Client Organization: Chatters

Position Title: Vice President, IT & Business Technology

Reports to: CFO

Location: Mississauga/hybrid

THE COMPANY

Chatters is Canada's largest salon-based retailer and salon services provider, operating hair salons and distributing professional beauty products across Canada. Founded in 1991, it offers both salon services and a wide range of hair, skin, nail, and body care products, with an emphasis on sustainability and supporting beauty careers. The company has both corporate and franchisee-owned locations, focusing on a blend of retail and salon services for a complete hair care experience.

We're proud to be Canadian and Canada's largest salon chain with over 115 salon locations across the country! Boasting Canada's best selection of salon-quality products + a talented team of over 1,200 Hair Stylists and Hair Consultants, we speak hair.

Our head office is located in Mississauga, Ontario. We also operate a 26,000 sq. ft. Distribution Centre in Red Deer, Alberta, which supports our logistics and e-commerce fulfillment - allowing for flexibility, agility, and self-sufficiency. The Mississauga Support Centre, located in Meadowvale just off the 401, provides office space and amenities for our Ontario Support Centre employees.

THE OPPORTUNITY

This is a critical leader in the organization who will hold full accountability for the management, leadership, and strategy development of Chatters Information Technology initiatives. This leader will have 10+ years of senior level IT leadership, relevant university degree(s) and ideally retail/service industry experience with practical knowledge of ERP, CRM including Salesforce and ecommerce such as Magento.

The Vice President, IT & Business Technology will report directly to the CFO and work closely with the CEO as part of the senior leadership team. Agile, collaborative, hands on and future focused, this leader will partner with internal stakeholders and external providers to drive financial and operational efficiency, delivering profitable growth for Chatters.

The Vice President, IT & Business Technology will work closely with core application vendors to develop meaningful and commercially productive relationships, ensuring Chatters optimizes the value of their systems and applications. The ideal candidate will also leverage existing and emerging technologies and develop annual budgets and longer-range investment plans that align with the company’s current and future business requirements and strategic imperatives. A true business partner, the Vice President, IT & Business Technology will ensure systems and processes are in place to protect Chatters intellectual property and private data as well as information provided from customers and external business partners.

As a people-focused and inspiring leader, the Vice President, IT & Business Technology will act as a catalyst toward the development of a high-performance, engaged, accountable and growth-focused organization. A visionary who is business savvy, this leader is able to see the big picture and bring focus to the wider organization while balancing short and long-term objectives to turn strategies into reality.

The Vice President, IT & Business Technology will be hands on, and a strategic thinker with strong business acumen. The expectation is for this leader to be well-versed in current technological trends and familiar with a variety of business concepts, optimizing platforms, vendor pricing and performance levels. The ideal candidate will be an excellent communicator and capable of working effectively with leaders within the organization.

KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES

Provide an all encompassing IT support solution for the company including technology development, support and services.
Hire, develop and work with the IT and business teams to build technology and service roadmaps that outline future states, current states, and how the organization can bridge the gap.
Work with the support team and teams tasked with the design, development, operations and ongoing maintenance of Systems and Help Desk functions, network and server security and administration, end user operations, business analysis for ongoing operational technology solutions.
Gather and analyze business and technical requirements for solutions that address problems where the implementation will affect multiple teams, departments, and technologies.
Provide architectural support for projects from the initial proposals through to implementation stages.
Recommend solutions that are aligned to Chatter's architecture principles and technology standards, meet the needs of the company as a whole and are in the best interests of all stakeholders.
Guide Chatters in the most effective use of our enterprise resource planning (ERP) to achieve our goals and overall vision.
Manage client expectations of solutions to match demand with delivery capability.
Build effective working relationships with key partners and outside contractors to support the IT initiatives.
Manage relationships and performance of external partners, vendors, and service providers.
Measure, monitor, and analyze utilization and performance of apps and services to articulate business value of IT.
Orchestrate testing of solution aspects including, but not limited to acceptance, security, performance, and integration.
Ensure system stability, critical in the B:C market, while looking at cloud migration strategies that can help drive performance and cost efficiency.
Coordinate and participate in the implementation of changes, enhancements, and upgrades.
Evaluate the newest and most innovative technologies to determine how these can help the company.
Design and ensure adequate security policies are in place for securing Chatters information store and communications.
Oversee and monitor operation and maintenance of Chatters networks across all locations.

CONTACT INFORMATION

Tim Hewat, Head of Executive Search, North America tim.hewat@lhhknightsbridge.com

Melanie Barbieri, Senior Consultant

melanie.barbieri@lhhknightsbridge.com

About LHH Knightsbridge –

Chatters Limited Partnership

Open Positions

Vice President, IT & Business Technology