Applications Management Director
Kansas City, MO, US, 64106
Best People + Right Culture. These are the driving forces behind JE Dunn’s success.
By hiring inspired people, giving them interesting and challenging work, enabling them with innovative tools, and letting them share in the company’s rewards, we’ve found a sustainable way to grow in our industry for the last 100+ years.
Our diverse teams around the country strive to enrich lives through inspired people and places everyday, and we need inspired people like you to join us in building authentic partnerships.
Role Summary
The Vice President, Applications is the enterprise leader accountable for ensuring the company’s application portfolio meets current and future business needs. This role will lead the applications management team and establish a consistent, business-centered operating model for application strategy, adoption, lifecycle management, and value realization. This leader connects business strategy, user experience, process discipline, technology roadmaps, vendors, data, integration, security, support, and measurable outcomes. Success requires both strong relationships and clear accountability: listen carefully to qualified business users, translate feedback into priorities, and drive consistent use of company standards so the enterprise can realize the intended efficiency and value of its application investments. All activities will be performed in support of the strategy, vision and values of JE Dunn.
- Autonomy and Decision Making: Makes decisions within defined limits of authority and consults supervisor on other decisions.
- Career Path: Various
Key Role Responsibilities - Core
APPLICATIONS LEADERSHIP FAMILY – CORE
- Owns the enterprise application strategy and operating model across all strategic focus areas, aligning portfolio direction with business priorities, enterprise architecture, data strategy, cybersecurity, financial plans, and measurable outcomes.
- Leads and mentors the applications management team, establishing clear expectations for business partnership, strategic thinking, portfolio ownership, communication, execution, accountability, talent development, and succession planning.
- Guides development and maintenance of multi-year platform roadmaps that address business needs, process improvement, lifecycle health, technical debt, integrations, vendor direction, emerging technology, risk, and investment requirements.
- Evaluates portfolio health and leads decisions to invest, simplify, standardize, modernize, consolidate, replace, or retire applications, while limiting unnecessary customization and duplicate capability.
- Ensures every Tier 1 application has clear business ownership, governance, success criteria, lifecycle and support plans, adoption expectations, and measurable value objectives.
- Builds durable, bidirectional relationships with business leaders, application owners, domain experts, users, support teams, and IT partners; translates informed feedback and operational evidence into priorities, decisions, standards, and roadmap actions.
- Establishes repeatable feedback and listening mechanisms using stakeholder discussions, user communities, surveys, sentiment, support trends, telemetry, adoption data, training feedback, and leadership input.
- Identifies and resolves legitimate adoption barriers involving process, training, usability, integration, reliability, or support, then reinforce approved enterprise standards and address nonstandard solutions through documented exceptions, remediation, and escalation when needed.
- Defines and maintains a common scorecard for Tier 1 applications covering usage, feature adoption, process compliance, training effectiveness, reliability, integration quality, support trends, user sentiment, business outcomes, total cost, risk, and realized value.
- Partners with business owners to establish target user populations, adoption and communication plans, operational readiness, sustained behavior change, and post-implementation measurement for enhancements, upgrades, integrations, replacements, and retirements.
- Provides candid executive reporting on portfolio performance, realized value, risks, gaps, required decisions, and corrective actions, including explicit improvement, replacement, or retirement plans for underperforming platforms.
- Assesses strategic vendors and market alternatives, including product roadmaps, AI and automation capabilities, licensing and support models, financial stability, competitive position, and alignment with company needs; maintain credible secondary options where practical.
- Prepares the organization for major releases, upgrades, vendor-driven changes, and platform transitions, while evaluating how AI, agents, predictive analytics, and emerging technology affect processes, user experience, data, controls, workforce needs, and application strategy.
- Facilitates cross-functional governance that prioritizes demand, resolves conflicts, manages dependencies, and aligns investments with enterprise standards for architecture, integration, data governance, cybersecurity, access, compliance, resilience, and supportability.
- Owns executive vendor relationships and portfolio financial management, including performance reviews, escalations, budgets, forecasts, contracts, renewals, licensing optimization, total cost of ownership, return on investment, and coordination with Finance, Procurement, Legal, Security, Architecture, Data, delivery teams, and business leadership.
