Business Applications Manager

Fastmarkets is an independent commodity pricing and information organisation with over 600 staff. We are fuelled by values that bring us all together and are united by a collective passion to make a difference. We are supported by a working model that is based ona hybrid approach that allows each of us to balance home and office working while encouragingeffective collaboration and accountability.

Fastmarkets is the most trusted Price Reporting Agency (PRA) in the metals, mining, agriculture, forest products, and energy transition markets. Our price data, forecasts, and market analyses give our customers strategic advantage in complex, volatile, often opaque markets. Our events provide forums for market participants to come together, trade, and talk through the critical issues of our times.

We are making a difference. Fastmarkets works to create transparent commodity markets through our reliable and trusted price data and market intelligence. The markets we serve are central to how economies work and are essential for our lives. By doing this, Fastmarkets helps our customers build a more sustainable world. We are built on a 130-year foundation while bringing a digital platform to market, combining the currency of trust with the power of digital.

Most importantly, we are fuelled by our teams that, across the globe, make the amazing possible. With a deep sense of purpose and belonging, we are building an extraordinary future – together. If you would like to help build the future, we hope you will join us on our journey.

Fastmarkets is owned by global private equity firm Astorg, a specialist investor in healthcare, software, technology, business services and technology-based industrial companies.

The Business Applications Manager will oversee the day-to-day management & maintenance of all Fastmarkets Business Applications. The role is responsible for establishing processes and actions that ensure that our system are stable, secure, and that the delivery of IT services and problem solving is customer-centric, professional, and timely. They will provide leadership and guidance to members within the team.

The role will be responsible for ensuring our portfolio of business applications are fit for business need, financially viable and where appropriate evolving. The Business Applications Manager will partner closely with IT Service Manager, head of CRM, IT Change to drive efficient and scalable processes.

You will play an integral role in the business aligned continuous improvement initiatives, as well as ensuring the ongoing stability and performance of the core business services. A strong background in setting up and running change control processes and managing integrated environments in a dynamic environment is a must.

Principal Accountabilities

• Ensure Fastmarkets maximizes value from Business Applications estate
• Ensure that responses to day-to-day reactive maintenance issues are done so with customer-focused, helpful approach.
• Work with IT Service Manager to provide early warning to the Business Stakeholder executives regarding degraded or missed service levels.
• Overseeing maintenance strategies, maximising operational IT investment
• Stand up management of key supplier relationships
• Contribute to the strategic plan for the development of IT systems
• Accountable for:
  • Business Applications Estate – Full Software lifecycle
  • System management (maintenance, support, small change, system administration, supplier management and business relationship management)
  • IT asset & operations as it pertains to Business Applications estate
  • Application of Information security management standards to in-scope systems
  • Define and embed industry good practice across the function using the ITIL framework
  • Develop and maintain effective working relationships with the FM SLT
  • Tracking, prioritising, and resolving issues and risks throughout the function
  • Managing Third Party deliverables and relationships in line with contractual obligations
  • Delivering to SLAs and KPIs defined and agreed with business customers
• The management of business-critical applications, including CRM, ERPs to support critical business functions, meet project objectives, and company goals.
• An in-depth understanding of ITSM processes and hands-on experience with various ITSM tool sets.
• An in-depth understanding of DevOps processes and hands-on experience with various DevOps tool sets.
• Capable of communicating with project managers, business stakeholders and other technical resources to support project strategies and ensure effective collaboration throughout all phases of development, testing, deployment and live operations.
• Ability to interact directly with managers and end users as necessary to analyse project objectives and capability requirements.
• Provide system administration support of internal and customer-facing systems: Including NetSuite, Wordpress, JIRA.
• Collaboration with various internal departments, including Sales, Revenue Operations, Marketing, Finance & LRC to ensure the corporate platform environments support internal needs relating to functionality and performance.

We recruit talented, dynamic people with diverse backgrounds and experiences, all united by a belief in our mission to provide the world's leading and most trusted price reporting, events, and intelligence service for the markets we serve. We're proud to be an equal opportunities employer and are committed to creating a fully inclusive workplace, where everyone feels able to participate and contribute meaningfully.

If you are open-minded, curious, resilient, solutions-oriented and committed to promoting equality, then read on...

KNOWLEDGE, EXPERIENCE AND SKILLS

We are looking for an individual who is highly motivated, driven, and have a passion to be part of a fast-paced, successful team. Being a strong team player is also important as well as someone who is happy to work flexibly.

• Strong experience in setting up and maintaining continuous improvement processes using Agile development methodologies and development processes; SCRUM, CI, CD
• Significant experience as a Business Applications Manager in a Global, fast-growing organisation.
• Ability to engage in open, honest conversations with members of the Senior Management Team, peers and junior colleagues when discussing project performance, risks and issues
• Ability to "de-tech" conversations with business stakeholders
• Must be able to work autonomously, effectively in a matrix organisation and as a leader to motivate and drive outcomes
• Good Microsoft office 365 experience including advanced analytic & presentation skills
• Strong technical management and leadership background in a similar sized organisation
• Experience of running senior stakeholder meetings e.g., steering groups, CABs as well as workshops to facilitate an agreed decision/ outcome
• Broad business knowledge including commercial, financial, and technical awareness
• Be able to balance task orientation with people orientation i.e., focus on delivery of the plan, but not to the exclusion of all else, be able to influence both staff and team members
• Be commercially astute; have extensive experience of commercial negotiations with suppliers that you can draft/input into first versions of a services or outcome contract

If you're excited about the role but your experience, skills or qualifications don't perfectly align, we encourage you to apply anyway.

Our Values

Fastmarkets people come from all different walks of life. It's this mix of brilliant personalities, experiences and insights that gives us that warm, open, and friendly culture you can feel as soon as you meet us. But however wonderfully different we all are, there are six things we all have in common – and they form our Fastmarkets values.

Created by our own employees to reflect some of the personal traits that Fastmarkets people have, our values are key to what makes our culture unique. They reflect who each of us are and they're embedded in everything we do. Our values are:

• METRICS DRIVEN. We use insights to improve our customers' experience and our business performance
  
• ACCOUNTABLE. We are accountable to ourselves and those we work with: we keep our promises and get things done
  
• GROWTH MINDSET . This value enables us to be nimble to the changing realities and operate with a sense of urgency
  
• INCLUSIVE. We are inclusive and respectful, celebrating each of us and giving everyone a deep sense of belonging with the desire to bring their best self to work every day.
  
• CUSTOMER CENTRIC. We are customer-centric in all that we do
  
• COLLABORATIVE. We are collaborative, able to work across teams and capitalise on the diversity of intellect, perspectives, and experiences.

You've read a little about us – now it's over to you

If you like what you've read so far and think you can see yourself as a Fastmarkets person, it's time to fill in your application form. This form is an important part of the selection process: it's used to determine whether or not you'll be chosen to have an interview and acts as a basis for the questions we'll ask you on the day.

It's vital that you try to capture all the relevant information we have asked for on the form so we can get a good feel for who you are and why you're great.