| Location | Warren, OH |
AVI Foodsystems is looking for an energetic and optimistic team member to fill the role of Head of IT Strategy & Delivery Excellence.
Founded in 1960, AVI Foodsystems has evolved into one of the most respected and trusted food service companies in the nation. Providing comprehensive food services with a focus on the highest quality and freshest ingredients, impeccable service and total value is the reputation we have earned and live up to everyday.
Reports to: Chief Information Officer (CIO)
Direct Reports: 1 (Initial) scaling to 6+ (Strategic Growth)
The Mission
As the Head of IT Strategy & Delivery Excellence, you serve as the "COO of IT" and the CIO's primary strategic partner. Your mission is to transition the organization from a traditional, process-heavy PMO to a high-velocity Value Management Office (VMO). This is a Player-Coach role: you will personally lead high-stakes strategic initiatives while building a lean, world-class team that treats IT as a value-driver, not a cost center.
Modernized Value Management (The VMO)
Outcome-Led Governance: Replace "heavy" PMO checklists with automated governance. Focus on Value Velocity-the speed at which an idea becomes a business result.
Investment & FinOps: Act as the "CFO of IT," managing the CapEx/OpEx budget and implementing FinOps to optimize cloud spend and TCO transparency.
Strategic Intake: Implement a "Value-First" prioritization framework to ensure the enterprise focuses on the best initiatives.
M&A & Transformation: Personally lead the IT integration playbook for new acquisitions, ensuring rapid time-to-value for the ownership group.
II. Agile Delivery & The "Light" PMO
Adaptive Delivery: Design a "Lean-Agile" framework where Project Managers act as?Enablers, not "Taskmasters."
Organizational Change Management (OCM): Lead the human side of digital transformation, ensuring user adoption is measured as a key project success metric.
Self-Service Enablement: Build "Project Kits" that allow business units to run smaller initiatives without heavy IT oversight, keeping the central team lean.
III. Business Relationship & Workforce Strategy
Strategic BRM: Act as the primary partner to the CFO, COO, and Sales VPs to co-author their long term digital roadmaps.
IT Digital Branding: Own the "Story of IT." Use intentional internal communications to market IT's successes and value to the board and ownership.
Workforce Evolution: Design the talent roadmap to upskill the organization in AI, automation, and data-driven decision-making.
The "1-to-Many" Team Evolution
This role follows a phased growth model, allowing the leader to establish credibility as a Player-Coach before scaling the organization.
Phase 1: Foundation (The Player-Coach)
The Focus: Personal leadership of the enterprise's top 2-3 strategic initiatives.
The Goal: Stand up the "Business of IT" framework (Intake, ROI Tracking, and FinOps) and establish a "Light PMO" culture.
Phase 2: Scale (The Strategic Core)
The Hire: Add a Value Analyst (IT Finance/ROI) and a Delivery Orchestrator?(Agile/OCM).
The Goal: Offload tactical execution to focus on long-term IT Strategy and M&A integration playbooks.
Phase 3: Maturity (The Strategic Partner)
The Hire: Expand to include Business Relationship Managers (BRMs) and Technical Writers/Change Specialists.
The Goal: Full integration of IT into every business unit, shifting the team from "executors" to "strategic consultants."
The Ideal Profile
Experience: 3+ years in IT leadership or Management Consulting. You have seen "Big Tech" scale but prefer the agility of a privately owned environment.
The Player-Coach DNA: You are just as comfortable building a 3-year financial model in Excel as you are presenting a transformation roadmap to the Board.
Modern SDLC Knowledge: You advocate for DevOps and Product-centric delivery over "Waterfall" status reporting.
Influence: Ability to push back on the C-Suite with data-driven insights while maintaining high-trust relationships.
Benefits:
We conduct pre-employment drug testing. EOE