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Salary: USD 160,000 - 185,000 / annual
Home Chef, founded in 2013, is a leading meal solutions company with both retail and online presence, available at homechef.com and in over 2,100 Kroger grocery stores. The company also operates Tempo, a ready-to-heat meal delivery brand launched in 2023.
The Director of IT & Enterprise will lead Home Chef's IT team, which maintains technology and enterprise systems supporting company growth across a Chicago corporate office and 4 national production facilities. This is a strategic leadership role requiring both technical depth and business acumen.
**Strategy & Planning:**
Establish and execute a multi-year IT strategy and enterprise roadmap aligned with Home Chef's growth objectives. Lead enterprise AI, automation, and data governance strategies, establishing guidelines that encourage practical AI adoption while protecting corporate data. Continually evaluate technical infrastructure, decommission redundant tools, and drive modern efficiency across systems. Maintain clear communication channels to provide leadership visibility into project roadmaps, resource allocation, and initiative progress.
**Operations & Support:**
Maintain resilient networking infrastructure targeting high uptime across corporate and manufacturing locations. Oversee plant-floor technology systems across 4 facilities, including custom pick-to-light platforms, WMS, timekeeping systems, and access controls. Manage end-to-end hardware lifecycles for corporate laptops, plant-floor kiosks, scanning equipment, and network hardware. Implement robust Identity and Access Management (IAM) and Mobile Device Management (MDM) solutions for both corporate staff and plant-floor teams. Oversee responsive helpdesk services with structured on-call and off-hours support. Partner with operational teams to plan, install, and validate technology for facility expansions and new site launches.
**Enterprise System Management:**
Maintain, integrate, and optimize key enterprise platforms including NetSuite, Google Workspace, Kronos, ADP, Concur, and Greenhouse. Act as technical advisor to cross-functional leaders during evaluation, selection, and rollout of new software applications. Oversee IT-specific spend within the enterprise software budget and negotiate vendor contracts. Drive SaaS governance to eliminate license sprawl and optimize software spend. Expand cross-platform automations and workflow optimizations (experience with Workato is a plus).
**Security & Privacy:**
Develop, maintain, and enforce cybersecurity policies, Zero Trust controls, Incident Response (IR) protocols, and Disaster Recovery (DR) plans. Collaborate with Kroger's corporate IT security team to ensure Home Chef systems adhere to enterprise security and compliance standards. Conduct periodic vulnerability assessments, system audits, and penetration testing across corporate and plant environments. Monitor changing data privacy regulations and partner with legal to maintain operational compliance.
**Team Management:**
Mentor, coach, and support professional growth for a team of IT administrators and support staff. Establish clear performance metrics, operational SLAs, and professional standards for the IT department. Build strong collaborative relationships across all departments, positioning IT as a consultative problem-solver. Continuously evaluate organizational structure to ensure proper coverage across corporate offices and distributed production facilities.
The ideal candidate embodies Home Chef's values: taking ownership (doing whatever is necessary to get the job done, working with speed), pragmatic next-level thinking (exploring new methodologies, taking calculated risks to learn and innovate), and being a humble team player (working collaboratively, putting company and team needs first).
**Requirements:**
- 3+ years experience running an IT team (10+ team members; manufacturing/operations/food environment a plus)
- Experience managing $1M+ software budgets
- Experience evaluating, negotiating, and implementing enterprise software contracts
- Flexibility to travel up to 20% of the time
- Flexibility to be on-call to support plant technology and employee needs
- Up to one year of post-high school training such as in a business school, community college, or vocational training
