Director, Digital Partner - Supply Chain
Function: Technology
Location: London, UKM, GB
Work Arrangement: Hybrid
Role Overview:
We are seeking an experienced IT Portfolio Director to lead on IT Portfolio Management and operate as a Programme Director across our Supply Chain and R&D domains, ensuring that technology investments deliver desired business outcomes across Discovery to Launch, Planning, Manufacturing, Logistics, Procurement, and Order-to-Cash processes.
This position combines strong business partnership, delivery assurance, financial acumen and functional expertise to drive the execution of our strategy and delivery of technology solutions. The Director plays a pivotal role in assessing, shaping, initiating and overseeing the Supply Chain and R&D project roadmaps, influencing technology investment decisions; and developing our project, programme and portfolio management capabilities and teams.
Key Responsibilities:
Oversee delivery of Supply Chain and R&D technology project and programmes, ensuring on-time, in-scope, and on-budget completion
Define and evolve the Project, Programme and Portfolio Management Approaches across the Supply Chain and R&D Portfolio; in alignment with the Change Delivery Framework and IT-wide governance processes
Manage demand intake, prioritization, and sequencing of initiatives in line with business strategy and available capacity
Manage major programme-level risks and dependencies
Manage financials and overall cost management across the portfolio
Provide portfolio visibility and reporting to senior stakeholders and governance forums
Ensure effective collaboration with architecture, platform, data, and infrastructure teams for cross-domain project delivery
Business Partnership & Strategic Alignment:
Build strong business partnership across Wella’s extended Supply Chain and R&D leadership teams; managing key stakeholders and supporting them in delivering against our business strategy
Support the definition of our business technology strategy and multi-year roadmaps
Partner with Finance, Planning, Procurement, Manufacturing, Logistics, and Regional Supply Chain teams to identify digital enablers that improve operational performance and cost efficiency
Ensure all initiatives align with enterprise architecture, data strategy, and technology guardrails
Drive business case development, value realization, and benefits reporting for Supply Chain and R&D technology programmes
Work collaboratively with platform, data, architecture, and cybersecurity teams, as well as external partners, to ensure seamless technology delivery and operational excellence across the value chain.
Solution Leadership & Functional Expertise:
Leverage functional and change expertise across Supply Chain and R&D investments to ensure they deliver against our strategy and realise key benefits
Partner with the Functional Experts and AMS teams to resolve critical system issues, review proposed changes, and ensure long-term sustainability of solutions
Support decision-making across solution design, testing, and release management
Embed strong governance discipline across all technology delivery activities in the Supply Chain and R&D domains
Oversee vendor performance, ensuring external partners meet contractual obligations and quality standards
Ensure compliance with internal audit, data protection, and cybersecurity frameworks
Define and monitor KPIs to drive continuous improvement
People & Capability Leadership:
Provide leadership to project, programme and delivery leads across the Supply Chain and R&D team
Foster a high-performance culture through mentoring, collaboration, and accountability
Build functional capability and ensure succession readiness for critical SAP and digital roles
Promote cross-functional knowledge sharing across business and technology teams
Project Delivery Discipline – Experience in structured delivery methodologies (e.g., agile, hybrid and waterfall), particularly for R&D systems requiring high stability and regulatory adherence.
Business Partnership & Stakeholder Management – Proven ability to serve as a strategic interface and thought leader to the business, translating platform capabilities into actionable outcomes for Supply Chain leaders.
Problem Solving – Strong analytical and problem-solving skills
Vendor & Contract Management – Experience managing vendor performance and ensuring delivery quality across distributed teams
Functional Expertise – Strong functional expertise in Supply Chain and/or R&D
Enterprise Architecture Acumen – understanding of structured, scalable enterprise systems architecture, including cloud-readiness and data integration across systems and domains.
Qualifications & Experience:
Education:
PMP or APM certification advantageous
ITIL certification advantageous
TOGAF and/or SAP SD/MM certification or relevant process domain certification advantageous
MBA advantageous
Experience:
10+ years of experience in Supply Chain or Technology roles, with at least 5 years in leadership or business partnering positions
Proven track record leading technology portfolios or major transformation programmes within FMCG or manufacturing industries
Strong SAP functional background, ideally across ECC and/or S/4HANA
Experience managing global teams, external vendors, and multi-country deployments
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs):
Portfolio Delivery: % of projects and initiatives delivered on time, within scope, and within budget
Business Satisfaction: NPS or qualitative feedback from Supply Chain and R&D leadership
Value Realization: % projects delivering against business case; &%ROI delivered for financial business cases
Governance Compliance: Adherence to project governance, architecture standards, and risk frameworks
Vendor Performance: SLA adherence and quality scores across AMS and external delivery partners
Process Efficiency: % improvement in cycle times and automation within O2C and P2P value streams
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