Director, Digital Enterprise Platforms

About Neptune Technology Group

Neptune Technology Group is a leading provider of smart water management solutions, serving utilities across North America with advanced metering infrastructure, data analytics, and field service technology. As a Roper Technologies company, Neptune combines the agility of a focused business with the resources of a global technology portfolio. We are in the middle of a bold digital transformation, modernizing our ERP, data, and application landscape, and this role sits at the center of that effort.

The Opportunity

Neptune is looking for a Director, Digital Enterprise Platforms to lead our enterprise applications portfolio, data platform strategy, and major transformation programs. This person will also build the business partnership model that connects technology investment to outcomes across every function in the company.

This is a high-visibility leadership role that combines strategic vision with execution accountability. You will own Neptunes most consequential technology programs, from ERP and PLM modernization to our cloud data platform. You will also establish how the Digital Enterprise Platforms organization operates as a trusted partner to all parts of the business including Finance, Engineering, Manufacturing, Services, and Supply Chain, maturing our Functional Technology Partner capability into a full business relationship model that ties technology delivery to measurable business value.

Reporting directly to the CIO, you will build and lead a team spanning Functional Technology Partners, enterprise architecture, software development, data governance, and enterprise quality assurance. You will serve as the primary technology voice for enterprise systems at the executive level and will drive Neptunes transition from project-based delivery to a product operating model where enterprise platforms are treated as continuously-invested business capabilities, not one-time implementations.

What Youll Own

Enterprise Applications Portfolio

• Own and govern the full lifecycle of Neptunes enterprise application estate, including ERP, CRM, PLM (PTC Windchill), MES, and cloud integration platforms.
• Define application roadmaps aligned to business strategy, corporate guidelines, financial controllership, and go-live timing constraints.
• Lead application rationalization, decommissioning, and fit-gap assessments to reduce technical debt, drive future-ready modernization, and support long-term scalability.
• Maintain a business capability map that connects Neptunes functional needs across all parts of the business including Finance, Engineering, Manufacturing, Services, and Supply Chain to the enabling technology landscape, making gaps and investment opportunities visible to leadership.

Business Partnership and Value Realization

• Establish and own Neptunes formal business partnership model for enterprise technology, with named accountability as the technology partner for each major business function.
• Build and lead the Functional Technology Partner organization, evolving the existing product ownership capability into a model where each partner owns demand intake, roadmap co-ownership, and outcome accountability with their aligned business unit. Finance, Engineering, Manufacturing, Services, and Supply Chain each have a named technology partner who sits in their planning cycles, understands their strategy, and is measured on the outcomes their function realizes from technology investment.
• Own value realization tracking post-implementation: define benefit baselines before programs launch and measure realized outcomes after go-live, including cycle time, cost reduction, data quality, and adoption rates, and report results to executive stakeholders.
• Lead annual technology investment planning with business unit leaders, ensuring the Digital Enterprise Platforms roadmap reflects cross-functional priorities and is funded against measurable business outcomes.

Major Program Delivery

• Serve as program governance lead for Neptunes digital transformation programs, managing scope, budget, timeline, risk, and steering committee accountability across multi-year, multi-track delivery efforts.
• Oversee system-of-record decisions for critical data across platforms, ensuring alignment across ERP, PLM, MES, and CRM.
• Partner with the business on vendor selection processes including RFP development, SI evaluation, scoring, and contract negotiation.
• Drive change management strategies in partnership with business leaders to ensure system adoption translates to realized capability improvements.

Data Platform and Governance

• Define, mature, and execute Neptunes enterprise data strategy, including data governance policy, master data management (MDM), and cloud data platform architecture.
• Establish governance processes covering data lineage, ownership, quality controls, staging workflows, and access management to build governed data foundations that support operational and executive decision-making.
• Drive foundational data initiatives that unlock downstream analytics and AI capabilities.
• Partner with business unit leaders to define the data products and analytics capabilities their functions need, and sequence platform investments accordingly.

Enterprise Quality Assurance

• Own the Enterprise Quality Assurance function as a cross-cutting capability that serves every software delivery pillar within Digital Enterprise Platforms, ensuring consistent quality standards, testing frameworks, and release governance apply across all development activity.
• Set data quality standards in partnership with the Data Practice, defining governance policy, quality thresholds, and measurement criteria. Execution of data quality processes resides within the Data Practice; EQA owns the standards and the accountability model.
• Establish and maintain quality gates across the software development lifecycle, from requirements validation through UAT, regression, and production readiness, across ERP, CRM, PLM, MES, and integration platforms.
• Drive continuous improvement in quality assurance practices, tooling, and automation capability to accelerate delivery velocity without sacrificing release confidence.
• Ensure quality assurance considerations are represented in program governance, including major transformation milestones, SI deliverable acceptance, and go-live readiness assessments.

