Manager Salesforce Applications

Overview

Advanced Drainage Systems is a leading manufacturer of stormwater and onsite septic wastewater solutions, committed to sustainability and innovation. With a vast manufacturing and distribution network, we deliver high-quality products across multiple industries while recycling over half a billion pounds of plastic annually. At ADS, we foster a culture where diverse perspectives drive better ideas, ensuring every employee feels valued, heard, and empowered to make an impact.

Responsibilities

The Manager, Consumer Applications is responsible for the strategic direction, delivery, support, maintenance, and continuous improvement of the enterprise Salesforce platform and related capabilities supporting Sales, Marketing, and Customer Service. This leader translates business priorities into a practical platform roadmap and ensures technology investments deliver measurable business and customer value.

The position leads a multidisciplinary team and balances platform strategy, project and enhancement delivery, production stability, governance, vendor management, and talent development. The Manager also advances automation and responsible AI capabilities while ensuring solutions remain secure, scalable, reliable, and aligned with enterprise architecture and data standards.

Primary Job Responsibilities

• Build trusted partnerships with Sales, Marketing, Customer Service, and IT leaders to align Salesforce capabilities with business strategy, customer needs, and measurable outcomes.
• Develop and maintain a Salesforce roadmap that balances strategic priorities, platform health, technical debt, innovation, resource capacity, and investment decisions.
• Provide leadership across the full Salesforce portfolio, including projects, enhancements, application support, maintenance, integrations, and platform lifecycle management.
• Lead the prioritization, planning, sequencing, and execution of work using Agile, Waterfall, or hybrid delivery approaches based on initiative needs.
• Coordinate cross-functional delivery among Product Owners, business analysts, architects, developers, administrators, quality assurance, data, integration, infrastructure, security, and business teams.
• Ensure disciplined execution across requirements, solution design, estimation, testing, user acceptance testing, release readiness, deployment, documentation, production validation, and post-release support.
• Establish transparent reporting for portfolio scope, schedules, capacity, risks, dependencies, service performance, adoption, and delivered business value.
• Oversee major production incidents, root cause analysis, corrective actions, and service improvements to protect platform stability and the user experience.
• Lead the strategy and responsible adoption of Salesforce automation and AI capabilities, including identification, evaluation, prioritization, piloting, and scaling of high-value use cases.
• Partner with data, architecture, security, privacy, compliance, and business teams to establish appropriate governance, human oversight, and value measurement for AI-enabled solutions.
• Monitor Salesforce product developments, industry practices, emerging technologies, and relevant regulatory changes to identify opportunities for improvement and innovation.
• Establish and enforce platform governance, development standards, configuration controls, documentation requirements, security practices, and data-quality expectations.
• Collaborate with enterprise and solution architects to promote scalable design patterns, integration standards, performance optimization, reuse, and technical debt reduction.
• Coordinate Salesforce integrations with enterprise applications and services, including ERP, middleware, data platforms, marketing technologies, APIs, and IT service-management solutions.
• Ensure effective incident, problem, change, release, environment, access, and application lifecycle management practices.
• Manage strategic vendors, managed-service providers, and contract resources, including statements of work, deliverables, service levels, acceptance criteria, escalations, and performance.
• Partner with Procurement and IT leadership on contract management, financial stewardship, resource planning, vendor accountability, and knowledge transfer.
• Lead, coach, and develop a multidisciplinary Salesforce team by establishing clear goals, encouraging collaboration and inclusion, and providing regular feedback and career development.
• Develop workforce, capacity, and succession plans that align team capabilities with the platform roadmap, operating model, and future business needs.
• Promote platform adoption and value realization through stakeholder engagement, change readiness, training support, communication, and outcome-based measurement.
• Contribute to enterprise IT strategy as a member of the IT leadership team and advocate for technology solutions that create sustainable business value.

