Business Unit Description

AARP is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization, with a membership of nearly 38 million that helps people turn their goals and dreams into 'Real Possibilities' by changing the way America defines aging. With staffed offices in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, AARP works to strengthen communities and promote the issues that matter most to families such as healthcare security, financial security and personal fulfillment. AARP also advocates for individuals in the marketplace by selecting products and services of high quality and value to carry the AARP name. As a trusted source for news and information, AARP produces the world's largest circulation magazine, AARP The Magazine and AARP Bulletin.

Information Technology Solutions (ITS) is AARP's technology leader in positive social change and member value, enabling a more effective workforce and globally connecting employees, members, volunteers, partners and advocates to maximize engagement.

AARP ranked as #2 Best Place to Work in IT among midsize organizations by Computerworld in 2019.
Summary

The Platform Manager - Salesforce is the servant leader on a platform team responsible for the platform's vision, strategy, outcomes, metrics, and alignment with organizational needs and AARP's technology standards. This position is accountable for creating and socializing the platform strategy and associated outcomes within the enterprise and will be expected to deliver incremental business value in an agile environment. The Platform Manager - Salesforce must be a multi-faceted cloud application technologist able to create a meaningful platform vision, orchestrate a variety of stakeholders to define shared priorities, manage a full platform lifecycle that balances short-term achievements with long-term goals, and build a sense of ownership within the team.

This person will manage other members of the team, including the Engineer(s) and Delivery Lead(s).
Responsibilities

Management Responsibilities

Platform Strategy

• Define, lead, and communicate a strategy and vision for the platform team that aligns with broader enterprise goals around digital transformation, innovation, automation, rapid delivery, and cloud enablement.
• Develop platform strategy and positioning based on platform maturity from defining platform fit in the early stages to scaling the team and operations in later stages.
• Identify platform users, alternative platforms, business needs, and the macro environment for the platform by leveraging the platform management framework.
• Determine user needs and desires by leveraging customer/employee journeys and specifying the research needed to obtain additional user information.
• Create a platform strategy that describes the target capability areas and the method for achieving business goals that reflects a deep understanding of the platform, capability team focus areas, enterprise goals, and technology.

Lifecycle Management

• Lead platform management lifecycle from concept to roadmap to ongoing implementation/support and drive backlog priorities.
• Promote a focus on improving the business value of AARP's technology investments by delivering continuous improvement and lowering on-going operating costs of the platform.
• Define, track and communicate key platform performance indicators to inform success criteria and track business results.
• Creates return on investment (ROI) for investment proposals to obtain funding for new initiatives and significant enhancements.
• Create business-value based objectives and user stories for upcoming sprints.
• Evaluate business needs against platform functionality to determine platform applicability.
• Advise capability teams on platform best practices around design, toolsets and integrations.
• Follows ITS DR Policy and Standards.
• Creates DR Plan for identified technology solution.
• Devises testing strategy and/or test plan for the technology solution.
• Provides artifacts to ITRM to validate compliance with ITS DR Policy and Standards.

Team Management

• Lead, manage, and mentor the platform team to design, deliver, measure, and improve business outcomes using an agile approach.
• Adhere to baseline competencies in customer relationship management, strategy development, roadmap creation, rapid delivery, and operational support defined for all platform teams.
• Ensure the team focuses on work that aligns with the platform strategy and enterprise needs as defined by customer and/or employee journeys.
• Implements information security requirements in accordance with AARP policies and standards.
• Incorporates security requirements into ongoing sprints and operations.
• Addresses and remediates security risks as identified by the Security Team.
• Build the right mix of skills on the team and grow talent by recruiting, selecting, orienting, and training team members.
• Collaborate with the team during complex discussions with business stakeholders, vendors, or technology, particularly when determining the technical requirements/capabilities needed to meet business goals.

Relationship Management

• Communicate platform vision, strategy and roadmap to business, ITS, vendor, and other relevant AARP stakeholders.
• Negotiate reprioritization of the platform roadmap and backlog with key stakeholders and leadership.
• Manage platform vendor relationship, including both professional services and licensing contracting.
• Promote platform functionality to key stakeholders across the enterprise.

Technical Leadership / Active Practitioner

• Participate in a Community of Interest for platform managers across all capability (platform) teams to share information and strengthen understanding of business needs and technology-based business solutions.
• Maintain professional and technical knowledge by attending educational workshops, reviewing professional publications, establishing personal networks, and participating in professional societies.
• Provide critical input to other capability and platform teams as needed to ensure alignment with broader enterprise architecture and strategic objectives.

Domain Responsibilities

• Accountable for designing a business-centric measurement system of the platform.
• Promote product management principles and practices within the platform team.
• Drive Salesforce cloud strategy and leadership alignment with the broader ITS organization and AARP enterprise.
• Be available to support after-hours incidents, problems, outages, etc. that affect the Salesforce platform

Requirements

Desired Education and Certifications

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent in Information Technology, Computer Science, Engineering, Business Administration, or related field
• Master's degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, Engineering or MBA preferred
• Salesforce Administrator and Developer certification preferred
• Certified Technical Architect (CTA) preferred

Work Experience

• 3+ years of Salesforce expertise and 10+ years of IT management experience; ideally, at least, one year of product management experience
• Software engineering background and familiarity with software engineering principles
• Experience in deploying Salesforce products and solutions for large-scale organizations
• Development and/or systems administration experience with Salesforce related products and solutions
• A demonstrated ability to work within a team and build consensus towards a strategic direction
• Strong technical expertise in executing proofs of concept and experimentation with development teams as well as product delivery and support
• An understanding of external cloud hosting providers including Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure
• Solution Architecture experience with projects using Agile and Iterative approach.
• Broad understanding of the following Salesforce core areas, including
  • Service Cloud, Marketing Cloud, Sales Cloud, Force.com
  • Platform App Builder, Platform Developer
  • Data Architecture and Management Designer and Integration Architecture domains
  • Lightning Container, Lightning UX Builder, Lightning Flow including Process Builder and Cloud Flow Designer
  • Entitlement, Role Based Access Control, and Permission Sets
  • Einstein Analytics

Compensation and Benefits

AARP offers competitive benefits with a 401K, 100% company funded pension plan, health, dental, vision and life insurance, STD/LTD, paid vacation and sick, and other benefits.
Equal Employment Opportunity

AARP is an equal opportunity employer committed to hiring a diverse workforce and sustaining an inclusive culture. AARP does not discriminate on the basis of race, ethnicity, religion, sex, color, national origin, age, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, mental or physical disability, genetic information, veteran status, or on any other basis prohibited by applicable law.

At AARP, the health and well-being of our candidates, employees, and members is a top priority. As a result of the COVID pandemic, all non- essential employees will continue to work remotely through the end of 2020. AARP has established social distancing policies to ensure the safety of our essential employees.