ERP Development Manager - Jacksonville - Baker Distributing

Description

Job Summary
We are seeking an experienced ERP Development Manager to lead our IBM i (AS/400) development team supporting our highly customized Mincron ERP system. This hands-on leadership role is for someone who wants to build process, mentor developers, and improve our development operations while staying technical. This is a "fix it and build it" opportunity for someone who wants to make real impact, not just maintain status quo. The successful candidate will manage day-to-day development operations, implement best practices, capture tribal knowledge from long-tenured employees, improve QA processes, and ensure quality code reaches production. This role reports directly to the VP of IT and offers real autonomy to implement change and modernize development operations.
Essential Duties/Accountabilities

• Provide leadership and direction to the development team (6-8 developers and QA staff).
• Manage team performance through regular reviews, feedback, mentoring, and accountability.
• Assign work, manage workload and capacity, and ensure timely delivery of quality solutions.
• Hire, onboard, and develop team members as needed.
• Establish and enforce coding standards and best practices for RPG development.
• Conduct code reviews before production deployment to ensure quality and maintainability.
• Manage Turnover change management process ensuring SOX compliance for all production changes.
• Improve QA process to reduce bottlenecks and ensure thorough testing of changes.
• Oversee strategic support and advancement of Mincron/Smart Distributor ERP on IBMi 7.4 platform.
• Capture tribal knowledge from long-tenured employees through structured documentation and knowledge transfer.
• Interface with business users to understand requirements and translate them into technical solutions.
• Lead ERP Governance committee including handling incoming requests and prioritization meetings
• Manage project priorities, resources, and timelines ensuring development goals are met within budget and scope.
• Troubleshoot complex production issues and provide technical guidance to team.
• Review technical designs and architecture decisions for all major changes.
• Communicate effectively with all levels of the business from executive stakeholders to technical staff.
• Actively remove obstacles and "red tape" that hinder team progress.
• Promote a customer-centric approach ensuring projects are prioritized based on business value.
• Encourage culture of continuous improvement, innovation, and learning within the development team.
• Maintain production, QA, and staging environments ensuring they support efficient testing.
• Provide technical planning, development, and systems integration from discovery through launch.
• Maintain and update documentation for processes, procedures, and system configurations.
• Document all development work in compliance with company standards and SOX requirements.
• Record events, problems, and resolutions in appropriate tracking systems.
• Report status regularly to VP of IT including risks, issues, and team metrics.
• Identify and implement improvements to development procedures and efficiency.
• Measure and improve team velocity, quality metrics, and time-to-production.

Education and Experience

• Highâ€'school diploma or equivalent (e.g., General Education Developmentâ€(GED))â€or an equivalent combination of education and relevant professional experience required.
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, or a related field is preferred but not required. An equivalent mix of educationâ€+â€experience may be used in place of a degree.
• IBMâ€i (AS/400, iSeries) development: Minimum 10â€years of hands on development experience.
• Leadership: Minimum 3â€years of experience managing developers or leading development teams.
• ERP environment: Demonstrated success managing software development in a complex ERP environment.
• Regulated environments: Experience working in settings that require SOX compliance and audit trail documentation.
• Process improvement: Proven track record of improving development processes and team performance.
• Experience with Mincron ERP.
• Experience capturing and documenting tribal knowledge from senior employees.
• Warehouse, distribution, or manufacturing ERP experience.

Skills

• Exceptional leadership abilities - able to inspire, mentor, and hold team members accountable.
• Strong RPGâ€IV / ILE RPG programming skills - able to review and guide code quality.
• In depth knowledge of DB2â€forâ€i - including physical files, logical files, and SQL.
• Experience with change management tools (e.g., Turnover, MDCMS, Implementer, or similar).
• Knowledge of IBMâ€i system administration, library management, and job scheduling (ROBOT or similar).
• Experience with source control and version management practices.
• Understanding of the software development lifecycle (SDLC) and agile methodologies.
• Experience with modern RPG (fully free form) and RDi (Rational Developer for i) - considered a plus.
• Familiarity with IFS, APIs, and web services integration with IBMâ€i - considered a plus.
• Knowledge of additional programming languages and platforms - considered a plus.
• Understanding of the software development lifecycle (SDLC) and agile methodologies.
• Experience with modern RPG (fully free form) and RDi (Rational Developer for i) - considered a plus.
• Familiarity with IFS, APIs, and web services integration with IBMâ€i - considered a plus.
• Knowledge of additional programming languages and platforms - considered a plus.
• Understanding of the software development lifecycle (SDLC) and agile methodologies.
• Experience with modern RPG (fully free form) and RDi (Rational Developer for i) - considered a plus.
• Familiarity with IFS, APIs, and web services integration with IBMâ€i - considered a plus.
• Knowledge of additional programming languages and platforms - considered a plus.
• Understanding of the software development lifecycle (SDLC) and agile methodologies.
• Experience with modern RPG (fully free form) and RDi (Rational Developer for i) - considered a plus.
• Familiarity with IFS, APIs, and web services integration with IBMâ€i - considered a plus.
• Knowledge of additional programming languages and platforms - considered a plus.
• Understanding of the software development lifecycle (SDLC) and agile methodologies.
• Experience with modern RPG (fully free form) and RDi (Rational Developer for i) - considered a plus.
• Familiarity with IFS, APIs, and web services integration with IBMâ€i - considered a plus.
• Knowledge of additional programming languages and platforms - considered a plus.

Physical Requirements and Work Environment

• Must be able to stand, sit, walk, climb, kneel, crouch, or crawl for long periods of time.
• Ability to utilize a computer keyboard and computer monitor for prolonged periods of time.
• Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, distance vision, color vision, peripheral vision, depth perception, and the ability to adjust focus.