Sr. Manager, IT

AESC • Smyrna, TN

1d • Onsite

About The Position

AESC is looking to add a Sr. Manager, IT to our team in Smyrna, TN. This is a high-impact leadership role focused on ensuring that our IT infrastructure and business systems fully support 24/7 manufacturing excellence. Instead of deep technical coding, we are looking for a leader who excels at strategic alignment, team development, and cross-functional collaboration between the factory floor and corporate IT functions. This role requires high visibility and constant engagement. You won't be tucked away in an office; you will be embedded in the plant’s heartbeat.

Requirements

• 10+ years of experience in IT, with at least 5 years in a significant management or leadership role.
• Proven track record of leading teams in a manufacturing or industrial environment.
• Bachelor’s degree in IT, Business Management, or a related field (Master’s degree preferred).
• Exceptional ability to communicate with both technical staff and non-technical plant leadership.
• Strong leadership presence under pressure, with the ability to lead incident response in a 24/7 environment.
• Ability to see the "big picture" of how IT enables the manufacturing business.

Nice To Haves

• Familiarity with SAP and MES (Apriso) workflows within a manufacturing context.
• Experience with Lean Manufacturing or Six Sigma methodologies.
• Project Management Professional (PMP) or ITIL certifications.

Responsibilities

• Maintain a daily presence on the production floor to understand the intersection of technology and manufacturing, building rapport with operations teams.
• Translate complex IT roadblocks into plain business language for plant leadership, and conversely, translate production challenges into actionable requirements for corporate IT.
• Lead the response during critical system outages, serving as the escalation point and the "single source of truth" for plant leadership until resolution.
• Act as the voice of the Smyrna plant within the global IT organization, ensuring our specific needs for uptime, traceability, and speed are prioritized at the corporate level.
• Actively develop your onsite IT staff, shifting them from reactive "firefighters" to proactive systems stewards.
• Act as the IT Business Partner for the plant leadership team, ensuring IT initiatives directly support production goals, safety, and efficiency.
• Ensure high availability and performance of plant-critical systems supporting production, quality, traceability, labeling, and shipping.
• Build deep working relationships with Production, Maintenance, Quality, Engineering, Supply Chain, EHS, Finance, and HR to ensure IT priorities align with plant performance goals.
• Partner with Operations to support ramp-ups, new line launches, and shift coverage planning from an IT readiness standpoint.
• Collaborate with Controls/Automation and Engineering teams to support plant connectivity and system integration while maintaining strict cybersecurity standards.
• Manage local IT budgets (CapEx/OpEx), oversee asset lifecycles, and ensure the facility remains fully compliant with all corporate security standards and IT audits.
• Act as the primary liaison with global SAP (ERP) and Apriso (MES) support teams to ensure plant requirements are prioritized and met.

Benefits

• 401K
• health insurance
• An inclusive and diverse work environment that fosters and encourages professional and personal development.
• Highly automated, clean, safe and temperature-controlled production environment
• Medical, Dental and Vision Insurance
• HSA and Flexible Spending Accounts
• 401K with company match
• Life Insurance (Company paid and additional voluntary life available)
• Paid Vacation and 14 Paid Holidays
• Short term and long-term disability coverage (Company Paid)
• Tuition reimbursement

What This Job Offers

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