AI and Intelligent Automation

• Own the strategy for AI and intelligent automation within the enterprise application stack, identifying, prioritizing, and piloting opportunities that deliver measurable efficiency gains across business functions.
• Partner with the business to surface high-value automation opportunities including intelligent document processing, AI-assisted demand planning, ERP co-pilot tooling, and predictive maintenance data integration.
• Partner with the business to establish and manage an AI governance framework for enterprise applications, covering data readiness, model accountability, change management, and responsible deployment standards.
• Build Neptunes internal capability to evaluate, pilot, and scale AI tools within the enterprise application landscape, ensuring decisions are outcome-driven and architecturally sound.

Enterprise Architecture

• Steward enterprise architecture as a core organizational capability, ensuring coherent integration patterns, platform selection standards, and technology lifecycle governance across the enterprise.
• Own the architecture decision framework for cloud infrastructure, middleware, and SAP BTP; govern enterprise software licensing in alignment with governing corporate structures.
• Position the Enterprise Architecture function for continued growth and maturity as Neptunes digital capabilities expand, with a view toward elevating it as a shared enterprise capability over time.

Organizational Leadership and Talent

• Build, develop, and retain a high-performing organization spanning Functional Technology Partners, enterprise architecture, software development, data governance, and enterprise quality assurance.
• Define team structures, operating models, and role clarity that scale with program complexity and support the transition to a product operating model.
• Own workforce planning, hiring, onboarding, and performance management; develop promotion and succession pipelines across the organization.
• Foster a culture of accountability, business-outcome orientation, and continuous improvement where the team measures success by what the business can do, not just what was delivered.

Vendor and Executive Stakeholder Management

• Manage strategic vendor and integration partner relationships, including performance oversight, contract compliance, and issue escalation.
• Serve as the primary IT liaison for enterprise application, data, and AI decisions at the C-suite and board level.
• Develop executive-ready business cases and investment narratives that frame technology decisions in terms of business value and strategic risk.
• Represent Digital Enterprise Platforms in cross-functional governance bodies including Enterprise Architecture Review, Data Governance Council, and Program Portfolio Reviews.
• Advocate on behalf of the business regarding scalable enterprise application, data, and AI decisions with partners and oversight boards.

What You Bring

Experience

• 10 or more years of progressive IT leadership experience, with at least 5 years leading enterprise application portfolios or digital transformation programs at a director or senior manager level.
• Demonstrated success as program governance lead for large-scale implementations; SAP S/4HANA experience strongly preferred.
• Proven experience managing external integration and vendor partner relationships, including contract governance, SOW management, and delivery accountability.
• Hands-on familiarity with ERP and PLM platforms, CRM systems, engineering systems, and cloud data platforms in a manufacturing or industrial environment.
• Experience establishing or maturing a Functional Technology Partner, business relationship management, or product operating model within an IT organization.
• Track record of owning post-implementation value realization, including defining benefit baselines and measuring outcomes against them rather than stopping at go-live.
• Background in enterprise data governance and data architecture; familiarity with product lifecycle concepts (eBOM/mBOM, variant configuration, ECR/ECO/ECN) is a meaningful advantage.
• Experience overseeing enterprise quality assurance programs spanning multiple application platforms and delivery teams.

Leadership and Competencies

• Business Partnership: Builds deep, trusted relationships with functional executives, translates business strategy into technology investment priorities, and holds the team accountable to business outcomes rather than delivery milestones.
• Strategic Influence: Drives executive alignment and translates ambiguity into clear program direction, presenting technology decisions as business investments.
• Organizational Builder: Track record of constructing high-performing teams, evolving operating models, and scaling organizations through transformation.
• Vendor Governance: Manages complex, multi-vendor environments with rigorous accountability for cost, scope, and delivery quality.
• Structured Decision-Making: Owns high-stakes architectural and system-of-record decisions with incomplete information, bringing data-driven rigor to trade-off analysis.
• Executive Communication: Skilled at crafting and delivering board- and C-suite-ready materials and comfortable in governance forums and steering committee settings.

Technical Acumen

• Deep familiarity with the SAP ecosystem (S/4HANA, BTP, Digital Access, SAP Ariba) or equivalent enterprise ERP platforms.
• Working knowledge of Azure and AWS cloud architecture, enterprise integration patterns, and middleware platforms.
• Familiarity with AI and intelligent automation platforms as applied to enterprise application ecosystems, including co-pilot tooling, intelligent document processing, and predictive analytics integration.
• Familiarity with agile delivery methodologies (Agile, SAFe, Scrum), PI Planning, and product ownership frameworks.
• Understanding of enterprise security, access management, and compliance requirements as they apply to enterprise applications and data.

Education

• Required: Bachelors degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, Information Systems, or Business Administration.
• Preferred: Masters degree (MBA or MS in IT, Computer Science, or a related field).

Why Neptune

This is a rare opportunity to shape the digital foundation of a company at a genuine inflection point. You will not be inheriting a steady-state environment. You will be building the platforms, teams, partnership model, and governance structures that Neptune will run on for the next decade. You will have executive sponsorship, a clear transformation agenda, business leaders who are invested in the outcomes, and the organizational support to do the work right.

Neptune offers a competitive compensation package including base salary, annual incentive, and comprehensive benefits. This role is located in Tallassee, AL or Duluth, GA and is office-based.

Neptune Technology Group is an equal opportunity employer.