Director IT (m/w/d)

Group14 Silane GmbH

Job Description

Founded to enable the coming electrification of everything, Group14 is the largest commercial manufacturer and supplier of silicon battery technology, elevating performance for every type of battery application. With headquarters in Seattle and Woodinville, WA, Group14 enables battery manufacturers and world-leading OEMs in automotive, consumer electronics, and beyond to achieve transformational milestones for a more sustainable future.

Backed by notable strategic investors and customers such as Porsche AG, Amperex Technology Limited (ATL), BASF, Showa Denko, and SK Inc, Group14 recently raised a $614 million Series C round and secured an additional $100 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to scale its technology.

WE'RE ON A QUEST TO ELECTRIFY THE WORLD

The electrification of everything starts with amazing people. We believe that a more sustainably powered world requires solutions for today, not years from now. The passion, collaboration, perseverance, and bravery of our team continually inspires us to push beyond the conventional to deliver the truly incredible with everything we do.

Group14's dedication to meeting the battery demands of today through lithium-silicon battery innovation and scalable commercial manufacturing processes are what differentiates us and makes us a reliable partner. Recognized by the Department of Energy for its novel, drop-in ready nanomaterials and reliable industrial-scale process, Group14 serves the global transition to an all-electric future.


The Director IT is responsible for information systems at Group14's Manufacturing Site in Schwarze Pumpe - Spremberg, Saxony Germany. This role will support all Manufacturing plant systems, network, site to site integrations, and front-line client support for the Schwarze Pumpe manufacturing complex, including offices in Stuttgart, Germany. This includes support of Administration, Operations, R&D, and general office space. This leadership role will partner with other site manufacturing teams, central IT and cross-functional business partners.

  • Design and build a team, controlled processes, and technologies in order to achieve a highly functioning IT systems architecture for the Schwarze Pumpe Manufacturing facility and Stuttgart Offices.
  • Design and execute short plus long term strategic plans to assure systems and network capacity attains current and future needs.
  • Develop, execute and oversee site procedures, policies and related training plans for projects and initiatives implementations
  • Manage and establish priorities for design, development, maintenance and analysis of the Germany multi-site systems.
  • Align with and work closely with centralized Global IT functions – Support Center, Infrastructure/IT Ops, and App/Dev/Integrations leadership to ensure OLA's for production.
  • Collaborate with business stakeholders and Global IT to define, design, execute, and measure delivery of Germany multi-site systems.
  • Ensure apt security levels on PLC's, HMI's, data collectors and databases, controllers, network/infrastructure and all system end-points are maintained.
  • Oversee operational costs, conduct near- and long-term financial estimates for expanded functionality, scalability, and growth.
  • Build, manage, coach and mentor a team of onsite IT support engineers and/or technicians.
  • Ensure IT asset management inclusive of component inventory maintenance and associated documentation.
  • Collaborate with Global IT and negotiate with outsourcers, vendors and contractors for site-specific products and services.
  • Perform feasibility studies for upgrade projects, conversions and enhancements.
  • Continuously improve IT Team response and recovery times, leveraging Global IT policies, standards, and procedures.
  • Problem-solve during outages – drive your team (in collaboration with Central IT) toward a solution & author and drive Root Cause Analysis (RCAs) documentation.
  • Be a change champion – able to handle significant modifications with minimal ramp-up time and guidance.
  • Ensure adherence to the company's Cybersecurity Framework (NIST 800-53 and/or ISO27001/2) and security best practices, compliance with corporate policy, and remediate any needed compliance controls.


You Are:

  • A passionate leader focused on delivering solutions, developing your team, and service excellence.
  • A person who is flexible and resourceful and has an ability to lead through ambiguity.
  • A master problem solver who takes pride in approaching challenges creatively & methodically with a fail-fast mentality.
  • A quick learner, with an ability to assimilate information into solutions.
  • A person with esteemed awareness and the ability to stay ahead of industry trends.
  • A collaborator and relationship builder – able to work with, lead, and present to various leadership & stakeholders.

Qualifications:

  • 5+ years implementing and maintaining manufacturing systems, with an emphasis on information security and controls
  • 3+ years in managing IT teams

Deep knowledge of:

  • Operating systems and systems management (ex. Windows, OSX, MacOS)
  • Cloud architectures (AWS, Azure)
  • Network configuration, implementation and management
  • Software as a Service Architectures and implementations
  • Cloud deployments in Azure, AWS, Google and/or private cloud
  • Process Control Architecture
  • Production Security Systems (ex. key management, encryption, vulnerability management)
  • GDPR Regulations and compliance

Demonstrated:

  • Experience with on-site and cloud-based computing infrastructures.
  • Experience leading design, build, and maintenance of end-to-end networks and cloud provider integrations.
  • Experience leading IT Teams in a production facility, preferably Manufacturing industry.
  • Experience in working as part of a hybrid team that includes on-prem expertise and managed service providers.

Required Education

  • Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or related field.

OTHER QUALITIES WE'D LOVE FOR YOU TO HAVE:

  • Direct Experience supporting a Manufacturing environment.
  • Experience with system management languages (e.g. Chef, Ansible).
  • Experience with Authentication tool sets such as Active Directory, LDAP, Ping Identity.
  • Resource planning experience.

  • An appreciative corporate culture and a collegial working atmosphere as well as great and motivated colleagues
  • Varied and challenging tasks with personal responsibility
  • A secure and permanent job in a future-oriented company
  • Development opportunities through further education and training opportunities for personal and professional qualification
  • Flexible working time model
  • Share option packages for employees
  • 30 days' vacation per calendar year
  • Free drinks
  • A welcoming and modern working environment
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