Business Relationship Director - EMEA

Business Relationship Director
Location: Hybrid (London or Corby)
RS Components is seeking a Business Relationship Director for a permanent position. An IT Business Relationship Director (BRD) is a senior executive who reports to Information Services and Technology with a strong dotted line to the business unit or business function they support, Some BRDs may support one or more cross-enterprise business areas. BRDs understand both business and IT so that they can drive innovation and shape demand for technology that increases business value. They will also coordinate IT resources and work with cross-functional teams to ensure those opportunities deliver the business value that was expected from them, acting as a point of escalation when needed. BRDs represent IT and work closely with specific business unit in RS Group Regions, Accelerators or Enabler functions (Finance, HR).
 

Their objective is to converge business and IT as true strategic partners and ensure business value results. The BRD role will work closely with architects, change teams, program and project managers, business analysts, infrastructure teams and others to communicate project requirements and objectives. Their ultimate goal is to evolve culture, build strategic partnerships and drive business value through the use of information and technology.

Our business leaders must view IS&T as a strategic differentiator. To be elevated to the role of strategic business leader, IT must move beyond solely providing services and become a truly converged strategic partner that shares ownership of both business strategy and business results.

Key Responsibilities:

• Reporting to the Senior Vice President Global Portfolio Delivery and Operations, this role will have IT strategy and delivery responsibility for A Region, An Accelerator or Enabler function. The Business Relationship Director will partner with Business leaders to stimulate, surface, and shape demand for IT solutions and assets. The BRD will also ensure delivery of information technology solutions that generate business value and confirm that the results are measured and communicated.
• Work with senior leaders to evolve culture and organisational behaviour, elevating IT into a strategic partner.
• Develop deep knowledge of [Region, Accelerator, Enabler] and build both horizontal and vertical relationships with business and IT leaders that deliver business impact.
• Coach business partners and enable them to articulate the technology needs and requirements in their function that will advance business performance.
• Act as the principal technology advisor to [Region, Accelerator, Enabler] and a champion for identifying, leading and driving information technology transformation.
• Ensure that [Region, Accelerator, Enabler] strategy and key performance indicators are identified and leveraged for effective IT demand shaping. Partner with business unit or function leaders on pre-project ideation.
• Partner with enterprise architects to develop technology enablement business capability roadmaps.
• Partner with business and IT leaders to evaluate proposals, build business cases, and plan new joint initiatives, and determine how they fit into business capability roadmaps and priorities.

• Partner with business analysts to ensure that essential business requirements are understood, captured, and reflected in solution documentation.
• Partner with business transformation or change management teams to ensure that the business unit or function has the capacity and capabilities to implement changes required by new technology solutions.
• Ensure that project/program managers and IT staff assigned to projects are knowledgeable about the business unit or function, business partner(s), and their objectives.
• Ensure delivery of new technology solutions and capabilities in accordance with the roadmap and ensure that they meet established objectives and expectations of business partners.
• Share ownership of the business value results of technology related projects; measure and communicate business value results on a regular basis.
• Bring outside-in or fresh perspectives into the organisation by routinely meeting with end customers/consumers, industry peers, and other external sources.
• Ensure continuous improvement in value optimisation, IT performance, and business processes where applicable.
• Proactively identify business capability and IT service gaps and contribute to improvement efforts and advocate for and advance business partners’ knowledge of IT processes, frameworks, roles, and capabilities.
• Develop value-adding BRM professional maturity, individually and for the entire function

About You:
The ideal candidate for the Business Relationship Director role will be instrumental in advancing IT’s strategic impact by surfacing, shaping, and stimulating business demand. This role ensures that the organisation can identify, capture, and optimise potential business value from that demand. A strong Business Relationship Director will unify cross-functional teams, breaking down organisational silos to maximize value, and will foster a culture of innovation, collaboration, and shared ownership across the enterprise. They will bring a strategic approach that consistently delivers on business value goals, acting as a “blended executive” with a broad skill set and diverse experience to drive transformation effectively.
 

What you’ll need:

• Significant experience in information technology.
• Experience facilitating the development and implementation of business initiatives and projects based on organisational objectives.
• Demonstrated track record of creating technology solutions to solve business problems (globally, or across multiple divisions or regions within a single company).
• Strong collaboration, teamwork and relationship building skills across multiple levels and functions in the organisation.
• Ability to listen, build rapport, and credibility as a strategic partner vertically within the business unit or function, as well as with leadership and functional teams.
• A strategic thinker focused on business value results that utilise technical solutions.
• Ability to set expectations with business partners and effectively leverage governance for a positive business partner experience.
• Demonstrated ability to interact with and influence C-level executives to drive business value.
• Exceptional ability to lead change using positive and collaborative methods.
• Skilled at conflict resolution and problem-solving to achieve win-win outcomes.
• Diplomacy: able to influence and motivate others using personal rather than positional power.
• Strong communication skills in writing, speaking, and presenting.
• An exceptional listener, able to comprehend what is said and probe for important details.
• Able to communicate technical or complex subject matter in business terms.
• An outside-in focus: outstanding end-customer relationship skills. Highly skilled at creating business requirements documents, use cases, user acceptance test plans, process flow and data flow diagrams.
• Demonstrated acumen and passion for business and technology.
• Understands the IT industry, e.g. emerging technologies and trends, industry standards, solution architecture, and the vendor landscape. o Highly self-motivated.
• Accepts ownership and welcomes responsibility.
• Ability to attract, develop and retain talent, and build strong teams

The extras you’ll get:

At RS, as well as the usual employee benefits you’d expect from a FTSE listed company, including annual performance bonus, enhanced maternity and paternity leave, private healthcare, in the UK&I, we’ve just introduced a number of new Family Friendly Policies including:​

• Help for people to take control of ongoing Health conditions such as diabetes or asthma with £500 a year available for monitoring & consultation​
• Support for Neurodiverse colleagues and families with neurodiverse members with needs assessment, diagnosis and post diagnostic support for autism spectrum, ADHD and Tourette’s syndrome​
• Support for Women at different life stages from streamlined fertility support through to diagnosis and monitoring of both endometriosis and menopause​
•  Helping our LGBTQ+ community through enhanced coverage for trans colleagues, including voice coaching, facial surgery and gender confirmation surgery​
• Additions to Fertility coverage including IVF for lesbian couples and information/support around surrogacy and adoption for all. 

We are RS

At RS we’ve been solving engineering problems for over 80 years: big ones, small ones, easy and difficult ones. We turn the ‘what ifs’ into the ‘why nots’, the impossible into the possible.  ​

Our purpose? Making amazing happen for a better world.  ​

We offer service and product solutions. We send out a parcel every 2 seconds, to over 130 countries. We provide over 700,000 in-stock and over 3 million unstocked products to more than 1.2 million customers.  ​

We want people like you, as you are curious about things, you like doing things differently and also in a human way with empathy. Because that’s exactly how we partner with people – our customers, suppliers, colleagues and communities – to solve problems.  ​

We’ll also invest in your development and wellbeing – because building a more diverse and inclusive culture, being ethical, responsible and committed to our Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) action plan is at the heart of everything we do. ​

Come and join us and we’ll help you to think big, do more and unleash your brilliance, so you do amazing things too.​

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