We are hiring a hands-on IT Operations & Business Systems Lead who will sit at the intersection of four needs: bringing modern IT discipline to our day-to-day operations, leading the rollout and ongoing training of our new Odoo ERP, helping a small experienced team adapt to new tools and new ways of working, and acting as a quiet organizational-development partner as we realign our product platform, integrate more tightly with our global supply chain, and reshape our business practices around customer responsiveness. This is a single-contributor role with leadership influence — you will not manage a team, but your work will shape how every team member here gets their job done.
This is the right role for someone who genuinely enjoys working alongside non-technical people, has the patience to teach the same concept three different ways, gets satisfaction from making complicated systems feel simple, and can translate "the market is shifting" or "the customer needs this faster" into concrete process and system changes inside a small manufacturing business.
Why This Role Exists Now
- Leadership transition: Our retiring business operations leader has held significant institutional and operational knowledge. We need a steady hand to help document, modernize, and re-systematize that knowledge.
- ERP modernization: We are moving from Elliott Business Software — a green-screen-era ERP — to Odoo. The cutover and the year that follows are critical, and we need someone owning training, configuration support, and day-to-day adoption.
- Product platform realignment: Our market is shifting. We are evaluating where to invest our product platform — which gear and drive configurations to lead with, which adjacent applications to pursue, and where legacy product lines need to be repositioned or retired. This requires our internal processes, data, and team thinking to evolve alongside the product strategy.
- Global supply chain integration: As part of a globally connected enterprise, we need our systems and habits to work cleanly across borders — sharing demand signals upstream, coordinating lead times, and managing inventory with our parent organization and international suppliers as partners rather than as separate worlds.
- Customer responsiveness: Our customers expect faster quotes, clearer order status, more transparent lead times, and more flexible service than legacy practices allow. We need to reshape day-to-day business practices around customer responsiveness — and Odoo plus modern workflows are the levers to do it.
- Growth: As we expand market exposure, our internal systems need to scale gracefully. We want IT to be an enabler, not a bottleneck.
- Culture shift: Our team is highly skilled but accustomed to legacy ways of working. We need someone who can introduce new technology, new processes, and new market-facing habits with respect, patience, and genuine partnership.
Key Responsibilities
- Foundational change leadership. Partner with leadership to identify where workflows, processes, and decision-making are still anchored to legacy tools and habits, and lead a "small wins" approach to change — introducing new capabilities incrementally, celebrating adoption, and adjusting based on what works for our team.
- Coaching and capability building. Design and deliver small-group and one-on-one coaching sessions that help team members build confidence with modern software, digital workflows, and data-driven decision-making.
- Institutional knowledge transfer. Capture and transfer the institutional knowledge held by the retiring operations leader and other long-tenured staff before it walks out the door. Document standard operating procedures (SOPs) for core business processes — quoting, order entry, production scheduling, shipping, invoicing, service — in plain, accessible language.
- Product platform realignment support. Facilitate the internal work that turns a product-platform strategy shift into operational reality: cross-functional alignment sessions, updated workflows in Odoo for new product configurations, refreshed quoting and routing logic, and clear retirement paths for legacy SKUs. Help engineering, sales, and production share a common picture of where the platform is going and why.
- Market-shift readiness. Help the team build the habits of looking outward — tracking adjacent markets, capturing competitive and customer signals in CRM, and translating those signals into platform, pricing, and service decisions rather than letting them die in someone's inbox.
- Global supply chain enablement. Help our local team work as a true partner of our global enterprise: synchronizing demand and forecast data with our parent organization, aligning item masters and part numbering across regions, coordinating with international suppliers in Odoo, and replacing email-and-spreadsheet handoffs with shared visibility. Coach the team on the time-zone, cultural, and process habits that make global collaboration work.
- Customer-responsive business practices. Lead internal redesign of customer-facing practices so the business is genuinely easier to do business with: faster, more consistent quoting; transparent order status; proactive lead-time and delay communication; cleaner service and warranty workflows; and feedback loops that route customer-driven insights to the right people. Use Odoo as the spine for these changes rather than bolting on parallel tools.
