TESTING AUTOMATION LEAD, NEXT GENERATION TRANSFORMATION

at  Ralph Lauren

Ref #:
W151841
Department:
Information Technology
City:
Plan-les-Ouates
State/Province:
Geneva
Location:
Switzerland
Company Description
Ralph Lauren Corporation (NYSE:RL) is a global leader in the design, marketing and distribution of premium lifestyle products in five categories: apparel, accessories, home, fragrances, and hospitality. For more than 50 years, Ralph Lauren’s reputation and distinctive image have been consistently developed across an expanding number of products, brands and international markets. The Company’s brand names, which include Ralph Lauren, Ralph Lauren Collection, Ralph Lauren Purple Label, Polo Ralph Lauren, Double RL, Lauren Ralph Lauren, Polo Ralph Lauren Children, Chaps, among others, constitute one of the world’s most widely recognized families of consumer brands.
At Ralph Lauren, we unite and inspire the communities within our company as well as those in which we serve by amplifying voices and perspectives to create a culture of belonging, ensuring inclusion, and fairness for all. We foster a culture of inclusion through: Talent, Education & Communication, Employee Groups and Celebration.
Position Overview
As a part of Ralph Lauren’s Next Generation Transformation (NGT), the core operating systems of the company (SAP, Island Pacific and Microsoft D365) will be replaced with a common Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution enabling the Ralph Lauren team to continue delivering competitive advantages in our next great chapter and beyond. Today, Ralph Lauren is forming the Program Initiation Team to begin creating the transformation plan, defining how the company will operate going forward and how the implementation of the new systems will lead to a common way of working globally across the company. This new way of working impacts almost all of the business including Planning, Sourcing and Buying, Retail and Wholesale, Logistics and Distribution and Finance. Therefore, we are looking for the initial team to start to create the future way of working and help shape the next 20 years.

POSITION OVERVIEW:

The ERP Testing Automation Lead will join a small team of business function process leads, IT domain leaders and the ERP vendor representatives known as the Program Initiation Team who will work together to take the first steps in this journey. The team will work closely together to achieve a set of the common objectives below ultimately leading to the initiation of the global program and the creation of all the articles needed to launch the project in 2025. This first, necessary step will ensure Ralph Lauren understands the key phases, impact, business resources and timeline required to begin the program. This is an opportunity to join one of the largest investments that the company will be making over the next decade, and we seek talent that is excited to help shape the future, being part of the journey and eventually taking this knowledge back into the business.
Purpose: The purpose of this role is to work within a small team to manage the creation of a automated testing strategy and plan to implement to support the new ERP solution within RL. The role will involve working with the small team and the preferred ERP vendor to achieve the objectives below with the primary focus being to define the strategy for automated testing of the NGT ERP solution and the associated edge systems and to create the plan to implement. The objectives that this role will be responsible include a c, e, f and j below.
This role will be primarily focused on delivering the strategy and the necessary work packages associated with the objectives to set up and ensure an automated testing capability exists within RL to support the project. Process leads, IT domain leaders and the ERP vendor representatives known as the Program Initiation Team who.
Essential Duties & Responsibilities

Experience, Skills, and Knowledge

• Minimum 8+ years of experience with a proven track record in related role
• Experience within an SAP AFS and/or S4 environment that also includes tightly coupled dependent systems that replicates the production systems enabling rapid testing, accepting and promotion of software through automated tools and processes
• Knowledge of the leading methodologies, tools and practices
• Experience within a vertically integrated retail environment; fashion apparel experience is highly desirable
• Exceptional written and oral communication skills. Must be adept at translating complex concepts into actionable plans
• Ability to confidently engage with and influence senior executives
• Strong analytical skills: Leverage data to make strategic decisions
• The ideal candidate is pragmatic, a problem solver, thrives under pressure, and excels at multitasking. Has the ability to make decisive and timely decisions while acting with authority
• Strong strategic vision but is also comfortable taking a hands-on approach to achieve results
• Can be based in UK/CH/NY/N

• Work with all the IT, business, vendor teams to ensure a clear set of requirements is agreed for the testing of the NGT ERP and Edge systems. This will also consider the interim and migration package
• Creation of a clear picture of the current AS-IS, highlighting areas where automation exists and whether the current approach can be extended to the NGT ERP environment
• Creation of a strategy for automated testing outlining the impact on the configuration and development cycle, specifying how the tools will be used and at what step in the process. Ensure that the preferred vendor provides input based on their preference in this space
• Definition of the team structure, skills and capabilities required to support this on an ongoing basis within RL
• Work with all other IT and business team to gain approval of the approach ensuring clear responsibilities and dependencies are defined and agreed
• Definition of the testing dependency to support the interim state and migration framework for the ERP and Edge systems. Ensure that the that the responsibilities are agreed, and resources factored into the plan and budget
• Ensure that testing can replicate the peak business trading volumes and also other significant events such as financial close or large customer interactions
• Obtaining clear expectations on the timing that the automation service needs to support within the business
• Areas to consider within the scope include but are not limited to:
• Systems in scope for either dual reporting (interim state) or/and migration ongoing
• Data entities (sets) in scope
• Creating a Work package for the design and build of the automation system involving the key edge systems in scope.
• Outlining the teams required to support these areas ongoing
• Preparation of the various teams as much as possible for the upcoming mobilization. Use of engagement to educate, but also to listen and absorb and represent back the findings of the teams
• Creation of an approach to testing of the interim and migration approaches and associated components in line with the rest of the program that will enable an agile approach to developing and releasing new capabilities that encompasses the edge systems to create a common method across the RL systems in scope
• Assistance in identifying training needs to facilitate knowledge required by the teams
• Development and maintenance of individual and integrated project plans, including scope, objectives and milestones, deliverables, risks and issues
• Agreement on an overall approach for the capturing of infrastructure requirements, documentation, testing criteria in an efficient manner that will allow for the more agile approach to managing change going forward
• Creation of the detailed plans and budgets to support the WP associated with these streams

Experience, Skills, and Knowledge

• Minimum 8+ years of experience with a proven track record in related role
• Experience within an SAP AFS and/or S4 environment that also includes tightly coupled dependent systems that replicates the production systems enabling rapid testing, accepting and promotion of software through automated tools and processes
• Knowledge of the leading methodologies, tools and practices
• Experience within a vertically integrated retail environment; fashion apparel experience is highly desirable
• Exceptional written and oral communication skills. Must be adept at translating complex concepts into actionable plans
• Ability to confidently engage with and influence senior executives
• Strong analytical skills: Leverage data to make strategic decisions
• The ideal candidate is pragmatic, a problem solver, thrives under pressure, and excels at multitasking. Has the ability to make decisive and timely decisions while acting with authority
• Strong strategic vision but is also comfortable taking a hands-on approach to achieve results
• Can be based in UK/CH/NY/NJ