Global OT Application Owner - Syntact in Köln

The Global OT Application Owner owns the strategy, roadmap and backlog of the assigned global OT application.

The role governs the assigned solution scope, including its global templates, technical and functional standards, software providers and system integrators, and ensures that the application delivers business value and can be consistently deployed, operated and improved across our client sites.

Assigned scope

• Syntact-delivered application portfolio: KPI for IIo T, Galileo for MES and Supervision for SCADA.

Primary emphasis

• Rollouts and vendor steering; multiproject and commercial leadership.
• Main tasks / Standard of performance

Application Strategy and Roadmap

• Define and maintain the application strategy and multi-year roadmap.
• Translate business and plant requirements into clear application priorities.
• Decide what should be developed, configured, purchased, scaled, deferred or retired.
• Govern the application throughout its complete lifecycle.

Backlog and Requirements

• Own, structure and prioritize the application backlog.
• Establish clear requirements and acceptance criteria.
• Ensure that delivered functionality meets the agreed requirements, coordinating formal acceptance with the relevant business and site stakeholders.

Global Templates and Standards

• Define and maintain global templates, libraries and application standards.
• Approve template changes, releases and deviations from the global standard.
• Govern application quality, compliance, scalability and maintainability.
• Ensure alignment with OT architecture, cybersecurity, data and integration standards.

Rollout Governance

• Govern rollout priorities, standards and application decisions across the application rollout portfolio.
• Negotiate rollout scope, priorities and commitments with site leadership and plant management.
• Coordinate application engineers, developers, vendors and system integrators.

Vendor and System-Integrator Steering

• Challenge vendors and system integrators at technical, delivery and commercial levels.
• Govern vendor performance, roadmap commitments, service levels, licensing and costs.

Operations, Adoption and Reporting

• Monitor application adoption, operational performance, incidents and support trends.
• Escalate application risks, delivery gaps and vendor-performance issues.
• Maintain transparent communication with business, plant and technical stakeholders.

Compliance, Policy and Transparency

• Ensure the application complies with the client policies, standards and directives, including the mandatory criteria defined for its control zone.
• Enforce client's Unified Namespace requirements on the Syntact-delivered scope, including naming, structure and data-contract standards.
• Maintain the application profile and keep the inventory of the solutions in scope up to date.
• Ensure transparent reporting of application costs, risks, service information and benefits towards Group OT and the regional Digital OT/IT organization.
• Ensure that the Cloud Service Provider Check is completed and that Security clearance is obtained before any application contract is signed.

Data, Security and Audit

• Be accountable for the data stored and processed in the application, including in the event of cyber incidents such as data breach or unauthorized access.
• Govern application user access management across the user lifecycle where the application is not integrated into our client's global Active Directory.
• Act as the contact person for the application in internal and external audits.

Application-Specific Requirements

• Governance of rollout scope, localization, priorities and dependencies.
• Coordination of the current Syntact-delivered scope across KPI for IIo T, Galileo for MES and Supervision for SCADA.

Skills And Competencies

Functional & Technical Competencies

• Application ownership: able to own the strategy, roadmap and backlog of a global industrial application and to decide what is developed, configured, purchased, scaled, deferred or retired.
• Requirements and acceptance: comfortable authoring requirements and acceptance criteria and running formal acceptance with business and site stakeholders.
• OT/IT and manufacturing data environments: working knowledge of SCADA/PLC, MES, IIo T, Unified Namespace and ERP interfaces.
• Standards and lifecycle governance: able to define and govern global templates, libraries and technical/functional standards, including quality, scalability and maintainability.
• Security, data and compliance awareness: familiar with OT cybersecurity, data classification, access management, group policy and audit requirements.
• Vendor and system-integrator steering: able to challenge providers on technical fit, delivery quality, service levels and cost.
• Project and multiproject management: strong capabilities in planning, sequencing and controlling parallel rollouts.
• Commercial steering: able to challenge delivery estimates, commitments and commercial assumptions, and to negotiate with site leadership and plant management.
• Technical judgement: sufficient technical understanding to challenge proposed solutions across KPI for IIo T, Galileo for MES and Supervision for SCADA.
• Languages: English as a minimum; French an advantage.

Behavioral Competencies

• Analytical and decisive: structures ambiguous plant demand into clear decisions on scope and priority.
• Influence without authority: negotiates priorities and commitments between plant demand and constrained delivery capacity.
• Universal communication: fluid between shop-floor, business and technical language.
• Organized and disciplined: able to run a multi-site, multi-rollout portfolio with competing priorities, risks and dependencies.
• Pragmatic and outcome-oriented: balances global standards with day-to-day operational reality on the shop floor.
• Organizational network and visibility: well-connected across business, OT and IT, able to mobilize the right people quickly.

Experience

Minimum Qualifications

• Technical degree in automation, industrial or process engineering, computer science or a related field.
• Hands‑on experience in a manufacturing/production environment with OT systems (SCADA/PLC/MES/IIo T) and exposure to IT/data environments.
• Experience owning or functionally leading an industrial application: backlog, requirements, acceptance and lifecycle.
• Experience steering vendors and system integrators.
• Experience with multi-site deployments across plants and regions.
• Languages: English as a minimum; French an advantage.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in multiproject management and in commercial and contract negotiation with software providers and system integrators.
• French language skills, given the vendor and site landscape in scope.

Responsibility / Power of authority

The Application Owner

• Sets and signs off on the application strategy and multi-year roadmap.
• Decides backlog content and priority order.
• Approves global templates, libraries and application standards.
• Approves or rejects application changes, releases and deviations from the global standard.
• Decides rollout sequencing and application priorities across sites.
• Escalates vendor and system-integrator performance and decides when to challenge it formally.
• Recommends lifecycle decisions, including scale-up and retirement of the application.
• Confirms compliance of the application with group policies, standards and mandatory criteria.
• Answers for the data stored and processed in the application, including in the event of cyber incidents.
• Represents the application in audits and holds Security clearance before any contract signature.
• Authority is limited to application direction, priorities, standards and acceptance.

The role does not manage the daily technical work of engineers and developers or replace the project managers responsible for rollout planning and execution.

Team work / Team membership

Communicates to

• Lead OT: management connection, portfolio steering and long‑term planning.
• Regional Digital OT/IT Leads: regional rollout planning, priorities and dependencies.
• Plant Leads and plant management: rollout scope, localization, commitments and adoption.
• Application engineers, developers and architects: functional steering of design, development and release work.
• Vendors and system integrators: technical, delivery and commercial steering;
• roadmap and service levels.
• OT Architecture, Cybersecurity and Data roles: alignment with architecture, security, data and integration standards.

Project managers: rollout planning and execution; sequencing, dependencies and escalation of deviations

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