Senior Manager, IT Business Partner

Req ID: 137924

Remote Position: No

Hiring Manager: Osgood Vogler

Region: Asia

Country: Thailand

State/Province: Chonburi

City: Laem Chabang

Summary

The Senior Manager, IT Business Partner serves as the strategic interface between the Manufacturing/Operations organization and the Global IT team, specifically driving AI, Data, and Analytics transformations. Leads the identification, evaluation, and deployment of AI use cases across manufacturing operations. This is not a purely advisory role; you are the architect of requirements. You will spend your time embedded in operations, diagnosing complex physical and digital bottlenecks, and translating them into ironclad technical system requirements, data schemas, and functional specifications for AI/ML models. Your mission is to turn operational data into measurable improvements in Operations KPIs.

General Overview

Functional Area: Information Technology (ITM)

Career Stream: IT Partnership (PTN)

Role: Senior Manager (SMG)

Job Title: Senior Manager, IT Business Partner

Job Code: SMG-ITM-BUSP

Job Level: Band 11

Direct/Indirect Indicator: Indirect

Detailed Description

Performs tasks such as, but not limited to, the following:

Initiative Qualification & Solution Design

• Embed with Operations: Partner closely with senior Operations leaders to deeply understand their workflows, pain points, and legacy systems.
• Translate Business to Tech: Convert high-level operational goals into detailed functional and technical requirements for Data professionals. Produce high-quality documentation and functional prototypes to translate vague business desires into actionable references.
• Opportunity Identification: Evaluate operational processes to identify high-value AI use cases, such as predictive maintenance, computer vision for defect detection, demand forecasting, and dynamic scheduling.
• Feasibility Assessment: Analyze existing data infrastructure on the shop floor to determine if the velocity, variety, and volume of data can actually support an AI solution.
• Define AI Inputs/Outputs: Explicitly map out the data pipelines required for models—defining what IoT sensor data, historical logs, or image feeds are needed as inputs, and how the model's output should integrate back into operational systems.
• Solution Architecture: Grasp complex, integrated IT architectures and evaluate how these systems enable or constrain specific business processes in a high-velocity manufacturing environment.
• Proof of Concept (POC) Governance: Develop and manage prototypes and POCs to test and evaluate AI capabilities and their ability to drive tangible benefits in mfg ops. Apply clear decision criteria to determine whether to scale or exit a POC.

Program Management & Execution Oversight

• Portfolio Governance: Act as the primary point of oversight for all in-flight IT projects within the manufacturing and operations landscape.
• Data & AI Governance: Act as the primary point of oversight for data-driven projects, ensuring compliance with global IT standards and security controls.
• Escalation Management: Serve as the first point of escalation for project roadblocks, ensuring that risks to timeline, budget, or scope are mitigated including data gaps, infrastructure dependencies, and model deployment hurdles.
• Stakeholder Communication: Work closely with IT Project Managers to provide regular, transparent updates to business leaders on the status of the technology portfolio.
• Operational Readiness: Ensure organizational change management (OCM) is integrated into project delivery, including training plans, procedure updates, and communication.

Strategic Stakeholder & Relationship Management

• Executive Partnership: Develop and maintain strong relationships with senior leaders in Operations, Finance, and Supply Chain. Fosters a data-driven culture and advocates for the value of AI and analytics in manufacturing.
• Roadmap Alignment: Facilitate ongoing discussions to align the IT roadmap with the business’s long-term growth plans, including site expansions and digital factory transformations. Assess and evolve the organization's data maturity, helping the business transition from reactive reporting to predictive and prescriptive analytics.
• Industry Trends: Proactively monitor and share innovations in Industrial AI, edge computing, and manufacturing data standards to keep Celestica at the forefront of digital factory transformation.
• IT Integration: Maintain a profile of all IT integration touchpoints (internal and external) between Celestica and its key customer accounts.
• Smart Factory / Automation: Partner with the internal Digital Factory team to deploy automation equipment and IoT solutions on the shop floor.
• Supply Chain & Warehouse: Oversee the integration of data from various relevant partners to support AI use cases.

Knowledge/Skills/Competencies

• Business Acumen: Deep understanding of electronics manufacturing, supply chain management, and regulatory environments (Aerospace & Defense, HealthTech).
• The "Translator" Skillset: Proven ability to take an ambiguous operational problem, break it down into data requirements, and communicate effectively with both a front-line factory supervisor and a Data Scientist.
• Technical Literacy: Solid understanding of the AI/ML lifecycle (data ingestion, training, deployment, monitoring). You don't need to code the algorithms, but you must understand how data pipelines, computer vision, and predictive modeling work structurally.
• Domain Expertise: Strong background in manufacturing operations, supply chain logistics, or industrial IoT (IIoT). Familiarity with systems like SAP, Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES), and SCADA is highly preferred.
• Financial Literacy: Understanding of manufacturing finance, including ROI calculation, Capital Expenditure (CapEx) vs. Operating Expenditure (OpEx) planning, and the ability to defend the financial merits of a technology investment.
• Strategic Communication & Executive Presence: Exceptional verbal and written communication skills tailored for senior leadership. Ability to distill complex technical risks into business-impact language. Must demonstrate high emotional intelligence (EQ) to manage sensitive stakeholder relationships and the authority to lead high-pressure escalation meetings to a decisive resolution. Identify foundational capabilities the business needs to include in their Annual Operating Plan (AOP) to support long-term AI scaling.
• Conflict Resolution & Negotiation: Proven ability to navigate competing priorities, influencing stakeholders toward a unified strategic direction without direct hierarchical authority.

Physical Demands

Duties of this position are performed in a normal office environment. Duties may require extended periods of sitting and sustained visual concentration on a computer monitor or on numbers and other detailed data. Repetitive manual movements (e.g., data entry, using a computer mouse, using a calculator, etc.) are frequently required.

Typical Experience

Experience: 7+ years of experience in Systems Analysis, Technical Product Management, or IT Business Partnering, with at least 2–3 years dedicated to delivering AI/ML or advanced analytics solutions.

Typical Education

Bachelor's Degree or consideration of an equivalent combination of education and experience in one of the following: Information Technology, Business Administration, Commerce, Engineering. Educational requirements may vary by geography.

Notes

This job description is not intended to be an exhaustive list of all duties and responsibilities of the position. Employees are held accountable for all duties of the job. Job duties and the % of time identified for any function are subject to change at any time. Celestica is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment and will not be discriminated against on any protected status (including race, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran or disability status or other characteristics protected by law). At Celestica we are committed to fostering an inclusive, accessible environment, where all employees and customers feel valued, respected and supported. Special arrangements can be made for candidates who need it throughout the hiring process. Please indicate your needs and we will work with you to meet them.