California Dairies, Inc. is the leading dairy processing cooperative in California. As a farmer-owned cooperative, we operate several processing facilities located throughout California. CDI employees are highly valued and are provided with competitive benefits packages and career growth plans.

The IT Business Analyst for Operations is responsible for the ongoing improvement of business processes throughout the CDI plant operations. He/She will accomplish this by working closely with the operations groups to analyze and document existing processes and gather requirements for new processes that will evolve through the implementation and maturity of D365 and related systems. The position will liaise between all operations users and various members of the IT and other corporate teams to build open channels of communications.
Essential Functions

• Build relationships with those leading and working in operations to determine needs, and gather requirements and their priorities. Partner with the Director of Application Services to establish said requirements on the enterprise application roadmap to satisfy those business requirements.
• Work with the Director of Application Services to help establish and promote a governance process to handle security requests within D365. This will include being an active part of the governance committee and vetting the requests.
• Develop and maintain necessary documentation for all business processes within the operations divisions. Translate the process documentation to functional business requirements to be implemented by internal IT and their development consultants/contractors.
• Identify key stakeholders within the Operations business and meet with them at least every 2 weeks to review progress and gather new requirements
• Support the Director of Application Services in monitoring and analyzing the cost, utilization and effectiveness of existing applications and apply continuous improvement methods to increase value of operations applications (eg D365) to the organization. Conduct surveys with users and business process owners and publish results to the organization. Suggest enhancement or replacement of applications as may be necessary.
• Provide support and analysis which fits CDI’s business, culture and team. Direct vendors and contractors implementing new, expanding, and supporting existing solutions. Assist and support all stakeholders on new systems and applications.
• Maintain formal service level agreements (SLAs) for all business applications, measure, track and publish attainment to the business. Review SLAs/achievements with the business customers. Plan and execute appropriate actions to maintain and improve enterprise application performance and service to the organization and users.
• Contribute to application troubleshooting during unplanned outages, restore service in the minimum time, perform root cause analysis, and adjust internal procedures accordingly. Document incidents and update documentation for both internal and contractor usage.
• Maintain quality standards for all IT Application activities, whether they be development, project or support related. Measure work product and optimize results consistent with the SLAs established with the business leadership.
• Stay abreast of emerging trends and best practices with respect to business operations and the ERPs. Ensure operating and planned business applications are practical and consistent with company direction and needs.

Qualifications

• Minimum 10 years of business analyst experience in ERP or related business applications for food manufacturing operations, including implementation and support

• Functional level understanding of ERP, WMS, TMS, HRIS, Quality Systems, BI and at least a basic familiarity with MES

• Ability and willingness to build relationships at all levels of Operations and IT

• Basic Understanding of:

• Dairy/Food processing technology or similar discipline

• Process qualification & validation in the dairy industry

To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

Education and/or Experience

• S. or B.A. degree in Business Administration, Management, Computer Science, Engineering or related field or equivalent work experience will be considered in lieu of a college degree.
• College level verbal and written communication skills. Must be able to communicate with upper management on a daily basis.
• Strong technical skills
• Excellent organizational skills
• Skilled at leading multi-functional work teams
• Strong written and effective verbal communications in team settings
• Leadership, team development, coaching, and/or teaching experience.
• Excellent computer skills for data input, report writing, program tracking.
• Excellent organizational and follow through skills.
• Minimum three years of experience in a production setting.
• Excellent written and spoken English.

Work Environment

The work environment characteristics described here are representative of those an employee encounters while performing the essential functions of this job. The company will make reasonable accommodations that do not cause an undue hardship to the company if such accommodation enables individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions of the position. The work is performed in an office environment.

The physical demands describe here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

Reasonable accommodation may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential duties.