As the largest Canadian-owned and operated K-12 publisher, Nelson Education Ltd. is Canada's only heritage education content provider, known for its innovative products and solutions catering to learners across the country.
Nelson is on a mission to make learning accessible, engaging, and effective for all. That's why Nelson continuously strives to create dynamic curriculum-aligned content that caters to diverse learning styles, fostering critical thinking, creativity, and life-long learning.
In response to the evolving education landscape, Nelson developed Edwin, a digital learning ecosystem. Edwin is a learning platform for classroom success, providing curriculum-linked content, engaging tools and unparalleled support to reach every student.
Nelson is redefining education and making a positive impact on the way knowledge is acquired and shared by creating the possible, one learner at a time.
About the Role
Reporting to the Vice President, Technology Services, the Director of Business Systems will be responsible for overseeing the seamless operation of all business systems, ensuring their alignment with Nelson's strategic objectives. This role is responsible for managing all operational activities of existing systems, collaborating with other business leads, and providing direction and support for new solutions that enhance business operations. The Director will work closely with decision-makers in other departments to identify, recommend, develop, implement, and support cost-effective technology solutions for all aspects of the organization.
Key Accountabilities
- Manage business systems’ operational and strategic planning, including business requirements, project planning, budget, and resource allocation
- Oversee ongoing maintenance, optimizations, improvements, and enhancements
- Direct research on potential technology solutions, integrations with partners, and implementations in support of new initiatives
- Enforce best practices and standards for business systems throughout their development/product lifecycles
- Create methodologies and processes for master data management and integrity across all business systems
- Direct the analysis of documentation and technical specifications for any new application under deployment or consideration
- Direct the analysis of test planning to discover and report any defects, bugs, errors, configuration issues, and interoperability flaws
- Develop change control processes, practices, and guidelines for new and existing technologies
- Determine the selection and appropriate usage of partners, automated tools, accessibility tools, data collection tools, and other tools to support the business
- Apply established metrics to determine the readiness, quality, and operability of software, systems, and products due for release
- Review performance of Business Systems to determine operating costs, productivity levels, and upgrade requirements
- Benchmark, analyze, report on, and make recommendations for the improvement of the Business Systems
- Manage all members of the business systems team including analysts, developers and quality assurance, leveraging agile methodologies and ensuring that deadlines are met
- Train, coach, and mentor staff, and plan and conduct performance appraisals
- Cultivate and disseminate knowledge of systems
- Understand project requirements and ability to work closely with team on feature releases and being pro-active
- University degree in software engineering, computer science, or other related post-secondary Technology field.
- 8+ years direct experience in overseeing the design, development, QA, and implementation of technology systems
- 8+ years direct experience as a Technology Manager for major application integration and/or major application product release
- 8+ years of experience managing a team of technology professionals
- 8+ years of experience working with internal business systems, web applications, browsers, APIs, databases and other software
- Experience with functional, integration, regression, stress, and smoke testing
- Strong understanding of Agile development methodology, Scrum, and software used to manage technology projects, i.e. Atlassian, Confluence, JIRA, etc.
- Strong knowledge of system metrics, best practices and methodologies
- Extensive experience with core business applications: ERP - NetSuite, CRM - SalesForce
- Direct hands-on experience with ad hoc query programs, automated tools, reporting software, API platforms
- Proven data export/import/analysis and problem-solving abilities
- Good project management skills and/or substantial exposure to project-based work
- Excellent understanding of the organization’s goals and objectives
- Excellent written and oral communication skills
- Excellent coaching, listening, presentation, and interpersonal skills
- Ability to communicate ideas in both technical and user-friendly language
- Able to prioritize and execute tasks in a high-pressure environment
- Creative and analytical thinker who is self-driven and capable of working in a fast-paced environment
- Strong MS Office skills - Word, Outlook, Excel and PowerPoint
- Strong systematic troubleshooting and problem-solving skills
- Keen attention to detail
- Knowledge of applicable data privacy practices and laws
- Experience working in a team-oriented, collaborative environment
- Willing to provide support outside regular work hours
- Must be located in the GTA; Hybrid role (in office + work from home)
- Hybrid working model
- Flexible working time
- Competitive compensation
- Great company culture
- Flexible health & dental benefits
- Great benefits and perks, including summer Fridays, partner discounts and more!
Don't have 100% of the above qualifications? Do you still think Nelson is a great fit for you? We encourage you to apply anyway!
Nelson is an equal opportunity employer and is committed to Inclusion, Equity, and Diversity. As part of this commitment, we do not discriminate on the basis of age, race, sex, gender, gender identity, colour, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, marital status, citizenship, veteran status, or disability status.
Should you require any accommodation during the recruitment process, please reach out to peopleandengagement@nelson.com.
