the vendor relationship strategy for systems integrators, VARs, and software vendors: statements of work, deliverable acceptance, change orders, licensing, renewals, support escalations, and roadmap alignment
Set policy for system security and access administered by your team: roles, profiles, permission sets, segregation of duties, approval workflows, and periodic access reviews in support of audit and compliance
Establish and govern master data practices across parts, suppliers, customers, BOMs, routings, and locations; hold your team accountable for data quality, reconciliation, and reporting standards
Ensure your team builds and maintains reporting, dashboards, and analytics that give business leaders timely visibility into engineering change cycle time, BOM accuracy, first-pass yield, NCR and CAPA closure, on-time release, and user adoption
Own change management and adoption strategy: stakeholder analysis, communication plans, role-based training, super-user networks, and post-go-live adoption metrics
Ensure your team creates and maintains comprehensive documentation — configuration records, process flows, runbooks, and end-user training materials; serve as the senior escalation point and executive-facing subject matter expert for these platforms
Hire, develop, and manage the performance of a team of IT and business analyst staff who support engineering and manufacturing systems; build a culture of operational excellence and continuous improvement, including career development plans and succession bench strength