Director – Business Applications

Location Pasadena, CA

Job Function Information Systems & Technology

Employment Status Regular, Full-Time, Exempt

Apply Now (https://phe.tbe.taleo.net/phe03/ats/careers/v2/applyRequisition?org=ALEXANDRIARE&cws=40&rid=1268)

Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc. (NYSE: ARE), an S&P 500® company, is a best-in-class, mission-driven life science REIT making a positive and lasting impact on the world. As the pioneer of the life science real estate niche since our founding in 1994, Alexandria is the preeminent and longest-tenured owner, operator, and developer of collaborative life science mega campuses in AAA innovation cluster locations, including Greater Boston, the San Francisco Bay Area, New York City, San Diego, Seattle, Maryland, and Research Triangle. Alexandria has a longstanding and proven track record of developing Class A/A+ properties clustered in mega campuses that provide our innovative tenants with highly dynamic and collaborative environments that enhance their ability to successfully recruit and retain world-class talent and inspire productivity, efficiency, creativity, and success. Alexandria also provides strategic capital to transformative life science companies through our venture capital platform, Alexandria Venture Investments. For more information, please visit www.are.com.

The Company is an equal opportunity employer and considers all qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, creed, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding, or related medical conditions, marital status, registered domestic partner status, family-care status, veteran status, military status, age, national origin or ancestry, physical or mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, sexual orientation, or any other category protected by applicable federal, state or local law or ordinance.

The Director − Business Applications will be a primary liaison between our business leaders, project sponsors, and project teams. The successful candidate will possess exceptional problem-solving, communication, and leadership skills, as well as the ability to quickly understand business systems, functions, and processes and to develop and maintain critical relationships with business stakeholders.

In the Director role, this individual will work with a variety of internal and external personnel across functional domains (both end users and other IT staff) to ensure the Business Applications group and its members are providing a high level of leadership and support during projects. The individual will act as an internal consultant, providing technical guidance or business process expertise and/or researching new technologies.. The individual will also serve as a subject matter expert in business applications and business processes, which includes gathering requirements for project phases and recommending technical strategies and tactics that will assist the group in achieving its goals. The person in this role will also apply a broad knowledge of various technical functions to accurately anticipate impacts to the group and the business.

A key responsibility of the Director − Business Applications will be to serve as a lead for the Business Applications group and for workstreams involved in the implementation of Yardi. This will include participation in design, business process changes, testing, data migration, and training. Additional responsibilities will include ongoing support of Yardi post-implementation. Support could include stabilization, training, issues resolution, user administration, enhancements, and upgrades. The individual will apply the knowledge gained through the implementation phase to support the application and increase its value to the business.

Overall, the individual will assist in the continual improvement of the group’s operations as it relates to project management, administrative and end-user support of our applications, and project and resource planning. This will involve working closely with the group members to help them understand challenges, improve processes, and implement solutions.

The Director − Business Applications must understand the procedures and expected system performance associated with the introduction of new information technologies while seeking ways to collaborate with other IT team members to implement them. The individual will share responsibility with other team members to ensure on-time, high-quality product delivery, which requires a clear understanding of expectations and capabilities as well as the ability to act as an effective team member.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

• Assist in improving the internal operations of the Business Applications group to more effectively serve the business.

• Usually as a member of a team, apply systems knowledge to analyze, design, and develop business applications.

• Formulate and define an application’s scope and objectives and devise and modify procedures to solve business problems.

• Develop business relationships and integrate activities with other IT groups to ensure the Business Applications group’s project efforts are successfully implemented and supported.

• Manage each project’s plan, scope, budget, and timeline.

• Document comprehensive business requirements gathered through sessions with customers and subject matter experts.

• Coordinate requirement review and update sessions with the project team, including development quality assurance (QA), and procure related signoffs and approvals from business users.

• Lead projects or regularly coach other project personnel to ensure business application systems are developed in a way that complies with architectural standards and established methodologies and practices.

• Participate in or lead the QA process, and coordinate UAT activities with business users.

• Monitor and report regularly to management on the status of project efforts, including issues that could inhibit reaching project goals and implementing corrective actions.

• Foster and maintain good relationships with customers and IT colleagues to meet expected customer service levels.

• Provide weekly and ad hoc progress status updates.

• Participate in the evaluation and implementation of software packages.

• Participate and lead internal and external project teams.

• Cultivate vendor interactions and relationship management.

• Support application(s) with stabilization, training, issues resolution, user administration, enhancements, and upgrades.

Qualifications and Experience:

• Bachelor’s degree in a related discipline or equivalent work experience required.

• 7+ years of experience as a business analyst and project manager.

• Accounting and finance experience with strong knowledge of key business processes required.

• Significant real estate industry experience required.

• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.

• Excellent project management and leadership skills.

• Process mapping and process engineering skills.

• Broad technical knowledge, with hands-on experience coordinating and deploying systems requirements.

• Knowledge and experience in supporting both large and small systems.

• Knowledge of system design, testing, and documentation.

• Strong analytical, problem-solving, and conceptual skills.

• Intermediate to advanced skills with MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Visio.

• The expected base salary range for this position is $125,000 USD to $145,000 USD annually. This salary range is an estimate, and the actual salary may vary based on the consideration of many factors, which may include, but are not limited to: the individual’s knowledge, experience, education, qualifications, skills, job location, and the Company’s compensation practices.

Current/Future Application Environment:

• Yardi

• NexusPayables

• JD Edwards

• SharePoint

• Concur

• Business intelligence – Microsoft Power BI, Essbase

• Data warehousing

• Salesforce

• Argus

• ServiceNow

• VTS

• Oracle Unifier

• Anaplan