Key Role Responsibilities - Additional Core
N/A
Knowledge, Skills & Abilities
- Ability to perform work accurately and completely, and in a timely manner
- Communication skills, verbal and written (Advanced)
- Ability to conduct effective presentations (Advanced)
- Proficiency in MS Office (Intermediate)
- Thorough knowledge of project processes and how each supports the successful completion of a project
- Ensures business owners and domain experts are identified and engages for tier 1 applications
- Knowledge of application usage and process compliance
- Knowledge of Application Lifecycles, including improvement, replacement and retirement planning
- Enterprise application portfolio strategy, governance, roadmap planning, lifecycle management, adoption, and value realization.
- Strong business acumen and the ability to translate operating needs into practical technology strategy and measurable outcomes.
- Executive communication, facilitation, influence, negotiation, conflict resolution, and stakeholder management.
- Leadership of senior leaders, including coaching, performance expectations, organizational development, succession planning, and change leadership.
- Experience using quantitative and qualitative evidence, including telemetry, usage, support trends, sentiment, financial analysis, and business metrics, to make decisions.
- Understanding of product operating models, enterprise architecture, integration, data and analytics, cybersecurity, AI, vendor management, and large-scale transformation.
- Ability to balance user advocacy with enterprise standardization and to hold leaders accountable while preserving trust.
- Ability to simplify complex portfolios, navigate competing priorities, and make sound decisions with incomplete information.
- Ability to build relationships and collaborate within a team, internally and externally
Education
- Bachelor’s degree in Information Systems, Business, Construction Management or a related field (Required)
- Advanced degree (Preferred)
- In lieu of the above requirements, equivalent relevant experience will be considered.
Experience
- 12+ years of progressive experience in enterprise applications, IT leadership, business transformation, product or platform leadership, or a related discipline (Required)
- 5+ years leading leaders, including director-level talent, major portfolios, cross-functional programs, or enterprise-critical capabilities (Preferred)
- Demonstrated ownership of enterprise application strategy, major platform evaluations, multi-year roadmaps, governance, adoption, and measurable value realization.
- Experience partnering with senior business leaders to standardize processes, improve adoption, resolve barriers, and deliver enterprise outcomes.
- Experience evaluating strategic vendors, competitive alternatives, AI-enabled capabilities, contracts, licensing, total cost of ownership, and replacement options.
- Experience in construction, engineering, manufacturing, logistics, or another asset- and operations-intensive industry preferred.
Working Environment
- Valid and unrestricted drivers license required
- Must be able to lift up to 10 pounds
- May require periods of overnight travel
- Normal office environment
- Must be willing to work non-traditional hours to meet business needs
- Frequent activity: Sitting, Viewing Computer Screen
- Occasional activity: Standing, Walking, Bending, Climbing, Reaching above Shoulder, Pushing, Pulling
Benefits Information
The benefits package aligned to this position is Professional Non-Union. Please click the link below for more details.
This role is expected to accept applications for at least three business days and may continue to be posted until a qualified applicant is selected or the position has been cancelled.
JE Dunn Construction is committed to hiring and retaining a diverse workforce. We are proud to be an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer and it is our policy to provide equal opportunity to all people without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, ancestry, marital status, veteran status, age, disability, pregnancy, genetic information, citizenship status, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or any other legally protected category. JE Dunn Construction is a background screening, drug-free workplace.
JE Dunn provides reasonable accommodations to qualified individuals with disabilities. If you would like to request a reasonable accommodation in order to apply for a job, please submit your request to accommodations@jedunn.com
JE Dunn Construction Company does not accept unsolicited resumes from search firms or agencies. Any resume submitted to any employee of JE Dunn Construction without a prior written search agreement will be considered unsolicited and the property of JE Dunn Construction Company. Please, no phone calls or emails.
***For this opportunity, JE Dunn Construction will not sponsor an applicant for work visa status or employment authorization, nor will we offer any immigration-related support for this position (including but not limited to H-1B, F-1 OPT, F-1 STEM OPT, F-1 CPT, J-1, TN-1 or TN-2, E-3, O-1, or future sponsorship for U.S. lawful permanent residence status.)***
Why People Work Here
At JE Dunn we offer our employees an inspired place to enrich their life and the lives of those around them
Building on our rich history, our employee owners are shaping the future of JE Dunn. In our team-focused environment we do life together and are generously rewarded for our efforts
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Nearest Major Market: Kansas City