Interim Director of IT at Practicus, Southampton, £800-£900 per day

🚀 Interim IT Director | 6 Month Contract

🌍Location: Southampton

🏢4 days a week on site 1 day working from home

💰£800 – £900 a day outside IR35

I’m working with a high-growth UK consumer brand with an established international presence that is entering an exciting phase of technology and operational transformation.

They are looking for an experienced Interim IT Director to take ownership of the Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, strengthen business systems and create the foundations needed to support continued growth.

This is a high-impact, hands-on leadership role reporting directly into the CFO, with the opportunity to make tangible improvements across ERP, inventory, data, IT service delivery, cyber-security and the wider technology operating model.

🔹 The Opportunity

The business has invested significantly in its technology landscape, including Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central as its core ERP, alongside a broad application estate supporting its digital and international growth.

With a relatively lean internal technology function and a network of outsourced partners, they now need an experienced leader to bring greater structure, governance and effectiveness to the back-office technology environment. 🎯

You will be brought in to assess, challenge and improve the current setup, while also defining what the future technology function should look like.

🛠️ Key Priorities

💻 ERP & Business Central

• Review how Business Central is being used across the organisation and identify opportunities to improve processes and adoption.
• Lead a programme to reduce unnecessary customisation and move towards a more sustainable upgrade path.
• Reduce reliance on spreadsheets, manual uploads and offline workarounds.
• Review the performance, cost, capability and quality of the Business Central support partner.

📦 Inventory Systems

• Map the end-to-end inventory lifecycle and identify gaps between physical processes and system records
• Establish Business Central as the central source of truth for inventory.
• Work across Operations, Finance, Supply chain and technology partners to improve processes and ownership.
• Lead delivery of a new inventory planning and forecasting solution.

📊 Data & BI

• Review and strengthen the existing data governance framework.
• Establish clear ownership across key data domains.
• Develop data standards, particularly around product and SKU management.
• Review data models to ensure consistency, accuracy and reliability.

🔄 Technology Transformation

• Support the PMO and business owners across technology-led projects.
• Challenge proposed solutions and ensure business cases are robust, commercially sound and fit for the long term.

🛡️ IT Service Delivery & Cyber

• Provide specialist technology services focused on improving service reliability, resilience, and performance.
• Review the current service delivery model and identify opportunities to improve efficiency and effectiveness.
• Assess the current cyber-security position and identify any required interventions.

🏗️ Future Technology Organisation

A key part of the assignment will be defining what the technology function should look like for the future — including responsibilities, capabilities, roles, structure and the requirements of a permanent IT Director.

👤 What We're Looking For

• Proven technology leadership experience within a consumer, retail, FMCG or multi-channel environment.
• Strong experience optimising and governing ERP platforms in M365 Business Central
• A track record of delivering complex technology and business transformation programmes with a hands on approach.
• Experience developing and implementing data governance frameworks.
• Strong business process design and improvement capability.
• Commercial experience managing technology suppliers and outsourced partners.
• A solid understanding of cyber-security and technology risk.
• The ability to operate confidently across Finance, Operations, Commercial and supply chain.
• Strong influencing skills and the confidence to challenge existing ways of working.
• Experience leading, developing and designing effective technology teams and operating models.

🌟 Why This Role?

You'll be joining at a point where there is a genuine opportunity to reshape how technology supports the business, improve the effectiveness of core systems and establish the foundations for the next stage of growth. 📈🚀

If you're an interim technology leader who enjoys walking into complexity, creating clarity and delivering meaningful change, this could be a very interesting assignment. 🎯

📩 Interested?

Please get in touch for a confidential conversation and further details.