**Description -**
A Solution Manager plays a pivotal role in overseeing and optimizing the end-to-end development and implementation of solutions within an organization. Responsibilities include analyzing business requirements, collaborating with stakeholders, and ensuring that proposed solutions align with strategic objectives. They guide project teams, manage resources, and facilitate communication between technical and non-technical teams. Additionally, Solution Managers play a key role in evaluating technology trends, recommending improvements, and ensuring that delivered solutions meet quality standards and user expectations. This role demands a blend of technical expertise, project management skills, and a deep understanding of business needs to drive successful solution delivery.
**_ Responsibilities: _**
- **Conceptualize, Design, and Develop Innovative Solutions**:
- Innovation and Creativity: Generate creative and forward-thinking solutions that not only meet but exceed client challenges and business requirements.
- Problem Identification: Proactively identify potential challenges and bottlenecks, offering preemptive solutions through a combination of industry best practices and original thinking.
- Continuous Improvement: Foster a culture of continuous improvement, encouraging the team to explore new technologies and methodologies to enhance solution offerings.
- ** Work Closely with Clients (Internal Mainly)**:
- Client Relationship Management: Establish and maintain strong relationships with clients, ensuring a deep understanding of their unique needs, challenges, and objectives.
- Active Listening: Employ active listening skills to grasp the nuances of client requirements, ensuring accurate translation into actionable plans.
- Client Collaboration: Collaborate with clients in a consultative manner, providing insights and recommendations that align with their strategic goals.
- ** Develop Solutions for Key Business Problems**:
- Strategic Alignment: Align developed solutions with key business problems, ensuring they contribute directly to overarching business objectives.
- IT Collaboration: Collaborate effectively with IT teams to bridge the gap between conceptualization and implementation, ensuring seamless execution of solutions.
- End-to-End Oversight: Provide end-to-end oversight of solution development, from ideation to delivery, ensuring all stages align with business needs and quality standards.
- ** Understand Complexities and Draft Funding Requests**:
- Comprehensive Understanding: Develop a profound understanding of the complexities associated with proposed solutions, taking into account technical, operational, and financial aspects.
- Financial Acumen: Work closely with finance and relevant stakeholders to draft comprehensive funding requests, clearly articulating the investment rationale and expected returns.
- Risk Assessment: Conduct thorough risk assessments to identify potential challenges and devise contingency plans within funding requests.
- ** Present to Management**:
- Effective Communication: Develop compelling and clear presentations tailored to various audiences, from project teams to senior management, up to at least the director level.
- Strategic Communication: Articulate the strategic significance of proposed solutions, emphasizing their alignment with organizational goals and potential impact on key performance indicators.
- Q&A Proficiency: Demonstrate the ability to field questions and concerns effectively, fostering confidence in the proposed solutions and their potential benefits.
- Interprets data received from more junior individual contributors and develops recommendations that optimize performance.
- Leads cross-functional project teams, providing mentoring and guidance.
- Owns strategic supply chain projects from planning through to execution and provides findings resulting from project execution.
- Consults with business leaders on a wide range of supply chain issues.
**_ Education and Experience Required: _**
- First level university degree or equivalent experience; advanced university degree preferred.
- Typically 6-10 years of experience in a supply chain function.
**_ Knowledge and Skills: _**
- Excellent analytical and problem solving skills.
- Extensive knowledge of Excel, PowerPoint, Access, and high-level modeling tools.
- Excellent written and verbal communication and presentation skills; mastery in English and local language.
- Excellent team and project management skills, including project structuring.
- Strong business acumen and technical knowledge across multiple business units, with an understanding of emerging trends.