Director of Digital Products

The organisation

80 years ago, ERIKS started as a supplier to the dairy industry in the Netherlands, providing mechanical components and tools that helped dairy plants increase efficiency. Since then, the company kept innovating, evolving, and expanding. Through a consistent focus on technology and service, it became a key sparring partner and service provider for a range of industries. Among its clients are high-tech manufacturing and food companies (such as ASML and Heineken), energy industry players (from windmill operators to power plants), heavy vehicle manufacturers (making cars, ships, or airplanes), construction firms, medicine production businesses, and more.

For these clients, ERIKS provides a wide range of technical products (for instance hoses and valves), co-engineering, customization solutions, and related services. Technical teams are at customers’ beck and call for sophisticated support and advice – from design to smart maintenance. And on the local web shops, customers can easily order tools or component parts.

“We provide products and know–how in a way that has a direct impact on the economy. In each household you’ll find at least one item of which the production was improved with help from ERIKS.” – Floris Jan Cuypers, COO at ERIKS

With its expansion into 17 countries and many different industries, ERIKS became a global organization, with a truly international culture and vision and with talent, experts, and client relationships from everywhere. Meanwhile, its headquarters and roots are in The Netherlands. The company is owned by SHV, a family-owned Dutch group with a portfolio of seven companies that together employ nearly 60.000 people worldwide. The culture at both SHV and ERIKS is built on integrity, entrepreneurship, and a core value of investing in people. With its 6.500 employees and nearly 2 billion Euros revenue, ERIKS is an established corporate – yet one with the entrepreneurial drive and willingness to invest that is often found at younger, smaller, PE-backed businesses.

ERIKS now finds itself in a very exciting phase: that of a companywide digital transformation. The potential of digital technology for ERIKS extends to all business aspects, from easy business workflows to direct commercial purposes. Digital technology can advance ERIKS e-commerce channels as well as offer new innovations and service propositions that are partially or fully digital. Examples include the proposition of Smart Asset Management (IoT) or ‘ERIKS Wiki’, a knowledge mining database for employees and customers. ERIKS has a dedicated approach to digitization. The company is internally building a proactive, solution-oriented product organisation with top-notch developers and digital and industry experts. Recently, a Chief Digital Officer was hired, and the next three years people, operating model, architecture, governance, and strategy will take full focus.

The position

ERIKS is the technical partner of the manufacturing world. In 17 countries, the company provides specialist industrial services, advice and products. All with one goal: Making its customers, and thereby global industries, work better. Central to ERIKS’ overall strategy is a digital transformation, for which the company is now looking to hire a Director of Digital Products to translate the vision into a roadmap and realize the three-years digital strategy.

Tasks & responsibilities

The Director of Digital Products works together with the Director of Digital Platform in driving digitization as a portfolio of projects that need to be completed over the next three years to realize the strategy. On top of the platform, products such as the ERIKS Wiki, APIs, advanced CRM solutions on top of SAP, output management, and roadmapping tools are developed. The Director of Digital Products is responsible for products and has 4 Product Domain Leads (that will manage up to 30 product owners) as direct reports, while the Director of Digital Platform is focused on platform engineering and has a team of engineers.

Together, they will drive the ERIKS digital transformation and translate the vision into clear deliverables. The vision is simple, yet ambitious: to create the world most digitally advanced specialized industrial service provider. This process and the transformation roadmap are yet to be created from scratch. There will be four focus areas, called Digital Product Domains, that drive the Digital Strategy, consisting of Customer Interactions, Pre-sales & Sales, Suppliers & CoE, and Supply Chain & Finance. Each focus area has sub-streams that require specific product roadmaps. Here, product management will entail the design and coordination of these roadmaps, working with the platform teams and business owners to assure the right timelines, and measuring the product success.

The role requires a driven and cooperative approach. When working with the countries, this means empowering the teams to develop their own visions and supporting them in building the roadmap. This goes beyond an advisory approach and truly means showing them how it’s done, articulating their goals and quantifying their deliverables.

The role also requires strong stakeholder management skills and the ability to push through. In addition, being able to challenge leadership on new ideas is highly appreciated. Apart from the Director of Digital Platform and the team of product owners, the Director of Digital Products also works closely with the Chief Digital Officer.

“We have been working in a very reactive delivery model, now we are building an organization and a model that will enable us to connect our business strategy with what should be our digital strategy, unlocking the potential of ERIKS vision.” – Rui Pedro Silva, Chief Digital Officer

This is an excellent opportunity for an energetic and seasoned B2B product leader who is excited to take a traditional industrial service provider and make it the most digitally advanced in the world.

Candidate profile*

• Master’s degree
• At least 10 years of experience
• Seasoned multi-country B2B experience
• Experience in a leadership position managing a range of digital products
• Customer centricity: the ability to take the position of the customer
• Consulting skills are preferred
• Strong stakeholder management skills
• Ability to translate concepts into concrete implementation plans

* Research shows that while male candidates feel confident enough to apply when they meet about 60% of the requirements, female candidates only apply when they tick every box. So if this role has your name on it, but you’re not sure about the criteria, we still want to hear from you.

Interested?

You can apply to this position by using the link below. ERIKS is working with Top of Minds to fill this vacancy.