About Christy Sports
At Christy Sports, we believe Outside is Better. It’s not just a motto, it’s a fact. It makes people happier, healthier, and more connected. That’s why we go out of our way to help people experience the mountain lifestyle by building authentic relationships, offering humble expertise, and sharing a genuine love for what we do. Driven by our unmatched passion for the outdoors, we are always advancing. In-store and online, within our industry, and with the communities we serve, we bring a spirit of innovation to every aspect of what we do. We were founded in Colorado in 1958, but we’ve been chasing adventure for much longer. Skiing and snowboarding aren’t just a job for us, it’s a lifestyle. No matter your level, we strive to give you the best experience possible and invite you to experience the joy of mountain life and sport with us.
Headquartered in Lakewood, Colorado, Christy Sports is one of the leading outdoor specialty retailers in the nation with more than 50 locations in Colorado, Utah, Washington, and Montana. In addition to offering a broad selection of retail merchandise in its stores and through multiple e-commerce sites, Christy Sports is a leading provider of Rental and Equipment Services. During the winter off-season, the Company operates highly professional outdoor businesses including Patio Furniture & Cycling to inspire further and enable Christy Sports guests’ healthy lifestyles, and to leverage its operational infrastructure and passionate employee base.
Share the Stoke for the Christy Sports Values.
We are welcoming - We meet people where they are without judgement. Whether they're seasoned veterans, first-timers, locals, or vacationers, they trust us to set them up for success with quality equipment and great service.
We are ambassadors of lifestyle - We love what makes the mountain lifestyle special: the people, the environment, and the communities. We want our guests to discover and love the mountain lifestyle as much as we do.
We are rooted in experience - By keeping the history of our roots alive, we maintain the quality of service, authenticity, and expertise that our guests value and what made us special in the first place.
We are one team - We make our company a great place to work by collaborating, problem-solving, being accountable, and recognizing our accomplishments. We are each unique contributors to a greater whole.
We are always evolving - Our customer* expectations continue to evolve. To meet their needs, we must evolve to stay relevant. We embrace change and always look for the next evolution of what we can do. *Internal & External
About The Role
As a service-based retailer, we are obsessed with providing world-class customer experience; we will continue to transform and optimize the capabilities of our customer-facing systems, internal applications, processes and data and analytics tools.
Christy Sports is looking for an experienced partner with our executive team to support our business strategy and a proven leader to run our technology organization. This role will own and drive the technology strategy & roadmap development, planning & execution, structure & capability building, change management, and communications both internally and externally. This role will include leading a comprehensive digital transformation which includes improving our ecommerce architecture and stabilizing and modernizing our ERP.
We are seeking a leader with a proven track record in similar consumer facing retail & services businesses who know what great looks like, and someone that understands the commercial realities that face any omni channel business. We are seeking a positive, systematic, and agile technology leader who believes in our Company’s mission, vision and values and looking to help lead a company’s technology and team into its next chapter. A passion for the ski and service industry is welcomed but not required.
Essential Functions
Executive & Team Leadership
- Serve as a member of the Executive team and liaison to the technology function as well as a general business partner
- Operate with a product led mindset, understanding strategy, problem and success, before assessing technology solutions and options
- Develop an ongoing process by which the executive team can connect company strategy and priorities to technology capabilities, priorities and capacity
- Build, develop & manage a diverse IT organization focused on sustainable, scalable and cost-effective operations
- Identify, select, and manage the appropriate external vendors to complement in-house resources and capacity/capability, where applicable
- Serve as the exec sponsor and facilitator of the organization’s AI evolution and lead the internal steering/user group to identify, prioritize and scale AI to deliver measurable ROI, optimization and overall experience. (AI is a business opportunity, supported by technology)
- Drive strict accountability and ROI across a multimillion-dollar technology portfolio, actively managing and negotiating enterprise software contracts and holding vendors, and integrator partners accountable to tight timelines and budgets
Technology Strategy & Architecture
- Assess, develop and implement technology architecture strategies to accommodate current and future needs of the company, including the ability for add on acquisitions
- Establish a governance process to ensure adoption of standard SaaS workflows to limit customization investments
- Stay abreast of new and emerging technology solutions and tools that are applicable to our strategy and business
- Develop and own the existing and emerging risks and vulnerabilities within the Company’s IT tech stack architecture to ensure cybersecurity is a company priority to ensure business continuity and disaster recovery.
