IT Head

Role & responsibilities :-

Head of IT Manufacturing Plant

Function: Information Technology
Industry: Manufacturing / Engineering / Industrial
Location: Plant Location
Experience: 8–15 Years
Education: Bachelor’s Degree in IT / Computer Science / Engineering; MBA or relevant certification preferred

Role Overview

We are looking for an experienced Head of IT to lead end-to-end IT operations for a large manufacturing/production facility. The role will be responsible for ensuring high availability, cybersecurity, SAP effectiveness, IT infrastructure reliability, and seamless IT-OT integration across the plant.

The ideal candidate will combine strong technology leadership with hands-on manufacturing IT experience, with the ability to work closely with Production, Supply Chain, Quality, Engineering, Finance and other business stakeholders.

Key Responsibilities

1. SAP & Enterprise Applications

• Own and manage the plant's SAP ERP environment, ensuring system availability, reliability and data integrity.

• Drive optimization of SAP S/4HANA and manufacturing-related modules, including:

• SAP PP – Production Planning

• SAP MM – Materials Management

• SAP WM/EWM – Warehouse Management

• SAP QM – Quality Management

• SAP PM – Plant Maintenance

• Partner with business teams to translate manufacturing requirements into effective SAP processes and solutions.

• Lead SAP implementation, enhancement, migration and continuous improvement initiatives.

• Ensure effective master data management, reporting and plant KPI dashboards.

• Coordinate with corporate IT, SAP partners and external consultants for application support and transformation projects.

2. Plant IT Infrastructure & Operations

• Lead the complete IT infrastructure landscape covering:

• Servers and storage

• Virtualization

• Network infrastructure

• LAN/WAN/WLAN

• Cloud/Hybrid environments

• Backup and disaster recovery

• Ensure 24x7 availability and reliability of critical plant IT systems.

• Manage IT infrastructure across manufacturing areas, warehouses, offices and other plant locations.

• Establish robust monitoring, incident management and preventive maintenance practices.

• Develop and maintain Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery plans.

3. IT-OT / Shop-Floor Technology

• Drive integration between IT and Operational Technology (OT) across the manufacturing environment.

• Manage and support shop-floor technologies such as:

• MES

• PLCs

• SCADA

• IoT devices

• Barcode/RFID systems

• Industrial networks

• Collaborate with Production and Engineering teams to improve plant automation, connectivity and technology adoption.

• Ensure secure and reliable data flow between shop-floor systems and enterprise applications.

4. Cybersecurity, Compliance & Governance

• Implement and monitor cybersecurity controls for the manufacturing environment.
• Protect plant systems and networks against malware, ransomware, unauthorized access and cyber threats.
• Ensure adherence to corporate IT policies, data privacy requirements and applicable industry standards.
• Support compliance requirements including ISO 27001, IATF 16949 and other relevant manufacturing standards.
• Manage IT assets, software licenses, hardware lifecycle and technology governance.

5. IT Leadership & Stakeholder Management

• Lead and mentor a team of IT engineers, infrastructure specialists, helpdesk resources and SAP professionals.
• Build a high-performance IT team with strong ownership of plant operations.
• Act as the key technology partner to Plant Head and functional leaders.
• Work closely with Production, Supply Chain, Quality, Maintenance, Engineering and Finance teams.
• Manage IT projects, priorities and technology roadmaps aligned with business requirements.

6. Vendor & Budget Management

• Manage strategic relationships with:

• SAP partners

• IT infrastructure vendors

• System integrators

• Telecom/network providers

• Cybersecurity partners

• Define and monitor SLAs, service quality and vendor performance.

• Manage annual IT CapEx and OpEx budgets.

• Identify opportunities for technology modernization and cost optimization.

Key Requirements

Experience

• 8–15 years of overall IT experience, with minimum 3–5 years in a leadership role within a manufacturing/plant environment.
• Strong experience in Plant IT / Manufacturing IT Operations.
• Proven experience managing SAP in a manufacturing environment.
• Experience in SAP implementation, migration, integration or optimization projects.
• Strong exposure to IT infrastructure, networking, cybersecurity and shop-floor technologies.

Technical Skills

• Strong understanding of SAP S/4HANA, PP, MM, WM/EWM, QM and PM.

• Good knowledge of:

• Windows/Linux Servers

• VMware/Hyper-V

• Firewalls

• LAN/WAN/WLAN

• Cisco/HPE or equivalent networking technologies

• Backup & Disaster Recovery

• Exposure to MES, SCADA, PLC, IoT and RFID/barcoding systems.

• Understanding of IT-OT integration and manufacturing cybersecurity.

Leadership Competencies

• Strong stakeholder and communication skills.
• Ability to manage critical plant IT incidents and "line-down" situations.
• Strong problem-solving and decision-making capabilities.
• Ability to translate business requirements into technology solutions.
• Strong vendor, project and budget management skills.
• Comfortable working in a high-availability manufacturing environment.

Preferred candidate profile :Candidate should have 8-15 years of experience and SAP implementation experience is must.