Sr. Manager, IT Governance & Strategic Planning

Overview

Find a Better Way...

...to use your skills and experience.

This is the time to let your talent come to life. To maximize your knowledge and use it for the greater good. To work with the best professionals using state-of-the-art technology, and improve lives with your innovative ideas and ambitious dreams. Find a better way: the Sysmex Way.

...to improve the lives of others.

Headquartered in Kobe, Japan, Sysmex is located in Lincolnshire, Illinois. Renowned worldwide for the very finest in quality, innovative diagnostic equipment and information-management systems, we apply science to enhance the quality of life on a global scale. Our agile, resourceful team is committed to realizing critical breakthroughs in laboratory diagnostics, information technology, workflow analysis and life sciences for the clinical laboratory.

...to build a promising future. 

Responsibilities

We currently have a great opportunity available for a Sr. Manager, IT Governance & Strategic Planning. The Sr. Manager, IT Governance & Strategic Planning operationalizes the IT strategy by translating IT objectives into actionable roadmaps, standardized processes and measurable outcomes across Sysmex’s IT portfolios. This role leads the programs for standardization, continuous improvement, change management, KPI management across the IT functions and portfolio. This role is also responsible to direct the system administration of the supporting design, development and PMO systems, internal operational data analytics and functional and portfolio-based KPI reporting capabilities. Partnering with IT Governance, Portfolio/Systems Owners, Security, PMO and other IT functional leaders, this leader drives adoption of common ways of working, enables data driven decision making and scales automation to improve delivery speed, quality, and efficiency while ensuring alignment with the IT strategy and corporate strategic objectives.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

1. Convert IT strategic objectives into plans and functional roadmaps for standardization, analytics, automation and organizational effectiveness. This role ensures outcomes, dependencies and observed risks are identified and tracked.

2. Lead change management initiatives for new or modified processes, controls and tools across the IT functions and portfolios. This covers stakeholder analysis, communication, training, adoption measurement and reinforcement and ensures sustained behavior change across technical and non‑technical teams.

3. Build and maintain IT process standards, playbooks, templates and RACIs for planning, development, testing, release, and operations; ensure consistent adoption and periodic refresh based on lessons learned.

4. Establish and run a Continuous Improvement program (Kaizen events, value‑stream mapping, retrospectives), prioritize a visible improvement backlog and deliver quantifiable gains in cycle time, quality and cost.

5. Own the KPI taxonomy for IT; ensure metric definitions, targets and data quality support audit readiness and executive decision‑making.6. Lead the development of executive scorecards and functional and portfolio-based dashboards; partner with data analysts to ensure data pipelines, governance and visualization (e.g., Power BI) deliver reliable, near‑real‑time insights for operational excellence within IT.

7. Support governance/engineering toolsets (e.g., Jira, Confluence, test/ALM tools, workflow automation platforms) helping to define standards, usage patterns, integrations and upgrade roadmaps that enable scale and align to KPI and reporting objectives.

8. Identify process automation opportunities (workflow, approvals, controls evidence, reporting); oversee design, implementation and adoption to reduce manual effort, improve traceability and accelerate release cadence across IT functions and portfolios.

9. Coordinate IT vendor management practices across IT, partnering with Procurement, Security, Finance and functional IT leaders to establish standardized vendor review cadences, performance criteria, risk considerations and effectiveness assessments.

10. Recruit, develop and coach a diverse team (admins, automation engineers, data analysts, change practitioners), while fostering a culture of accountability, transparency and measurable outcomes. Other duties as assigned.

Percentage of Travel: 10%

Salary Range: The salary range for this role is $106K - $170K. Within this range, individual pay is determined by work location and additional factors, including job-related skills, experience, and relevant education or training. The total compensation package for this position also includes a choice of health care plan (medical, vision, and dental insurance), an annual incentive bonus, paid time off, parental leave, bereavement leave and a 401(K) for all eligible employees.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree and 5+ years of experience in IT strategy/PMO, process excellence, analytics or platform ownership, including leadership of cross-functional initiatives.
• Demonstrated success driving organizational change and standardization at scale; strong command of KPIs and outcome‑based planning.
• Hands‑on experience with Agile/Lean practices and continuous improvement methods applied to software and IT service workflows.
• Proficiency with ALM and collaboration platforms (e.g., Jira, Confluence), workflow automation (e.g., ServiceNow/Power Platform/Atlassian automation) and analytics/visualization (e.g., Power BI).
• Working knowledge of SDLC, DevOps/CI-CD concepts, and ITIL-aligned service practices; ability to partner effectively with Security, QA/RA and PMO.
• Executive‑ready communication skills; able to synthesize complex information into crisp updates, decision memos and dashboards for senior leadership.
• Proven people leadership: coaching, performance management and building a high‑performing, multi‑disciplinary team.
• Experience in regulated software/medical device environments and familiarity with ISO 13485/14971 and audit expectations.
• Certifications such as COBIT, Lean Six Sigma (Green/Black Belt), PMP/SAFe/CSM, ITIL or CBIP (analytics).
• Familiarity with Sysmex‑relevant toolsets and ecosystem elements (e.g., Atlassian suite, Smartsheet, Power BI, AWS, Ardoq).
• Background implementing KPI taxonomies, data governance for operational metrics and automation at scale (e.g., platform workflows, evidence collection).
• Office Suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook)
• Atlassian Suite (Jira, Confluence, Zephyr)
• Tricentis qTest Suite
• Dashboard & Reporting Platforms (PowerBI, Tableau, etc.)
• Workplace Management Tool (Smartsheet, Asana, Monday.com)

Sysmex is proud to be an EEO/Affirmative Action employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment and will not be discriminated against on the basis of race, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, color, religion, national origin, genetics, disability status, protected veteran status or any other characteristic protected by law. We maintain a drug-free workplace and perform pre-employment substance abuse testing.