- Maintain and regularly assess technology and data risks, including access vulnerabilities
- Ensure technology enables seamless omnichannel experiences across ecommerce, stores, and rentals—especially during peak seasonal demand
Development & Integration
- Develop a clear process for ongoing application and feature development and prioritization across our suite of technology systems: online commerce, online rental reservation, retail point-of-sale, rental inventory management, warehouse management, ERP, HRIS, etc
- Serve as the technology partner to marketing, stores, operations) to ensure alignment related to required capabilities, systemic or operational deficiencies and the realities at play when the inevitable disconnects arise
- Own workplace productivity and automation outcomes, including measurable improvements in efficiency, cost, improvement of customer-facing features and the technology employee experience.
Data & Analytics
- Own the data and analytics roadmap to continually improve the ease of data access, insights and reporting
- Help drive and education and the organization’s adoption of available tools and capabilities to enable everyone to be and “analyst” (decentralized model)
- Own and deliver the organization’s evolution and adoption of AI to advance our insights across customer experience, marketing, merchandising, planning and finance
Desktop & Retail Support
- Ensure clear processes and prioritization for help desk support and prioritization
- Drive a robust IT operation with a KPI & SLA based approach for infrastructure, networking, services incl Help Desk, and cyber security/compliance
- Support and understanding of peak season performance needs to deliver store uptime and revenue protection.
Required Skills/Abilities
- 10+ years of experience working in an organization as a member of the technology team, 5+ years in a senior leadership role
- Proven track record leading enterprise ecommerce migrations (Shopify Plus, SFCC preferred), complex orchestration (e.g., MuleSoft), and backend integrations with point-of-sale and legacy ERP systems.
- Thought leadership and proven best practice experience leading a high-performance Tech governance, project management, planning, & delivery model.
- Build and lead a high performance and cohesive team with strong accountability and motivation
- Robust skills managing IT budgeting, forecasting, and cost tracking.
- Excellent communication skills to overcommunicate key information, updates, progress reports, changes, and support required within the IT team, LT team, and enterprise wide.
- Proven experience leveraging technology for continuous improvement in team facing and customer facing process effectiveness and efficiency.
- Ability to influence non-technical leaders and lead technical transformation
- Experience in a multi-site and state Retail environment strongly preferred.
Other
- This position is on-site and based in our Lakewood, CO Support Office
- Travel Percentage: 10%
The Perks and Benefits: (* Benefits for Year-Round Full-Time Employees)
- Free Employee Ski Pass
- Medical, Dental, and Vision insurance*
- Employer Paid Basic Life Insurance and AD&D*
- Voluntary Life Insurance (Employee/Spouse/Child)*
- Health Care and Dependent Care Flexible Spending Accounts*
- 401(k) Retirement Savings Plan with Company Match
- Paid Time Off*
- Paid Sick Time (State applicable)
- Paid Parental Leave*
- Short-Term and Long-Term Disability*
- Employee Discounts (ski, retail, outdoor industry)
Equal Opportunity Employer
Christy Sports is an Equal Opportunity Employer (EOE). Qualified applicants are considered for employment without regard to age, race, color, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, disability, or veteran status. If you need assistance or accommodation during the application process because of a disability, it is available upon request. The company is pleased to provide such assistance, and no applicant will be penalized as a result of such a request.
Campensation range: $190,000- $220,000 annually. Actual pay will be adjusted based on experience.
- Bonus eligible based upon company performance indicators
WORKING CONDITIONS
PHYSICAL DEMANDS
The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodation may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.
The employee must regularly lift and /or move up to 25 pounds and occasionally lift and/or move up to 50 pounds. (Request help with heavy or awkward boxes/products). Specific vision abilities required by this job include Close vision, Distance vision, Peripheral vision, Depth perception and Ability to adjust focus. While performing the duties of this Job, the employee is regularly required to stand; use hands to finger, handle, or feel; reach with hands and arms; climb stairs and ladders, stoop, kneel, crouch, or crawl and talk or hear. The employee is frequently required to walk.
WORK ENVIRONMENT
The work environment characteristics described here are representative of those an employee encounters while performing the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodation may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.
The noise level in the work environment is usually moderate.
