Switzerland Job Openings

Ralph Lauren

ERP APPLICATION ARCHITECT LEAD, NEXT GENERATION TRANSFORMATION

Plan-les-Ouates

August 26, 2024

Ref #:

W151844

Department:

Information Technology

City:

Plan-les-Ouates

State/Province:

Geneva

Location:

Switzerland

Company Description

Ralph Lauren Corporation (NYSE:RL) is a global leader in the design, marketing and distribution of premium lifestyle products in five categories: apparel, accessories, home, fragrances, and hospitality. For more than 50 years, Ralph Lauren's reputation and distinctive image have been consistently developed across an expanding number of products, brands and international markets. The Company's brand names, which include Ralph Lauren, Ralph Lauren Collection, Ralph Lauren Purple Label, Polo Ralph Lauren, Double RL, Lauren Ralph Lauren, Polo Ralph Lauren Children, Chaps, among others, constitute one of the world's most widely recognized families of consumer brands.

At Ralph Lauren, we unite and inspire the communities within our company as well as those in which we serve by amplifying voices and perspectives to create a culture of belonging, ensuring inclusion, and fairness for all. We foster a culture of inclusion through: Talent, Education & Communication, Employee Groups and Celebration.

Position Overview

Overview
As a part of Ralph Lauren’s Next Generation Transformation (NGT), the core operating systems of the company (SAP, Island Pacific and Microsoft D365) will be replaced with a common Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution enabling the Ralph Lauren team to continue delivering competitive advantages in our next great chapter and beyond. Today, Ralph Lauren is forming the Program Initiation Team to begin creating the transformation plan, defining how the company will operate going forward and how the implementation of the new systems will lead to a common way of working globally across the company. This new way of working impacts almost all of the business including Planning, Sourcing and Buying, Retail and Wholesale, Logistics and Distribution and Finance. Therefore, we are looking for the initial team to start to create the future way of working and help shape the next 20 years.

Position Overview
The ERP Application Architect will join a small team of business function process leads, IT domain leaders and the ERP vendor representatives known as the Program Initiation Team who will work together to take the first steps in this journey. The team will work closely together to achieve a set of the common objectives below ultimately leading to the initiation of the global program and the creation of all the articles needed to launch the project in 2025. This first, necessary step will ensure Ralph Lauren understands the key phases, impact, business resources and timeline required to begin the program. This is an opportunity to join one of the largest investments that the company will be making over the next decade, and we seek talent that is excited to help shape the future, being part of the journey and eventually taking this knowledge back into the business.

The purpose of this role is to work within a small team to manage the creation of a plan to implement the new ERP solution into RL. The role will involve working with the small team and the preferred ERP vendor to achieve the objectives below with the primary focus being to define how the NGT ERP TO-BE application will be configured and set up within RL and the existing ERP systems functionality accommodated within it. In addition, the definition of an interim state and the migration package to support the gradual roll out is required from this role. This role will have a responsibility in all the objectives that are outlined in the subsequent sub section.

This role will be primarily focused on delivering the necessary work packages associated with the objectives to stand up the new ERP into the RL landscape, and creating the necessary interim state whilst RL runs the two systems in parallel. It will be the role of the lead to work with the other domain teams and business to define the approach on how we would leverage ERP to achieve the business goals and what areas would be better solved by an edge system.

