IT Team Manager Dealer Applications at American Honda Motor Co.

Job Purpose

The Dealer and FieldLink Applications Unit manages critical applications that support Honda, Acura, Motorcycle, Power Equipment, Marine, and Engine dealers, along with internal stakeholders. These applications are used by sales dealerships and the AHFC (American Honda Finance Corporation) teams to manage key business transactions.

We are looking for an experienced IT leader with strong systems and application development knowledge to lead a team of six developers. The Team Manager will oversee dealer-related business processes, including sales, service, parts, and training, across all Honda product lines. Additionally, the role includes managing dealer business transactions such as mainframe operations, vehicle allocation, incentive management, SAP transactions, finance integration, and dealer financing systems.

The Team Manager will serve as the primary interface to the Auto Sales Applications IT team and act as a liaison between the Business Unit, IT technical team, developers, and vendors. The position also encompasses delivering application enhancements and improvements.

Key Responsibilities:

• Lead the team in utilizing Digital Experience Platforms (DXP), with a preference for Liferay
• Ensure compliance with annual audits • Manage day-to-day operations and service level agreements (SLAs)
• Mentor and manage a team of 4-6 developers
• Oversee project estimation, approval processes, and budget management
• Translate complex technical concepts into business-friendly language

Key Accountabilities

Project Performance:

• Maintain QCD (Quality, Cost, Delivery) and ensure compliance with all current Fiscal Year Projects within +/-5% of planned cost and delivery, while managing external factors.
• Assist with ongoing projects.

Operational Performance: 

• Ensure system uptime of 99.6% for critical systems.
• Meet or exceed application SLAs on a monthly basis.
• Identify and prioritize systems risks annually.
• Limit Sev1 & Sev2 incidents to a maximum of 3 per year.
• Manage incident response for Sev1, Sev2, and Sev3 based on documented SLAs.
• Conduct semi-annual Periodic Access Reviews (PAR) to ensure the protection of Personally Identifiable Information (PII) and compliance with system admin access.
• Annually review software portfolio for potential sunset opportunities.

CRM:

• Meet regularly with Honda Management to align on strategy and objectives.
• Ensure regular meetings between the team and key business stakeholders to track priorities and status.

Department Strategy Planning:

• Define and revise department strategy annually, with quarterly updates.
• Collaborate on IT Summit Project and Operations Fiscal Year (FY) plan for the upcoming fiscal year.
• Develop and update the maturity model, application strategy, and roadmap for unit applications annually.
• Create and update internal labor strategy and Application-Managed Service (AMS) outsourcing roadmap annually.

Associate engagement:

• Contribute to Associate Engagement action plans.
• Lead quarterly meetings focused on Business Unit and Divisional Objectives, Associate Progress, and Recognition.
• Conduct regular meetings with direct reports and ensure team leads do the same with associates.
• Develop training plans tied to the department training roadmap and track progress semi-annually.

Diversity and inclusion:

• Ensure diverse interview panels (ethnic and gender diversity) for EX4 grade level and above roles outside the Division/Department.
• Complete unconscious bias training for the team.

Cost performance:

• Manage department expenses and investments to maintain a variance of +/ 5% from the plan.
• Ensure FTE resource management meets or stays under plan.

Workstyle

Hybrid: At least 3 days per workweek at the local Torrance, CA office

#LI-Hybrid

Qualifications, Experience, and Skills

Education:

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, information systems, computer engineering, system analysis, or a related field, or equivalent work experience.

Other skills:

• Strong customer mindset
• 7-10 years of IT delivery work experience
• 5-8 years of supervisory experience.
• 3-5 years managing professionals that lead teams, groups, and vendors
• 1-3 years of project management experience.
• 3-5 years’ experience working with business groups and enterprise organizations such as Legal, Procurement, Enterprise Architecture, etc.
• 2-3 years procuring and managing outsourced and offsite partners.
• 1+ year budget or financial management experience
• Experience with any Dealer Communications Portals (DCS) for automotive OEMs and advanced technology portals desirable.
• Project management skills, including the ability to plan and prioritize, and set and manage expectations.
• Excellent analytical skills and the ability to leverage data and insights to inform decision making
• Strong communication skills to articulate the roadmap, business priorities, and the rationale behind decisions to all levels of the organization
• High attention to detail, including proven ability to document requirements and manage multiple, competing priorities simultaneously
• Willingness to do whatever it takes to help the team achieve its goals.
• Own and manage all aspects of development, including conception, development, testing, launch, and post-launch management
• Partner with business teams to understand business requirements and prioritize delivery of fixes, enhancements, and new features
• Manage the relationship with our external and internal development teams
• Research, review, recommend, and implement new technology solutions to optimize front-end and back-end performance
• Track and measure system and team performance to KPIs
• Automotive, product ownership, and dealer domain knowledge helpful.
• Technical understanding of cloud, mobile, web, and services-based solutions. Strong technical and problem-solving skills. Understanding of customer/production support and product operations.
• Liferay and .NET knowledge desirable

Visa sponsorship

This position is not eligible for any work visa sponsorship.