Director, Business Systems – Service Platform & Automation

Summary: The Director, Business Systems – Service Platforms & Automation is accountable for the strategy, delivery, and operational excellence of several mission-critical systems supporting Ingram Micro’s customer, back office and support operations. This leader owns the full lifecycle of platforms including Zendesk, Gainsight, custom plugin-ins, AI-driven bots/automation, and legacy systems, ensuring solutions are stable, scalable, secure, and continuously enhanced to drive measurable improvements in user and business KPIs.

The Director is responsible not only for reliable delivery, support, and maintenance, but for proactively leading platform modernization and AI enablement initiatives that drive measurable improvements in user and business KPIs. This leader partners closely with business stakeholders in Support, Sales and Operations groups to define success metrics, translate strategy into execution, and ensure platforms evolve from transaction-processing systems into intelligent, performance-enabling solutions that will ensure Ingram Micro is at the forefront of innovation for customer experience.

Key Responsibilities

Platform Ownership, Strategy & AI Enablement

• Own the full product and platform lifecycle for Zendesk, Gainsight, Formscape, custom applications, AI bots, automation solutions, and legacy systems.

• Define and execute a platform and AI enablement strategy aligned to business outcomes, scalability, and long-term transformation goals.

• Establish a clear AI vision for platforms, identifying high-value use cases (e.g., agent assist, automation, intelligent routing, knowledge optimization, self-service deflection).

• Ensure platforms and AI capabilities are designed and governed to be secure, scalable, ethical, and operationally sustainable.

• Align roadmaps to explicit outcome-based KPIs (e.g., MTTR, CSAT, deflection, cost-to-serve), not just feature delivery.

Delivery, Modernization & Continuous Improvement

• Lead delivery of system enhancements, integrations, custom development, and modernization initiatives across the portfolio.

• Proactively identify opportunities where AI and automation can materially improve performance, scale, or user experience.

• Drive modernization of workflows and architectures to remove constraints that limit effective automation or AI adoption.

• Ensure enhancements are delivered with clear value hypotheses, success metrics, and post‑implementation performance validation.

• Shift the operating model from reactive, request-based delivery to roadmap-driven, outcome-oriented execution.

AI Execution & Operationalization

• Oversee implementation and continuous optimization of AI capabilities such as:

• Agent assist and intelligent knowledge surfacing

• Conversational bots and deflection models

• Workflow and decision automation

• Insight generation from conversational and operational data

• Establish feedback loops to continuously train, tune, and improve AI performance based on real-world usage and results for key platforms

• Partner with security, legal, and enterprise architecture teams to ensure AI adoption aligns with governance and risk standards.

Run, Support & Platform Reliability

• Accountable for platform health, availability, and reliability, including incident, problem, and change management.

• Ensure AI-enabled capabilities are operationally stable, observable, and supported with clear ownership and escalation models.

• Reduce recurring incidents, manual workarounds, and operational friction through targeted platform and AI enhancements.

Business Partnership & Value Realization

• Act as a strategic technology and AI partner to business leaders, proactively shaping solutions rather than reacting to requests.

• Collaborate with stakeholders to define KPIs and success measures for platform and AI initiatives.

• Regularly review performance against KPIs and recommend course corrections, additional automation, or reprioritization.

• Communicate complex technical and AI concepts in clear, business-oriented language for executive audiences.

Vendor & Financial Management

• Own vendor relationships for Zendesk, Formscape and other key platforms.

• Hold vendors accountable for innovation, AI advancement, delivery quality, and realized outcomes—not just SLAs.

• Manage platform and AI investment budgets, ensuring strong ROI and scalability.

Team Leadership

• Build and lead a high-performing team across platform ownership, delivery, engineering, AI enablement, and operations.

• Develop AI literacy and modern skill sets across the team.

• Foster a culture of ownership, experimentation, continuous improvement, and outcome-driven execution.

What Success Looks Like in 6–12 Months

• A clear, executable platform transformation and AI enablement strategy is in place and actively delivering value.

• AI capabilities are embedded into core service workflows and are driving measurable KPI improvements.

• Platforms are more stable, scalable, and easier to enhance with reduced operational and technical debt.

• Business leaders view the function as a strategic partner and AI leader, not just a systems owner.

• Vendors operate as true partners contributing innovation and impact.

• A strong, transformation-oriented team is in place with clear ownership and modern capabilities.

Key Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience leading enterprise business systems with ownership across delivery, support, and modernization.

• Proven experience implementing and scaling AI-enabled solutions in service, support, or operational environments.

• Strong experience with SaaS platforms (Zendesk or similar), custom development, and systems integration.

• Demonstrated ability to link technology and AI investments to business KPIs and outcomes.

• Strong executive communication, stakeholder management, and vendor leadership skills.