IT Assistant Manager (Business Solution)

 Report to : IT Manager, Business Solutions 
Department : IT 

Who You Are:  

The IT Assistant Manager, Business Solution is responsible for supporting and managing business-critical applications for Japan, with a primary focus on Retail, POS, Inventory Management, ERP, Merchandising, and related system integrations. 

This role provides functional and technical application support, coordinates incident resolution and system enhancements, and helps ensure the stability, accuracy, and availability of applications that support daily store and corporate operations. 

The position serves as a key liaison among business users, store teams, Global IT teams, vendors, and service providers, translating business requirements into practical and sustainable technology solutions. 

The successful candidate will combine strong retail process knowledge, hands-on application support experience, and effective stakeholder collaboration to improve business processes, data integrity, and user satisfaction. 

What You’ll Do:  

Business Application Support 

• Support and maintain business-critical applications used by Retail, Merchandising, Inventory Management, Finance, eCommerce, and Corporate functions. 

• Provide Level 2 and Level 3 functional and technical support, coordinating with Global IT teams and vendors when escalation is required. 

• Manage application incidents, service requests, and problem investigations to minimize business disruption. 

• Monitor application health, scheduled jobs, interfaces, and data-processing activities, and resolve operational issues promptly. 

• Maintain application documentation, support procedures, system configurations, and operational controls. 

Retail, POS & Store Systems Support 

• Support Retail and POS applications that enable sales transactions, pricing, promotions, inventory visibility, returns, and store operations. 

• Partner with Retail Operations and store users to investigate business-critical issues and support business continuity during peak trading periods. 

• Coordinate testing and deployment of application changes affecting stores, including release readiness, communication, and post-deployment validation. 

• Promote consistent support standards and effective use of retail applications across locations. 

Inventory, ERP & Merchandising Applications 

• Support applications and processes related to inventory management, merchandising, product data, purchasing, allocation, replenishment, and stock control. 

• Collaborate with business stakeholders to analyze requirements, assess process impacts, and translate operational needs into application solutions. 

• Investigate data discrepancies and process failures across upstream and downstream systems and coordinate corrective actions. 

• Contribute to improvements that enhance inventory accuracy, operational efficiency, and business visibility. 

System Integration & Data Management 

• Support integrations among POS, ERP, Warehouse Management Systems (WMS), eCommerce platforms, CRM, and other enterprise applications. 

• Monitor APIs, scheduled interfaces, file transfers, and data synchronization processes and coordinate the resolution of failures or inconsistencies. 

• Validate data flows and support root cause analysis to maintain data accuracy, completeness, and reliability across connected systems. 

• Maintain interface specifications, support documentation, and relevant operational procedures. 

Application Projects & Continuous Improvement 

• Participate in application implementations, upgrades, enhancements, and business transformation projects from planning through stabilization. 

• Gather and document business requirements, functional specifications, process flows, risks, dependencies, and acceptance criteria. 

• Coordinate system integration testing and user acceptance testing (UAT), including defect tracking, retesting, and business sign-off. 

• Support release planning, user communication, training, deployment, and post-implementation review. 

• Identify opportunities for automation, process standardization, improved reporting, and more efficient support delivery. 

Vendor & Stakeholder Management 

• Coordinate with application vendors, implementation partners, and managed service providers to ensure effective support and delivery. 

• Track vendor actions, service quality, issue resolution, and project deliverables, escalating risks or delays as appropriate. 

• Build strong working relationships with store teams, business functions, regional stakeholders, and Global IT teams. 

• Communicate application performance, incidents, risks, project status, and improvement plans clearly to relevant stakeholders. 

Security & Compliance 

• Ensure application support activities comply with corporate security standards, access-control requirements, data-protection expectations, and audit obligations. 

• Support user access reviews, remediation activities, evidence collection, and application-related compliance initiatives. 

• Ensure appropriate testing, approvals, documentation, and change controls are applied to application updates. 

What You’ll Bring:  

We’re looking for someone with the following experience and skills — but these aren’t set in stone. If you bring something extra to the table, we’d love to hear from you! 

• Bachelor’s degree in information technology, Computer Science, Business Information Systems, or a related field, or equivalent professional experience. 

• 5+ years of experience supporting Retail applications including at least 3 years of experience within a multinational company. 

• 5+ years of experience supporting Inventory Management, ERP, Merchandising, or other retail business applications. 

• Strong understanding of retail business processes, including Sales, Inventory Management, Pricing, Promotions, Replenishment, and Stock Management. 

• Hands-on experience with enterprise retail platforms such as Aptos, JDA/Blue Yonder, or comparable solutions. 

• Proven experience supporting integrations among POS, ERP, Warehouse Management Systems (WMS), and eCommerce platforms. 

• Strong analytical, troubleshooting, and problem-solving skills, with the ability to manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced retail environment. 

• Demonstrated ability to respond flexibly to changing business priorities, technologies, and operational challenges while collaborating effectively with team members and cross-functional stakeholders. 

• Customer, Store, Employee oriented mindset, with a strong commitment to service quality and practical business support. 

• Fluent Japanese communication in both written and verbal, with the ability to work effectively with store associates, business stakeholders, vendors, and external partners. 

• Good command of written and spoken English for effective collaboration with Global IT teams and international stakeholders. 

• Experience participating in system implementations, application enhancements, upgrades, and business transformation projects is highly desirable.