Company Description
The Barbour story began in 1894 in South Shields in the North East of England. Founder John Barbour began supplying oilskins and other garments to protect the growing community of sailors, fishermen and dockers. Still family owned and now fifth generation, Barbour HQ remains in South Shields. Under the leadership of Chairman Dame Margaret Barbour, Barbour has grown into a lifestyle brand sold in over 55 countries worldwide including Europe, the US and Asia offering a wardrobe of stylish functional clothing, footwear and accessories inspired by the unique values of the British countryside. The iconic Barbour Bedale and Barbour Beaufort wax jackets continue to be made by hand in the factory in South Shields. In 2020, Barbour launched Wax for Life, an overarching name for all of Barbour’s wax services designed to encourage customers to extend the life of their wax garments. Wax for Life includes re-waxing and repairs (first introduced in 1921) and Barbour Re-Loved an upcycling circularity initiative. Each year over 70,000 wax garments are sent back to Barbour globally to be repaired, rewaxed or altered.
Position Overview
We have an exciting opportunity for an experienced leader in Integration to join our growing IT team. Integration is critical to our business, as it connects our business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) demand channels with our distribution and supply chain network. Barbour is going through an exciting period of change, as we build our next-generation integration solution, while keeping our mission-critical legacy integrations highly available.
The role will form an integral part of the IT leadership team, taking primary responsibility for driving our strategic direction across all aspects of technology integration including our core ERP system, supply chain, distribution and 3PL facilities, customer service, wholesale ordering channels, e-commerce and retail systems globally. The role also provides leadership and governance for Business Intelligence services, ensuring reporting and analytics capabilities continue to support operational and strategic decision-making across the business.
The combination of strategic direction, architecture and technical expertise, adaptability, hands-on leadership and disciplined delivery will be critical success factors. Alongside this, an ability to communicate to business management, lead integration architectural decisions within enterprise architecture, and guide a multi-skilled team will all be crucial abilities.
- The role is based at head office in South Shields and the expectation is 4 days in the office and 1 day of home-working.
Essential Duties and Responsibilities
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Lead and define the integration strategy and solution governance for Barbour.
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Define the “to-be” integration architecture, ensuring it is robust, scalable, and adaptable to support the diverse integration needs of Barbour.
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Act as a key member of the Enterprise Architecture Committee, defining the as-is and to-be infrastructure chapter of the EA and governing change.
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Collaborate with key stakeholders, business users, project managers, internal IT teams, and 3rd parties (vendors, systems integrators, wholesale partners, distributors, 3PLs, EDI providers) to identify business and technical requirements.
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Lead the approach, design, security, documentation, and implementation of end-to-end integration solutions.
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Serve as Product Owner for MuleSoft, EDI, and Integration platforms managing platform roadmaps, governance, operational performance, and continuous improvement.
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Provide coaching, mentoring, and line management to direct reports (Integration/SQL Developers and BI Analysts), driving team performance and development.
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Plan and manage the portfolio of integration, reporting, and analytics projects using Agile/Scrum delivery processes.
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Manage relationships with external delivery partners, system integrators, and offshore development teams to ensure quality, cost-effectiveness, and adherence to service levels.
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Participate in supplier selection, contract reviews, RFP processes, and vendor performance management.
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Ensure operational stability, monitoring, and supportability across integration platforms, owning major integration incidents when required.
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Define and maintain integration development standards, documentation standards, logging frameworks, and observability capabilities across the landscape.
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Oversee testing activities (SIT, UAT, performance) and lead integration cutover and transition-to-support activities for major project go-lives.
Skills and Experience
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Education & Experience: Bachelor's degree in Computer Science (or equivalent education/experience) with significant experience leading integration and business intelligence teams.
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Leadership & Stakeholder Management: Confident and pragmatic technology leader with proven experience setting direction, coaching technical teams, managing global/offshore resource models, and influencing at senior management levels.
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Technical & Platform Expertise: Hands-on experience delivering major integration projects (e.g., ERP, e-commerce, retail, warehouse management, 3PL, EDI).
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Certifications & Tools: Certification in MuleSoft technology (or alternative platforms like IBM WebSphere/Oracle SOA Suite with hands-on MuleSoft Anypoint experience). Strong understanding of Microsoft SQL Server, API-led connectivity, and modern integration architecture patterns.
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Agile Delivery & Governance: Practical experience delivering projects with Agile/Scrum methods and enabling integration governance across complex enterprise architectures.
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Analytics & Observability: Experience managing reporting, analytics, or BI services alongside familiarity with monitoring tools (e.g., LogicMonitor, Anypoint Monitoring).
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Industry Experience: Retail, e-commerce, or wholesale environment experience is preferred but not essential.
Benefits
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Discretionary Company bonus scheme
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Staff discount
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Staff shop
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Healthcare cash plan
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25 days holiday as standard increasing with length of service plus bank holidays
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Access to training and development activities to support your career development
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Free onsite parking
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Subsidised canteen
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Operate hybrid & flexible working
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4pm finish on a Friday
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Wellbeing support
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Refer a friend bonus scheme
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Reward & Recognition Program
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Length of Service Rewards
Note: In the event that a sufficient volume of suitable applications are received, the post may close prior to the specified closing date. Please apply as soon as possible if interested
