About this Integration Manager role at Kardex
This role serves as the operational bridge between Project Management, Solution Engineering, Software, Controls, Commissioning, Customer Support, and the customer’s operational and IT teams.
The Integration Manager becomes actively involved before system go-live and remains engaged through the early operational life of the solution, with particular focus on the first six months after deployment.
The primary objective of the role is to ensure that systems are not simply technically complete, but are operationally ready, properly integrated, fully documented, effectively handed over, and capable of being supported efficiently after launch.
The Integration Manager will help identify implementation risks before go-live, coordinate system-level validation, ensure support teams understand the deployed solution, and drive rapid resolution of recurring issues during the stabilization period.
Success in this position will directly improve:
• Customer satisfaction
• System stability
• First-six-month support performance
• Project-to-service handoff
• Issue resolution speed
• System availability
• Customer adoption
• Internal accountability
• Long-term serviceability
Your tasks
Key Responsibilities
Deployment Readiness
Lead a structured deployment-readiness process before customer go-live.
Confirm that the complete integrated solution is prepared for operational use, including:
- Mechanical systems
- Controls
- AutoStore
- Conveyor
- Peripheral equipment
- Software
- WMS/WCS/WES interfaces
- Host integrations
- Network infrastructure
- User access
- Operational workflows
- Support documentation
Ensure outstanding technical, operational, and integration risks are clearly identified before launch.
Establish and maintain a formal Go-Live Readiness Checklist for each assigned project.
Identify unresolved issues that could create operational disruption after go-live and drive ownership and closure before the system enters production.
System Integration Coordination
Coordinate system-level integration across all technology components included within the Kardex Solutions scope.
Typical systems may include:
- AutoStore
- Conveyor and sortation
- Goods-to-person technologies
- AMRs or AGVs
- Robotics
- Kardex software platforms
- WCS/WES
- PLC and controls systems
- Customer WMS or ERP platforms
- Shipping systems
- Print-and-apply systems
- Scanners and identification systems
- Third-party automation
Ensure that interfaces between systems are properly defined, tested, documented, and understood by the teams responsible for ongoing support.
The Integration Manager does not necessarily develop every interface or control sequence but is accountable for ensuring the entire integrated solution functions as intended.
Integration Testing
Coordinate and support structured testing prior to production launch.
Testing should include, where appropriate:
- Interface testing
- End-to-end transaction testing
- Order lifecycle testing
- Inventory transactions
- Replenishment workflows
- Picking workflows
- Packing workflows
- Exception handling
- Equipment fault recovery
- Communication interruptions
- Host-system interruptions
- Recovery procedures
- Peak throughput testing
- Stress testing
- User acceptance testing
Ensure testing represents realistic customer operating conditions, rather than isolated equipment functionality.
Maintain clear documentation of test results, open issues, responsibilities, and corrective actions.
Operational Readiness
Work with the customer and internal teams to ensure the operation is prepared to successfully use the system.
Validate that:
- Standard operating procedures are established
- Operators are trained
- Supervisors are trained
- Maintenance teams are trained
- Customer IT teams understand integration dependencies
- Exception processes are defined
- Escalation procedures are documented
- Spare parts requirements are established
- System monitoring is operational
- Support contacts are clearly defined
Ensure the customer understands how to operate the solution during both normal and abnormal conditions.
Service & Support Handoff
Own the transition of the deployed system from the project organization to the Kardex Solutions support organization.
Ensure the support team receives complete and accurate system information before taking operational responsibility.
Required handoff documentation may include:
- Final system architecture
- Equipment lists
- Network architecture
- IP addressing
- Software versions
- PLC versions
- Configuration files
- Integration specifications
- Interface mappings
- Customer contacts
- Vendor contacts
- Warranty information
- Spare parts lists
- Known issues
- Troubleshooting procedures
- Escalation paths
- Project-specific operational considerations
Conduct a formal Project-to-Support Handoff Review before the system enters steady-state support.
Go-Live Support
Coordinate Kardex Solutions resources during system launch and the initial production period.
Establish clear responsibilities across:
- Project Management
- Engineering
- Software
- Controls
- Commissioning
- Customer Support
- Third-party suppliers
- Customer operations
- Customer IT
Ensure critical issues are quickly assigned to the correct resource and are not delayed because ownership is unclear.
Support structured daily or weekly go-live reviews depending on the complexity and maturity of the deployment.
Six-Month Stabilization Period
Maintain oversight of project performance during the first six months following go-live.
Monitor:
- Support ticket volume
- Repeat issues
- System availability
- Equipment faults
- Software incidents
- Interface failures
- Operational exceptions
- Customer escalation volume
- Response time
- Resolution time
Identify trends rather than treating each support ticket as an isolated event.
Drive root-cause investigations for recurring or high-impact issues.
Ensure permanent corrective actions are implemented rather than relying on temporary workarounds.
Root Cause & Continuous Improvement
Lead or coordinate structured root-cause analysis for significant or recurring deployment issues.