Essential Duties & Responsibilities

Program Initiation Team objectives

Create a detailed and documented understanding of the current RL IT AS-IS application environment across all 3 regions. This includes all objects in scope for transition on both an interim and permanent basis. These objects include but are not limited to interfaces, data, reporting, access, third party systems as well as RL ERP and Edge systems
Create a detailed and documented understanding of the current RL IT AS-IS infrastructure environment across all 3 regions. This includes all infrastructure objects in scope for transition on both an interim and permanent basis
Creation of an interim state framework that outlines how the RL systems will need to be set up during the period of transition to the TO-BE status
Agree how the current systems will be maintained during this interim state identifying when investment will be reduced so that the existing platforms move into a maintenance only status
Definition of the migration package, toolset, scope and approach that will allow for the continued roll out of the new platform over the forthcoming years facilitating a smooth transition of the company as it gradually transitions over
Finalization of the TO-BE ERP system scope, agreeing where the functionality will reside (ERP versus EDGE) within which system. This will also include mapping out the dependencies on the edge systems within RL at both a data object and interface level
Finalization of infrastructure and related security solutions to support the TO-BE ERP system
Definition of the operational requirements to ensure that the new platform meets the needs of the business to meet the RTO/RPO agreements and that all the necessary reporting, alerting etc is in line with RL standards. This includes items such as automation in areas of data archiving, scheduling, alerting etc.
Definition of the integration strategy and approach along with the details to create a seamless transition which provides flexibility and agility to provide a competitive advantage to the business going forward
Creation of an automated testing strategy identifying the approach and tools that RL should adopt to speed up the acceptance of the systems, increasing the quality, reducing the time to introduce new changes, enabling volume testing to simulate peak workloads. This approach will accommodate both RL generated functional and vendor system releases
§Creation of an application documentation repository containing all information for both the AS-IS environment and the TO-BE systems going forward. The intent will be to create detailed information in an approved tool or framework that will be used ongoing throughout the project and beyond
Creation of an overview of the approach for data migration, outlining the plan, ownership, roles and responsibilities and any tools required to perform the cutover from the existing ERP systems including the interim state
Identify the impact of the new NGT ERP system on the data analytics and reporting capabilities within RL. Identify how the new solution will best integrate into the data analytics domain and outline the impact on current reporting solutions and how to remediate
Design and implementation with the partnership of the NGT ERP SI and Information Security a clear Cyber Security framework for the Hybrid cloud design based on NIS and CIS standards
Creation and implementation of the transition to support documentation with the TO-BE ERP system with clear RACI matrix between RL Technology I&O, Security, Applications, and the TO-BE ERP system provider

Responsibilities include

Work with all the IT, business, vendor teams to ensure the scope is clearly understood and that there appears to be no gaps
Creation of a clear picture of the current AS-IS, documenting the data flows and dependencies and integration points for the current ERP systems by region. Assignment of ownership for a specific ERP application (either SAP or D365) will be performed
Ensuring that the ownership (business and IT) is clear within the ERP system of the various business functions and that there are Work with the nominated business members of the project to identify and assign responsibility at a functional and data entity level where possible
Alignment of the system functionality with the business process flows so that the project teams can create flows that ensure clarity of ownership, within the process and dependency
Identification and quantification of the impact on the interim state identifying the impact on the period where the systems must run in parallel. Outline of the technical impact and creation of a plan to deliver the requirements at a high level to ensure that this can be undertaken as part of the program. This also includes the necessary business verification and reporting required
Identification and creation of the migration and final cut over plan from an ERP perspective, detailing the impact and create the subsequent budget and plan to meet the business needs. This also includes the necessary business verification and reporting required
Identification of gaps in any of the respective process or technical areas in the TO-BE solution so that mitigation can be created (possibly at a later stage) to remedy. This will entail working closely with the TO-BE vendor team
Work with the vendor team to identify all customizations and extensions across the ERP (SAP or D365) systems, aligning this to the processes created and work with the vendor to then identify if there are gaps in the TO-BE state. The intent is to highlight these to ensure that they can be referenced during the design phase
Preparation of the various teams as much as possible for the upcoming mobilization. Use the engagement to educate, but also to listen and absorb and represent back the findings of the teams
Creation of an approach to testing that will enable an agile approach to developing and releasing new capabilities that encompasses the ERP systems to create a common method across the RL systems in scope
Work with the various teams to develop the high level cut over approach by system by object by phase to include but not limited to:

PO
SO
Inventory
Financial management controls
Product migration
Retail location
Master data

Assistance in identifying training needs to facilitate knowledge required by the teams
Development and maintenance of individual and integrated project plans, including scope, objectives and milestones, deliverables, risks and issues
Agreement on an overall approach for the capturing of business requirements, documentation, testing criteria in an efficient manner that will allow for the more agile approach to managing change going forward
Assistance in defining the strategy for the development and support of the system ongoing

Experience, Skills, and Knowledge

Minimum 8+ years of experience with a proven track record in a related role working alongside external vendors
Experience within a vertically integrated retail environment; fashion apparel experience is highly desirable
Exceptional written and oral communication skills. Must be adept at translating complex concepts into actionable plans
Ability to confidently engage with and influence senior executives
Strong analytical skills: data leverage to make strategic decisions
The ideal candidate is pragmatic, a problem solver, thrives under pressure, and excels at multitasking. Has the ability to make decisive and timely decisions while acting with authority
Strong strategic vision but also comfortable taking a hands-on approach to achieve results
Can be based in UK/CH/NY/NJ

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