Dir Digital (Digital and Business Operations)

General Summary of Job Responsibilities

The Digital Products & Applications team is at the heart of innovation, powering Michigan’s future by crafting cutting-edge digital solutions that transform how our customers and communities experience energy. Guided by our Digital First strategy, we harness modern technical practices and agile methodologies to create intuitive, impactful software that drives measurable business value and enhances user experiences. Join a dynamic team where collaboration, creativity, and impact converge!

We partner closely with business teams to uncover digital opportunities, prioritize high-impact outcomes, and deliver trustworthy, user-friendly technology. By embracing our CE Way principles—engaging on solutions, illuminating priorities, and minimizing waste—we build systems that are simple, helpful, and valuable. If you’re passionate about innovation, community, and shaping a sustainable energy future, come grow with us at Consumers Energy!

As Director, Digital – Digital & Business Operations, you will lead the product family that enables product delivery across our entire digital organization. Our vision is to empower and accelerate product delivery by aligning teams through unified tooling, clear technical standards, and strategic communications. You will blend your passion for software engineering with a talent for setting technical direction and standards, and you will partner closely with our peer IT Infrastructure & Security and Enterprise Architecture organizations to drive a positive and productive developer experience. By advancing engineering practices, governance, and tooling, you will equip teams to meet current demands and seize tomorrow’s opportunities.

This role involves principal-level technical work during key moments—such as architectural decisions, standards approvals, or complex escalations. The role also focuses on shaping systems of work, strengthening disciplines, and aligning digital tools to enterprise strategy.

You create the environment for high-performing teams at scale by championing modern practices, promoting consistency where it matters, and cultivating a culture of learning, accountability, and continuous improvement across the digital organization.

The Director leads a team of Digital Product Managers responsible for three enabling product teams: Technical End State Vision, Governance & Standards; Work, Development & Test Tooling; and System of Delivery Governance, Playbook & Communications. In partnership with Product Family leaders, Tech Leads, and business stakeholders, the Director owns the outcomes of these products and their ongoing optimization. This role sets and reinforces software development standards and agile practices to ensure efficient, secure, and scalable delivery; aligns digital talent, ways of working, and strategic priorities with organizational goals; and partners with business and technology leaders to advance digital transformation.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

• Monitor performance, capacity, and resource needs across the product family and adjust as necessary to meet evolving demands.
• Own the technical end state vision, governance, and standards for the Digital Products & Technologies organization. Lead a cross-family group of Tech Leads to create, review, and maintain software development standards, roadmaps, and backlogs in collaboration with IT Infrastructure & Security.
• Represent the department in enterprise architecture and standards forums, including co-leading the Architecture Technology Forum and participating in standards reviews, standards update reviews, and problem architecture reviews.
• Oversee work management, development, and test tooling (e.g., Azure DevOps, GitHub, test automation, and performance testing platforms) and own the development tool usage policy to deliver a consistent, productive developer experience.
• Provide leadership for API management governance, including API review, change approval, and API catalog strategy.
• Lead AI governance and strategy for software delivery, including oversight of AI-assisted development tools such as GitHub Copilot, their adoption, usage, and cost.
• Partner with IT Infrastructure & Security on platform engineering, cloud engineering, and infrastructure automation. Lead the transition of legacy and ancillary technologies (e.g., RPA and low-code platforms) to the appropriate owners.
• Champion System of Delivery governance, playbooks, and strategic communications. Serve as owner for assigned departmental strategic goals and participate in enterprise councils such as the CMDB advisory council.
• Drive digital maturity by reinforcing standards and best practices. Foster a digital culture grounded in agile methodologies and continuous learning, and guide change management efforts that impact people, processes, and technology.
• Perform other duties as assigned or as necessary.

Knowledge/Skills/Abilities

• Ability to develop and maintain professional relationships, including active listening, building rapport, and maintaining objectivity.
• Ability to foster a creative, innovative environment that encourages colleagues to identify opportunities to advance the business in support of customer needs and organizational goals. Promotes diverse thinking to discover new and improved ways of working.
• Skilled at influencing others through change. Involves, equips, and supports colleagues through transitions to accelerate realization of business benefits.
• Ability to inspire, motivate, and empower teams to deliver on organizational goals. This includes coaching and mentoring, performance management, fostering collaboration, and owning team results.
• Ability to deliver compelling messages, motivate effectively, and connect colleagues to the organization’s purpose. Uses storytelling to inspire belief in the vision and strategy.
• Demonstrates openness to new and iterative ways of working.
• Business Acumen: Shows strong awareness of broader internal and external business environments.
• Political Savviness: Builds and influences stakeholder networks both internally and externally.
• Collaborates effectively with employees who bring diverse perspectives and experiences.

Education/Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology or a related discipline with ten (10) or more years of proven success leading people and other leaders in a technical environment. Experience leading projects and/or cross-functional teams, and experience designing, deploying, operating, and/or maintaining systems that deliver measurable business benefits OR experience designing, delivering, and enhancing digital services.
• [OR] Associate’s degree in Information Technology or a related discipline with twelve (12) or more years of proven success leading people and other leaders in a technical environment. Experience leading projects and/or cross-functional teams, and experience designing, deploying, operating, and/or maintaining systems that deliver measurable business benefits OR experience designing, delivering, and enhancing digital services.
• [OR] High School Diploma/GED with fourteen (14) or more years of proven success leading people and other leaders in a technical environment. Experience leading projects and/or cross-functional teams, and experience designing, deploying, operating, and/or maintaining systems that deliver measurable business benefits OR experience designing, delivering, and enhancing digital services.

Preferred Experience

Candidates with one or more of the following skills will stand out:

• Leader-of-leaders coaching expertise, including exceptional skill in coaching managers and product managers and navigating matrixed accountability.
• Experience establishing and governing enterprise software development standards and architecture in partnership with infrastructure, security, and enterprise architecture teams.
• Experience owning developer tooling and platforms (e.g., Azure DevOps, GitHub, test automation) and improving the developer experience at scale.
• Knowledge of API management (e.g., Azure APIM) and AI governance, including AI-assisted software development tools.
• Proven ability to design, evolve, and continuously improve workflow across multiple teams within a matrixed operating model.
• Experience building and sustaining strong communities of practice that measurably influence behavior and improve skills development.
• Demonstrated ability to influence and achieve results in a matrixed, cross-functional environment.
• Expertise in designing and implementing effective systems of work for software engineering practices within large-scale digital transformations.