Methods may include:
- 5 Why analysis
- Fault-tree analysis
- Failure mode analysis
- Issue trending
- Pareto analysis
- Log analysis
- System performance reviews
Identify whether issues originated from:
- Solution design
- Engineering
- Software
- Controls
- Configuration
- Installation
- Commissioning
- Training
- Operational procedures
- Customer infrastructure
- Third-party systems
Ensure lessons learned are documented and incorporated into future projects.
Project Lessons Learned
Conduct a formal lessons-learned review approximately 90–180 days after go-live.
Capture findings related to:
- Design assumptions
- Integration requirements
- Software configuration
- Commissioning
- Testing
- Training
- Customer readiness
- Support documentation
- Third-party dependencies
- Operational performance
Work with Engineering, Product Management, Project Management, and Service to convert recurring lessons into standardized improvements.
The goal is not simply to solve individual project issues, but to prevent the same issues from occurring on future projects.
Customer Relationship
Serve as a trusted technical and operational resource during the transition from project implementation to stable operations.
Communicate clearly with customer stakeholders regarding:
- System status
- Open issues
- Root causes
- Corrective actions
- Operational risks
- Resolution timelines
- Support responsibilities
Maintain appropriate urgency while ensuring customer expectations remain realistic and aligned with contractual responsibilities.
Cross-Functional Collaboration
The Integration Manager will work closely with:
- Project Management
- Solution Engineering
- Mechanical Engineering
- Electrical Engineering
- Controls Engineering
- Software Engineering
- Commissioning
- Customer Support
- Field Service
- Product Management
- Sales
- Customer IT
- Customer Operations
- Third-party suppliers
The role should provide a single system-level perspective across teams that may otherwise be focused on individual components.
Key Performance Indicators
Success in this role should be measured primarily by the quality and stability of projects following deployment.
Recommended KPIs include:
- Number of support incidents during first 30, 90, and 180 days
- Repeat incident rate
- Critical incident rate
- System availability during stabilization
- Mean time to resolution
- Percentage of issues resolved permanently versus temporarily
- Percentage of projects completing formal support handoff before go-live
- Percentage of projects completing operational-readiness reviews
- Open issues at go-live
- Customer escalations during first six months
- Customer satisfaction following deployment
- Lessons-learned actions implemented
- Reduction in recurring issues across successive projects
A particularly useful primary metric could be:
Support incidents per deployed system during the first six months of operation.
This provides a direct indication of whether deployment quality is improving.
Qualifications
Required Experience
- 7+ years of experience in warehouse automation, systems integration, industrial automation, software integration, project delivery, commissioning, or technical support.
- Experience supporting complex automated systems after deployment.
- Strong understanding of integrated material handling systems.
- Experience troubleshooting issues that cross multiple technical disciplines.
- Ability to understand system architecture and data flow.
- Strong customer-facing communication skills.
- Demonstrated ability to coordinate technical teams during critical project periods.
- Strong organizational and issue-management skills.
Preferred Experience
Experience with one or more of the following is strongly preferred:
- AutoStore
- Conveyor systems
- Sortation
- AS/RS
- Goods-to-person systems
- AMRs / AGVs
- PLC controls
- Industrial networks
- WMS
- WCS
- WES
- ERP integration
- Warehouse software
- SQL or system log analysis
- API or message-based integrations
- Material handling systems integration
Experience with large, multi-technology automation projects is highly desirable.
Technical Competencies
The successful candidate should understand:
- System architecture
- Warehouse material flow
- Controls architecture
- PLC systems
- Industrial communications
- Software interfaces
- Host-system integration
- WMS/WCS/WES architecture
- Transaction flows
- Network dependencies
- Exception handling
- Troubleshooting methodology
- System availability
- Root-cause analysis
- Commissioning processes
- Acceptance testing
The Integration Manager does not need to be the deepest technical specialist in every discipline but must possess enough technical knowledge to connect issues across disciplines and drive the appropriate teams toward resolution.
Professional Skills
The ideal candidate is:
- Highly accountable
- Detail oriented
- Process driven
- Technically credible
- Calm under pressure
- Comfortable working directly with customers
- Able to coordinate multiple technical disciplines
- Strong at identifying risks before they become issues
- Persistent in driving problems to permanent resolution
- Effective at communicating complex problems clearly
- Comfortable challenging teams when required
- Focused on continuous improvement rather than assigning blame
Travel
Approximately 30–50% travel may be required depending on project activity.
Travel will primarily support:
- Pre-go-live readiness reviews
- Integration testing
- System commissioning
- Customer go-lives
- Operational stabilization
- Significant troubleshooting activities
- Lessons-learned reviews
Role in the Kardex Solutions Project Lifecycle
The Integration Manager should become involved before commissioning is complete, not after support problems begin.
A recommended lifecycle is:
Design → Build → Integrate → Test → Operational Readiness → Go-Live → Stabilize → Handoff → Optimize
The Integration Manager's primary ownership begins during Integration and Testing and continues through approximately six months after go-live.
During that period, the Integration Manager ensures the system transitions from a completed project into a stable, supportable, production-ready customer solution.
Primary Mission
Make every Kardex Solutions deployment easier to operate and easier to support than the one before it.
The Integration Manager is successful when the customer reaches stable operations quickly, the support organization receives a clean handoff, recurring issues are eliminated, and the first six months of operation require minimal reactive support.
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