Interesting Job Description

There was an article on CIO.com recently about a new type of high-level IT position that is starting to evolve. It's along the lines of the whole theme of IT being more involved with the respective business units of the organization. Here's a position that came up recently at a large apparel retailer/manufacturer, the title is Senior IT Consultant. Here's the description and qualifications:

Description

This role leverages business knowledge and expertise to recommend process improvements or solutions which create value and drive benefit for our Brand. The Senior Consultant works closely with the Brand Lead and the business to complete the envisioning process and partners with Enterprise IT during the project scoping process. The Senior Consultant assesses business impact of high-priority issues and provides proactive analysis and communication to the Brand.
Identifies brand business opportunities and recommends strategies/solutions.
Works with Business Lead and business partners to identify benefits and risks and complete Envisioning process (high-level business case).
Facilitates business process sessions to create new/streamlined processes.
Collaborates with IT enterprise partners during planning and scoping processes.
Supports business issue resolution (business and project issues).
Supports assigned desktop tools and business-created solutions.
Manages end-to-end projects for “quick hit” solutions, inclusive of envisioning through implementation.
Consults and makes recommendations around solution adoption and change management, and prepares the business for system readiness.
Assesses impact to brand of high-priority issues (severity 1 and 2).
Represents the Brand to Enterprise IT and vice versa.
Leverages technology solutions (New Strategic Initiative, Supply Chain & Financial Modeling) with the functions and considers integration across enterprise functions and Brand strategic initiatives where appropriate
Provides focus on key business metrics for the Brand to facilitate inventory planning, information reporting, and decision making.

Qualifications

5 or more years IT business or systems analysis experience.
4-year college degree or equivalent work experience
Ability to use innovative problem-solving approaches to proactively tackle a broad range of problems, regardless of the technologies, and develop appropriate recommendations.
Ability to create and deliver presentations to educate/influence the Brand on IT strategy.
Ability to seek out and assess technology and business changes that produce Brand opportunities or threats (e.g. technology, legal/regulatory, industry/competitive trends).
Ability to provide advice about both technical and non-technical solutions to support the core processes related to the Brand’s operating model (e.g. ensures solutions conform to supply and demand requirements).
Ability to identify strategic and tactical changes to enable customer to leverage available technologies appropriately (e.g. develops a clear business case).
Ability to identify cause/effect relationships and addresses root causes of problems wherever they exist.
Ability to apply cost/risk/benefit principles in advocating for best approaches to process improvement for business partners (e.g., technical and non-technical).
Ability to apply an in-depth understanding of business processes to define potential improvement strategies for Enterprise IT to implement.
Ability to develop a clear, complete understanding of customer needs and problems (e.g., through careful listening, probing, encouraging or summarizing).
Ability to develop and deliver communications (both oral and written) that have clarity and impact.
Ability to establish and maintain effective relationships with customers and is dedicated to meeting customer expectations and requirements.
Ability to use rigorous logic and methods to solve difficult problems with effective solutions.
Learns quickly when facing new problems, enjoys the challenge of unfamiliar tasks, and is willing to experiment and be creative to determine solutions.
Ability to skillfully negotiate in tough situations with both internal and external customers, and influence business partners at all levels without damaging relationships.
Experience in tools, practices and IT industry in working with and supporting teams with strong financial and retail practices
Preferred experience in merchandise planning and allocation business processes and technologies. (e.g. Inventory Management)