- Process governance. Establish lightweight rhythms — a monthly business-process review, a quarterly retro on the change initiatives in flight — so improvements compound rather than fade after launch.
Odoo ERP Training, Onboarding & Administration
- Serve as significant support for Odoo across modules such as: Sales, Purchase, Inventory, Manufacturing, and CRM.
- Support the migration cutover from Elliott Business Software, working alongside our Odoo implementation partner and head of admin.
- Help build role-based training paths: front-office staff, production team, procurement, and sales each need a different on-ramp.
- Work with the head of admin to align Odoo settings, user permissions, workflows, simple automations, and standard reports. Escalate deep technical or custom development work to our Odoo partner.
- Be the first stop for "how do I do X in Odoo?" questions, with a goal of progressively reducing dependency on yourself as the team becomes self-sufficient.
- Monitor Odoo data quality and proactively address gaps (e.g., missing BOMs, stale inventory counts, incomplete customer records).
On-Site IT Administration
- Own day-to-day IT operations for the Waldwick facility: workstations, printers, network, Wi-Fi, basic server administration, telephony, and shop-floor connected devices.
- Manage Microsoft 365 (or equivalent) tenant administration: accounts, licensing, mailbox setup, shared drives, security policies, and MFA.
- Maintain backup, disaster recovery, and basic cybersecurity hygiene (patching, endpoint protection, phishing awareness, password management).
- Provide responsive Tier 1 / Tier 2 support — if a sales rep cannot print a quote or a machinist cannot pull up a drawing, you are the first call.
- Manage vendor relationships for ISP, hardware suppliers, Odoo partner, and other IT services. Make recommendations on tools, hardware refresh cycles, and security upgrades.
- Maintain a simple, current asset inventory and IT runbook so the business is not single-threaded on any one person — including you.
Required Qualifications
- 5–8 years of combined experience in IT administration, business systems, or ERP support roles, ideally including time in a small or mid-sized company where you wore multiple hats.
- Hands-on experience supporting at least one modern ERP system end-to-end. Direct Odoo experience is strongly preferred; experience with NetSuite, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, SAP Business One, Acumatica, or similar will be considered.
- Demonstrated ability to train non-technical adult learners and produce clear written documentation.
- Solid working knowledge of Microsoft 365 administration, Windows 10/11, basic networking (TCP/IP, DNS, DHCP, VPN, Wi-Fi), and endpoint security fundamentals.
- Comfort working in a manufacturing environment — willing to be on the shop floor as well as at a desk.
- Strong communication and interpersonal skills, with patience and emotional intelligence when working with team members who are skeptical of, or unfamiliar with, new technology.
- Authorization to work in the United States. Reliable on-site presence in Waldwick, NJ.
Preferred Qualifications
- Direct experience leading or supporting an ERP migration off a legacy or terminal-based system (e.g., Elliott, MAPICS, AS/400, JD Edwards World).
- Odoo certification(s) or documented Odoo configuration experience across multiple modules.
- Experience with manufacturing-specific concepts: BOMs, routings, work orders, MRP, shop floor scheduling, and inventory control.
- Familiarity with change management frameworks such as ADKAR or Kotter’s 8-Step Process — not as theory, but as practical tools you have actually used.
- Experience supporting a product line or product platform transition: rationalizing SKUs, repositioning legacy offerings, or operationalizing a new product strategy inside an ERP and across sales, engineering, and operations.
- Exposure to global or multi-region operations — coordinating with an overseas parent company, international suppliers, or cross-border inventory and demand-planning flows.
- Background in customer experience, service operations, or sales operations: redesigning quoting, order management, or service workflows to reduce friction for customers.
- Basic scripting or technical aptitude (Python, SQL, or low-code automation) sufficient to support Odoo reporting and integrations.
- Familiarity with CAD/PDM systems used in mechanical engineering environments.
- Working proficiency in German or another second language is a plus given our global enterprise context, though not required.
Pay: $75,000.00 - $85,000.00 per year
Benefits:
- Flexible spending account
- Life insurance
- Paid time off
- Retirement plan
Work Location: In person
