Vice President, Digital & Technology – New Ventures

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JOB SUMMARY: The Vice President of Digital & Technology – New Ventures is responsible for leading the strategic design, planning and execution of technology capabilities to enable the New Ventures Line of Business globally. This role is the key executive leader to partner with New Ventures business leadership on behalf of Digital & Technology for all matters; and is responsible for overseeing the product, transformation management office, and technology teams dedicated to business expansion, in coordination with UDX domain leaders. Will partner across divisions with Universal Creative, Operations, Finance, Human Resources, Marketing & Sales, BAIE, EHS etc., on long range planning, strategy definition, strategy execution, financial analysis, technology solution strategy, and alignment to operational performance requirements/KPI’s. The Vice President will have multiple reporting lines (Digital Experience/TMO, Technology, and New Ventures) and will be responsible for the execution of all Digital & Technology programs to ensure that the roadmap is aligned with enterprise strategy and delivered on time and on budget.

This executive will lead a cross-functional team in a matrixed team structure and partner closely with domain leaders in Infrastructure, Information Security, Digital Product, Transformation Management Office, business divisions, and functional support teams such as HR, Finance, Sourcing. Will be a key leadership role within the Digital & Technology division focused on innovation, design and development of new digital experiences based on existing physical theme park experiences and launching entirely new businesses in both physical and virtual spaces.

MAJOR RESPONSIBILITIES:

Digital & Technology Strategy

• Provide high-impact strategic technology direction to New Ventures that achieves concrete and significant results and supports the long-term vision for Digital & Technology capabilities.
• Identify potential new lines & capabilities of work that would lead to transformative change in support of New Ventures objectives globally; proactively drive and influence line-of-business planning on technology capabilities.
• Strategically partner with Universal Creative and Operations teams to ensure operational feasibility during the design and development phases; focus on systems to support safe, efficient, and smooth Team Member and Guest experiences; proactively engage with external & regional technology providers.
• Advise executive leadership on New VenturesDigital & Technology strategy, financial impact (investment & ongoing costs related to labor, services, hardware, software), operating model development, product innovation and development; serve as a key member of the New Ventures Senior Leadership Team.
• Anticipate technical, business, political, and organizational hurdles in implementing new strategic initiatives and work with leadership and peers to seek solutions.

Cross-Functional / Leadership Collaboration:

• Lead collaborative, cross-functional teams to include Technology, Business Operations, Marketing, Creative, Revenue, Industrial Engineering, Operations and Finance. Set and manage team direction, strategies and timelines.
• Provide clear executive decision-making and priority management; coach and build confidence in team to make good business decisions using technology & analytical thinking; proactively plan, communicate & mitigate risks across stakeholders.
• Achieve operational excellence and superior guest experience advances by building a high-performing team to achieve and exceed goals and objectives.
• Drive continuous infrastructure, tools and process improvement, working with cross-functional teams in support of campaigns/projects, analytics/reporting/business intelligence.
• Work seamlessly with other Digital and Technology & business unit leaders to architect and build best in class solutions and experience.

Product, TMO, and Technology Execution:

• Achieve operational excellence and superior results by building a high-performing team to achieve and exceed goals and objectives.
• Lead and oversee technology capability design, development, and deployment globally across all Digital & Technology functions, in coordination with domain leaders.
• Acts as key subject matter expert in the rapid, high quality, and global deployment of large scale, enterprise software applications; manages by mature delivery processes & KPI’s.
• Lead by example & oversee team members and external partners to deliver best-in-class technology solutions in alignment with New Ventures financial goals.
• Owns the deployment lifecycle through successful hyper care of newly implemented applications.
• Drive focus on operational excellence throughout the organization & partners, including (but not limited to) processes, governance, efficient working approaches, collaboration.
• Proactively manage the on-time delivery of solutions, mitigate risk of “scope creep” and business impact during transformational change; ensure new capabilities are deployed with integrated business continuity.

Budget & Vendor Management

• Manage initial and ongoing relationships with vendors and outside service providers as it relates to product management and experience transformation implementation.
• Responsible for division budget for New Ventures delivery and development.
• Understands and actively participates in Environmental, Health & Safety responsibilities by following established UO policy, procedures, training and team member involvement activities.
• Performs other duties as assigned.

EDUCATION: Bachelor’s degree is required. Preferred in marketing, engineering, technology, analytics or related fields. Advanced degree preferred.

EXPERIENCE: 12+ years in progressive transformation, technology enablement, innovation or marketing leadership:

• Executive experience in technology consulting or internal technology strategy/implementations for large, multi-national companies.
• Expert knowledge of large-scale transformation initiatives.
• Experience in project team leadership and large-scale program planning and implementation.
• Demonstrated experience with application/technology simplification & rationalization in legacy environments; previous experience in “bi-modal” technology environments that combine digital/agile with enterprise/monolithic applications.
• Experience in executive communication, relationship building and decision making; expert at stakeholder and partner management.
• Excellent analytical, written and verbal communication skills, and be able to explain complex concepts both concisely and simply to technical & non-technical audience.
• Budget management

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: This position will require frequent domestic and possibly international travel.

Your talent, skills and experience will be rewarded with a competitive compensation package.

Universal is not accepting unsolicited assistance from search firms for this employment opportunity. All resumes submitted by search firms to any employee at Universal Orlando via-email, the Internet or in any form and/or method without a valid written Statement of Work in place for this position from Universal Orlando HR/Recruitment will be deemed the sole property of Universal Orlando. No fee will be paid in the event the candidate is hired by Universal Orlando as a result of the referral or through other means.

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