IT Applications Team Lead (Male/Female)
Job description
Purpose of the Role:
To lead the Applications team, delivering robust, scalable, and business-aligned application solutions across Danucem through cross-country stakeholder management, application prioritisation, solution design leadership, vendor management, integrated delivery support, and domain-facing business partnership. This is a player-manager role that combines team leadership and business engagement with active involvement in high-value, high-stakes technical work such as solution design, integration design, major changes, critical incidents, and key vendor escalations. The role serves as the bridge between business demand and technology solutions, helping to modernise the application landscape, reduce technical debt, strengthen cross-country standardisation, and ensure that the team operates with clear ownership, documentation discipline, workable back-up coverage, and effective domain-facing partnership through roles such as the Business Solutions Partner – Aggregates & Paving. The role is not intended to be the default owner of routine support activity, regular on-call duty, or standard plant/site operational troubleshooting
Role Type
Player-manager role with a strong focus on technical leadership and hands-on contribution to solution design, integration architecture, major incident management, vendor escalations, and business solution development. Routine operational support and regular on-call duties are not a primary part of this role.
Key Responsibilities
Business Stakeholder Management
Own senior business stakeholder management for applications across Slovakia and Hungary.
Build and maintain strong relationships with business stakeholders across both countries and all key business areas.
Understand business processes, pain points, priorities, and demand drivers through regular engagement.
Translate business demand into application priorities, solution options, and implementation roadmaps.
Act as the primary applications contact for senior business discussions, service reviews, and prioritisation decisions.
Provide leadership and direction to domain-facing business partnership roles within the application management function, including the Business Solutions Partner – Aggregates & Paving.
Solution Design & Integration Leadership
Lead or co-lead solution design for business applications, major enhancements, and cross-system changes.
Provide integration leadership for high-impact interfaces and end-to-end process changes.
Review technical feasibility, solution options, implementation risks, and support implications.
Ensure solution quality and consistency across countries, applications, vendors, and business domains.
Work closely with the Enterprise Architecture, Security & Compliance Lead to ensure solution alignment with enterprise architecture guardrails and approvals.
Provide hands-on technical guidance for complex issues, high-risk changes, and major go-lives.
Application Portfolio, Domain Demand & Service Governance
Lead application demand intake, prioritisation, and roadmap discussions across business domains.
Maintain oversight of the application portfolio, including ownership, lifecycle status, support model, key risks, and strategic priorities.
Ensure that domain-facing demand from roles such as the Business Solutions Partner – Aggregates & Paving is translated into structured and realistic delivery priorities.
Ensure effective cooperation between domain-facing business partnership roles and named system owners, especially around Premac and the Infor M3 environment through close coordination.
Identify opportunities for simplification, rationalisation, standardisation, and service improvement.
Define and maintain an ownership model with primary and secondary/back-up coverage for critical systems.
Ensure that critical application documentation, support runbooks, and escalation paths are in place and maintained.
Review service performance, recurring issues, and improvement priorities across the application landscape.
Major Delivery, Change & Critical Incident Leadership
Partner on major business solution delivery where relevant, ensuring strong coordination between application ownership and project execution.
Provide leadership for application aspects of major initiatives such as ERP, Order & Dispatch, Salesforce-related initiatives, portals, planning tools, Premac/Infort M3-related initiatives, and other business solution programmes.
Lead major application incidents, high-severity problem resolution, and decision-making during critical situations.
Support major go-lives, hypercare periods, and high-risk changes where senior coordination or technical judgement is required.
Ensure that delivery, support readiness, and business continuity considerations are addressed before major changes are implemented.
Vendor Management
Own key application vendor relationships and escalation paths.
Lead vendor service reviews, issue escalation, and commercial/service discussions related to the application estate.
Ensure that vendor performance, responsiveness, and support obligations are transparent and actively managed.
Support vendor selection, proof-of-concept evaluation, and implementation planning where relevant.
Team Leadership, Domain Partnership, Succession & Documentation Discipline
Lead, coach, and develop the Applications team, ensuring clear roles, strong collaboration, and effective ways of working.
Manage a blended team model including domain-facing business partnership roles, senior system owners, and operational support capability.
Define a workable split of responsibilities between team members based on business domain needs, system ownership, capability, and support requirements.
Ensure that succession is built into the model through primary/secondary ownership, shadowing, and knowledge transfer.
Own the documentation standard and review cadence for critical applications, integrations, and support runbooks.
Ensure the team does not become overly dependent on tribal knowledge or single points of failure.
Support capability development over time so that resilience improves without requiring full redundancy in every area.
Cross-Country Standardisation & Collaboration
Drive cross-country standardisation across shared applications and support approaches used in Slovakia and Hungary.
Ensure that system ownership is defined primarily by application/domain rather than by country only, while still respecting local business needs.
Coordinate closely with Service Desk, infrastructure/support teams, and extended support contributors where systems require plant-side or site-side assistance.
Work with colleagues where local operational support is required for plant-facing applications.
