IS&T Business Relationship Director - EMEA

Location : This is a hybrid role, offering a combination of being able to work remotely and from our European offices – there will be some travel involved across our global business.

The Opportunity

The EMEA IS&T Business Relationship Director (BRD) is a senior executive who reports to Information Services and Technology with a strong dotted line to the EMEA Region, markets and business units. The role may support one or more cross-enterprise business areas in the region too. 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 RS Group Regions, Functions, 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.

The BRD will work with Regional Business Leadership helping to move from ad hoc demand to a more connected operating model. The BRD acts as a routing and connection point across the RS Business & Region, IS&T, enabling functions, accelerating functions, and global portfolio owners. Identifying the right path for work early, whether that is support, small change, intake, VROM, PRF, or Strategic Roadmap.

The roadmap remains the priority, with any intake and demand being tested against strategy, value, capacity, and trade-offs before we decide what to advance. This prioritization and clear ranking is a crucial input to the quarterly cycle tied to QBR and strategic planning: review intake, close stale items, prioritize what remains, route it through the right process, and tracking delivery & benefits.

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.

The Business Relationship Director capability is a key driver in allowing IT to move into this strategic role, to stimulate, surface, and shape business demand and ensure that companies recognize, capture, and optimize the potential business value from that demand. A strong BRD capability converges cross-functional teams and eliminates value-depleting organizational silos. It drives a culture of creativity, innovation, collaboration and shared ownership across the enterprise, and produces strategies that deliver their intended business value results. BRDs are “blended executives” who possess a diverse set of skills and experiences.

Responsibilities

Reporting to the Vice President Office of the CIO, this role will have IT strategy and delivery responsibility for the EMEA Region. 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 organizational 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 EMEA Region and a champion for identifying, leading and driving information technology transformation.

- Ensure that EMEA 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 organization by routinely meeting with end customers/consumers, industry peers, and other external sources.

- Ensure continuous improvement in value optimization, 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

Candidate Requirements

Essential Skills & Experience

- A minimum of 10 years’ experience in information technology.

- A minimum of 5 years’ experience facilitating the development and implementation of business initiatives and projects based on organizational 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 organization.

- 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 utilize 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.

- Experience working with and influencing Enterprise planning cycles and tied to QBR / strategy planning: review demand, business case development, close stale items, force-rank what remains, and route priority items through the right process.

- Put Technology Services, Capability & Business Relationship in front of demand earlier with assessment step to clarify value, urgency, ownership, and likely path before teams spend significant time scoping.

- Connect the full cycle from end-to-end: strategy through delivery to lessons learned and benefits tracking.

- Ability to attract, develop and retain talent, and build strong teams both direct and matrixed.

We Are RS

RS is a high-service global product and service solutions provider for industrial customers, enabling them to operate efficiently and sustainably.

We operate in 33 markets, stock over 875,000 industrial and specialist products and list an additional five million relevant for our industrial customers, sourced from over 2,500 suppliers. This extensive range supports our customers across the industrial lifecycle of designing, building and maintaining equipment and operations.

We enhance their experience through a tailored service model, leveraging our efficient physical, digital and process infrastructure sustainably. We combine a technically led and digitally enabled approach with an exceptional team of experts; ultimately, it’s our people that make the difference.

Our purpose, making amazing happen for a better world, reflects our focus on delivering results for people, planet and profit.

Rewards

Our Reward Strategy Philosophy is designed to offer market competitive base salaries and provide all of our people the opportunity to participate in a short-term incentive, enabling them to share in the success of the Company.

Our total reward package is more than just the cash; our recognition and benefit offering provide the opportunity for us to recognise, reward and enable the wellbeing of our people at all stages of their journey with RS. Our rewards and benefits vary by country, but include:

- Financial - pension/retirement; life assurance; salary finance (payroll deduction loan scheme)

- Wellbeing - medical plans; health screening; critical illness; disability insurance; holiday / paid time off; employee assistance programme; discounted gym/health club membership

- Lifestyle - transportation assistance schemes (e.g., cycle to work, travel loans, car leasing); onsite catering/lunch vouchers; retail discounts

- Spotlight – our global recognition programme provides a platform to highlight and recognise people role modelling our values

Ready to Make Amazing Happen?

Join c. 9,000 colleagues and help us shape the future of our industry. Whoever you are, wherever you are — it all starts here.

Apply now and make RS a part of your journey.

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