Job Skills

• Strong strategic leadership and business-partnership capabilities, with the ability to influence senior stakeholders and establish shared priorities.
• Working knowledge of Salesforce capabilities, platform governance, security, data management, integrations, release management, and application support.
• Ability to translate business goals and customer needs into technology strategies, platform roadmaps, measurable delivery plans, and investment recommendations.
• Strong business acumen and understanding of enterprise operating models and Sales, Marketing, and Customer Service processes.
• Demonstrated ability to lead cross-functional delivery across projects, enhancements, maintenance, and production support.
• Knowledge of Agile, Waterfall, and hybrid software delivery lifecycles, including requirements, testing, release, and change-management practices.
• Strong people leadership skills, including coaching, mentoring, performance management, professional development, succession planning, and capacity management.
• Ability to manage vendors, contracts, budgets, service levels, risks, and external delivery partners effectively.
• Strong analytical, strategic-thinking, problem-solving, planning, decision-making, and execution skills.
• Excellent written, verbal, facilitation, negotiation, and executive-level presentation abilities.
• Ability to communicate technical issues, dependencies, risks, and trade-offs clearly to technical and nontechnical audiences.
• Customer-focused approach with an emphasis on adoption, value realization, service reliability, and user experience.
• Understanding of automation and responsible AI practices, including data governance, security, privacy, human oversight, and measurable value.
• Ability to lead through change, ambiguity, and competing priorities while maintaining focus on quality and business outcomes.
• Commitment to inclusive leadership, constructive collaboration, continuous learning, and continuous improvement.

Educational Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, Business, Engineering, or a related field.
• An equivalent combination of education and relevant enterprise application leadership experience may be considered.
• Master’s degree in Business, Information Technology, or a related discipline is preferred.

Preferred Experience

• Progressive experience leading enterprise application delivery, application support, maintenance, and continuous improvement within a complex organization.
• People-management experience leading technical and functional professionals such as Salesforce administrators, developers, architects, business analysts, quality engineers, or project resources.
• Experience managing Salesforce or another enterprise CRM platform supporting Sales, Marketing, and Customer Service capabilities.
• Experience overseeing the complete software delivery lifecycle, including governance, production support, release management, platform operations, and third-party delivery.
• Experience with Salesforce Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Marketing Cloud, Experience Cloud, Data Cloud, Revenue Cloud, CPQ, or related capabilities.
• Experience leading enterprise transformation initiatives and applying Agile delivery practices at scale.
• Experience integrating Salesforce with platforms such as MuleSoft, Oracle, ServiceNow, enterprise data platforms, APIs, middleware, and event- or batch-based services.
• Experience establishing or expanding automation, AI, product-management, platform-governance, or community-of-practice capabilities.
• Experience managing strategic vendors, managed-service providers, contracts, financial resources, and service-level performance.
• Salesforce, ITIL, Agile, product management, project management, or related professional certification preferred.

Additional Requirements

• Willingness and ability to travel as business needs require.
• Flexibility to support critical releases, production incidents, or significant business events outside standard working hours when necessary.
• Employment is subject to applicable work-authorization requirements.

#LI-CH1#LI-Onsite

Company Benefits:

Health & Welfare Benefits: Medical and prescription drug plans, telemedicine (with medical plan), High-Deductible Health Plan (HDHP) and Health Savings Account (HSA), dental and vision plans, virtual physical therapy*, an employee assistance program (EAP)*, and voluntary accident, critical illness, and hospital indemnification programs.

 Financial Benefits: Retirement 401k program with company match, an employee stock purchase plan (voluntary), financial wellness planning*, paid parental leave*, flexible spending accounts (FSA) for child care and health care, short-term and long-term disability*, basic life insurance, accidental death and dismemberment (AD&D)*, adoption financial reimbursement*, tuition reimbursement*, voluntary life insurance (for employees, spouses, and children), and voluntary identity theft and fraud protection.

*100% paid by ADS.

Why Join ADS?

Growth Opportunities & Global Presence: With a global network of approximately 70 manufacturing plants and 40 distribution centers, ADS offers extensive opportunities for career growth and development in various locations around the world.

Inclusive and Creative Work Culture: ADS fosters a culture of passion, innovation, and continuous improvement, empowering employees to shape industry-leading solutions. We value diverse perspectives, recognizing that they drive better ideas, processes, and performance. Our workplace is built on respect, inclusivity, and shared responsibility, ensuring every team member feels valued and contributes to our collective success.

Innovative & Sustainability Focused: Advanced Drainage Systems is one of the largest plastic recyclers in North America, ensuring over half a billion pounds of plastic is kept out of landfills every year.

Learn More: https://www.adspipe.com/about-us

EEO Statement

ADS supports an inclusive workplace that values diversity of thought, experience, and background. We celebrate the power of our differences to create better solutions for our customers by ensuring employees can be their authentic selves each day. ADS is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, religion, color, national origin, ancestry, age, physical or mental disability, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, pregnancy, veteran status, marital status, creed, status with regard to public assistance, genetic status or any other status protected by federal, state or local law.