Key Deliverables
Business Stakeholder Management: Clear and trusted applications engagement model across Slovakia and Hungary, with regular prioritisation and service discussions.
Domain Partnership: Effective business-facing partnership model within the application management function, including the Aggregates & Paving domain and strong cooperation with the Business Solutions Partner
Solution Design Leadership: Solution and integration designs for major application changes and new initiatives.
Ownership Model: Documented primary and secondary/back-up ownership for critical applications and integrations.
Documentation Discipline: Usable runbooks, escalation paths, and support documentation for priority systems.
Application Roadmap: Prioritised roadmap aligned with business demand and Danucem Technology Strategy.
Major Delivery Support: Strong partnership with PMO/delivery resources for major business solution initiatives.
Critical Incident Leadership: Effective leadership and decision-making for major application incidents and high-risk changes.
Vendor Management: Managed vendor performance, escalation routes, and service quality for key application providers.
Cross-Country Standardisation: Consistent ownership and support approach for shared applications across Slovakia and Hungary.
Benefits
Performance-based bonus
Meal allowance above legal requirements – €162 net per month (€8.10 per day), even during vacation
Travel allowance – €0.15/km, up to €160 per month
Extra vacation days – minimum of 25 days for all employees
Contribution to the 3rd pillar pension plan – up to €80 per month
Sick leave support – financial assistance during illness
Special Occasion Contributions – for life events such as weddings, childbirth, and other important moments.
Additional leave for special occasions – e.g., wedding, birth of a child
Professional training and development – support for your career growth
Company events & Multisport card – sports and social events
Annual salary review – at least once per year
Danucare program – focused on health and well-being
Extra pay beyond legal requirements – for overtime, weekends, and holidays
Loyalty rewards – bonuses for work anniversaries
Referral bonus – €750 for recommending a new colleague
Recreation allowance – according to legal requirements and beyond.
Additional benefits – as per the collective agreement #danucemfamily
Personality requirements
Education
Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Business Administration, or a related field
Master's degree preferred
Experience
Minimum 8 years of relevant experience in IT, with at least 5 years in application support, business systems, or solution delivery.
Proven experience in a senior applications role combining stakeholder engagement, solution design, and service/delivery ownership.
Experience leading teams, workstreams, or application capabilities in a multi-stakeholder environment.
Demonstrated experience in business stakeholder management and translating business demand into solution direction.
Demonstrated experience in application solution design, integration design, or end-to-end business application change delivery.
Experience working with external vendors, implementation partners, and support providers.
Experience in multi-country or international environments preferred.
Manufacturing, industrial, or plant-operating environment experience highly desirable.
Experience building structure around documentation, ownership clarity, service resilience, and business partnership capability highly desirable.
Technical Skills
Strong understanding of business application landscapes and support operating models.
Ability to lead solution design for business applications and major enhancements.
Good understanding of integration concepts, interfaces, data flows, and system dependencies.
Ability to engage credibly in technical discussions with specialists, vendors, implementation partners, and business-facing transformation roles.
Working knowledge of ERP, CRM, plant-facing, customer-facing, or other core business applications relevant to Danucem.
Understanding of service management, major incident handling, and support readiness.
Understanding of documentation standards, runbook discipline, and support model design.
Awareness of cybersecurity, access control, and compliance considerations for business applications.
Business & Leadership Skills
Strong stakeholder management and communication skills across business and IT audiences.
Ability to balance strategic priorities with pragmatic execution in a lean team environment.
Strong prioritisation, decision-making, and escalation management capability.
Ability to lead as a player-manager, remaining technically credible without reverting to routine support ownership.
Strong vendor management and service review capability.
Ability to create role clarity, team structure, workable succession, and effective business partnership inside the Applications capability.
Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
Ability to work effectively across countries, functions, domains, and delivery models.
Personal Attributes
Credible, hands-on leader with a pragmatic mindset.
Comfortable moving between business discussions, technical design, and major issue leadership.
Structured and disciplined in driving clarity, ownership, and follow-through.
Calm under pressure and able to make sound decisions during critical situations.
Collaborative and team-oriented, with a coaching mindset.
Committed to service quality, standardisation, and continuous improvement.
Languages
English: Fluent (required)
Slovak: Fluent (required)
Hungarian: Advantage
Brief description of the company
At Danucem, we believe that construction can be more resilient, more sustainable, and more people‑focused. Our materials are part of the places where people live, work, and relax – and our employees leave their mark on projects that shape both communities and the landscape.
We are a major producer of cement, concrete, and aggregates in Slovakia. We operate cement plants in Rohožník and Turňa nad Bodvou, as well as several concrete plants, quarries, and gravel pits. Together with our subsidiary companies – ecorec, TransPlus, and Premac – we form a strong group engaged in the production of alternative fuels, prefabricated elements, logistics, and concrete paving.
Since 2015, we have been part of CRH, a global leader in building materials, operating in 37 countries and employing more than 90,000 people. Thanks to this, we have a stable background, international know‑how, and at the same time we maintain our local character.
For more information please see our website www.danucem.com