IT Portfolio Manager

An increasing number of people are spending their time outdoors. On their quest to a healthier lifestyle they take a break from their office-chair, couch or computer screen and take on mountain biking, camping or skiing. A.S. Adventure provides them with high quality and reliable gear to do so. The European market leader in outdoor clothes and other necessities continuously grows through their off- and online channels. The IT Portfolio Manager ensures that growth by leading the IT department to the next level of customer experience and innovation.

ABOUT A.S. ADVENTURE: #1 IN OUTDOOR

With a total of over 250 stores throughout Europe, 4000 employees and an annual turnover of 650 million euros, A.S. Adventure Group is Europe’s largest omnichannel retailer for outdoor clothing and necessities. The group is not just market leader in their home country Belgium, but also in the Netherlands and the UK. In Belgium, France and Luxembourg consumers know A.S. Adventure through retail stores under the same name. In the Netherlands, most consumers will know A.S. Adventure through the Bever retail chain, which is known and praised for their successful omnichannel strategy. In the UK, A.S. Adventure is also present through other retail chains, such as Costworld Outdoor and Snow + Rock, and the company recently entered the German market by acquiring McTrek Outdoor Sports.

Through this broad assortment of stores and brands A.S. Adventure is able to offer a large scope of products and services to her clients, which range from first time campers to experienced outdoor athletes. A.S. Adventure strives to deliver the highest standards of service to every customer that enters their (online) stores, which has shown to be their key to success. Especially online the company has shown to excel at creating personalized customer journeys and flawless UX designs. Something that is also confirmed by the numerous awards A.S. Adventure has won: in The Netherlands, Bever has won the award for Best Web Shop in the Outdoor Category in 2017-2018 and Google named Bever as the best omnichannel experience in Europe.

A.S. ADVENTURE IT INNOVATION

At the heart of this successful omnichannel proposition lies the IT department of A.S. Adventure. Most of the operational teams at A.S. Adventures work decentralized within the different countries and business units, except for the IT department. Within each local business unit there is a small IT team to support with operational requests or issues, but the overall innovation and development lies within the central organization.

“By centralizing the IT department for all the business units of A.S. Adventure we have the resources that enable us to continuously innovate and strive for excellence in our IT department and customer experience.” – Paolo Varaldo, IT Group Director A.S. Adventure

The young, ambitious and dynamic team within IT services builds solutions for all the companies within the different countries. All the solutions start with the drive to innovate and be leading in the market of omnichannel retail. By continuously screening the market for new technologies, tools, processes and trends A.S. Adventure ensures her stable position and continues to be a market leader and early adapter.

VACANCY: IT PORTFOLIO MANAGER

Within this newly defined role, the IT Portfolio Manager stimulates continuous innovation within the IT Department by steering to the adoption of cutting edge technology and implementing new processes, tools and ways of working. As the right hand of the IT Group Director he/she plays an important role in defining the strategic development roadmap and leading all business units within A.S Adventure to realizing their ambitious goals.

To do this, the IT Portfolio Manager analyses and optimizes all IT processes within A.S. Adventure and stimulates the creativity, effectiveness and ambition within the IT team, which consists of 60 international professionals. He/she collects the ideas for innovation and improvement from all the business units and translates them into an IT development roadmap, managing / optimizing the resources required to deliver the IT portfolio and anticipating/addressing any resources gap. Based on the strategic and financial implications of projects he/she ranks all the development needs and continuously screens the progress of the projects. The IT Portfolio Manager steers towards swift realization of objectives but also works agile and is and able to deal with unexpected changes. This means that he/she can adjust outcomes, processes and timelines to arising business needs. To gain insight in those business needs, the IT Portfolio Manager is frequently in touch with high level stakeholders within different business units.

Besides optimizing IT project-portfolio management processes, the IT Portfolio Manager is involved in several strategic projects, such as the integration of new business units like recently acquired German McTrek Outdoor Sports. But also the migration of all the online shops to the same UX technology or creating an operational dashboard for the warehouses are projects that the IT Portfolio Manager oversees.

He/She will also play a critical role in wrapping up a New Nearshore IT Partner.

The culture within A.S. Adventure actively stimulates innovation and experimenting, and the IT Portfolio Manager will be provided with the required trust and freedom to do so. Within this role the IT Portfolio Manager delivers a tangible contribution to the development of the successful omnichannel proposition of A.S. Adventure. In time this can lead to a broad range of career opportunities, including a team of direct reports.

The IT Portfolio Manager directly reports into the IT Group Director, Paolo Varaldo. The A.S. Adventure Head Quarter is situated in Antwerp, Belgium. The IT Portfolio Manager will be expected to travel/work from this office at least three days a week.

CANDIDATE PROFILE

EXPERIENCE

• Minimum of 10 years relevant experience in (IT) project/process management and optimization. Experience with Portfolio Management is a must.
•  Academic Degree

PERSONALITY

• Strong stakeholder manager
• Proactive
• Analytical
• Strategic
• Structured

A.S. Adventure works with Top of Minds to fill this vacancy.
Contact Catherine Visch at catherine@topofminds.com for more information.