Head, Business Relationship Management
JOB DETAIL
1. SUMMARY
The Executive Management (EM) Division, International Staff (IS), has the lead role in the overall management of the NATO Headquarters (HQ). Within EM, the ICTM Directorate provides support and services mainly to the North Atlantic Council (NAC), its Committees and to the IS through two pillars: Information, Communications and Technology Management (ICTM) and Archives Information and Knowledge Management (AIM). Member and Partner Nation Delegations residing at NATO HQ also benefit from some of the services and products provided by ICTM.
Within the context of the digital transformation of the Organization, the Business Relationship Management (BRM) Section under the ICTM ensures that business requests of International Staff for ICT services and applications are analysed, validated and delivered according to agreed standards and/or requirements by internal and external.
The Head, Business Relationship Management (BRM) Section, supervises two Units: Customer Support and Business Analysis. S/he monitors/reports on the end-to-end delivery of technology solutions to the business and manages the relationship between the IT environment and the business. They manage the portfolio of ICT projects, collaborate with the business and establish a governance system that allows for effective management of projects priorities and the proper assessment of the impact on the organisation when making or facilitating decisions. Additionally, they provide guidance to the business around vendors and technical trends. The Head, BRM considers business goals and requirements, and aligns solutions with the overall business and technology strategy when scoping and planning a project/program. They lead negotiations of Service Level Agreement (SLA) with the main ICT services providers, in particular the NATO Communication and Information Agency (NCIA).
2. QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE
ESSENTIAL
The incumbent must:
- have a university degree, or an equivalent level of qualification, in Information Technology, Engineering, Business Administration or in a similar oriented area;
- have 8 years of experience in ICT and related management experience in multiple business and technological areas;
- have experience in the management of a portfolio of complex ICT projects and in the governance of ICT initiatives;
- have strong knowledge of applicable business areas, the supporting technology architecture, and applicable processes in an ICT legacy tailor made environment with the need to move rapidly to new digital environment;
- have professional knowledge of outsourcing methodologies and operating models and working with external Service Providers;
- have experience negotiating complex contracts and Service Level Agreements (SLAs);
- have proven organisational and administrative skills;
- have experience overseeing culturally diverse work-groups;
- demonstrated understanding of Public Sector procurement and budgeting practices;
- possess the following minimum levels of NATO’s official languages (English/French): V (‘Advanced’) in one, II ( Elementary) in the other.
DESIRABLE
The following would be considered an advantage:
- relevant ICT certification(s) for the position;
- project, programme or portfolio management professional certification;
- professional experience in complex organization and more specifically International Organisations;
- experience in change management inside the areas of their responsibility as well as in the relation with stakeholders.
People Management
Lead, plan, direct and supervise the work of the Section. Cultivate a motivating, inclusive and effective workplace. Provide mentoring, coaching and training opportunities and be available to offer guidance at critical moments. Promote transparency in decision-making, equal access to opportunities for staff and an inclusive management culture. Ensure that all staff under their responsibility is clear on organizational, divisional, directorate and section objectives. Provide regular and fair feedback on performance, informally as appropriate, and via the HQ Performance Review and Development (PRD) system. Participate in recruitment procedures for vacant posts in the Section, in accordance with NATO recruitment guidelines. Identify possible development and mobility opportunities for individuals.
Planning and Execution
Provide business requirements and high-level technical requirements to project teams for implementation. Serve as the primary communication channel to the business regarding the set of applications/technologies under responsibility. Work with business and technology teams to ensure that the business needs are clearly understood and the technology implemented meets the needs and expectations of the business. Work with the business leadership to analyse the cost/benefit/risk of a proposed architecture/technology. Ensure that proposed architecture/technology is aligned with business/technology strategy. Facilitate issue resolution and clearly communicate cross-organization decisions, standards, and discussions to relevant parties.
Project Management
Manage the Portfolio of Projects and anticipate risks and issues, and take appropriate action to mitigate/resolve them. Ensure that contingency and/or business continuity technology services are compliant with technology policies and other regulatory requirements.
Organisational Efficiencies
Analyse emerging technologies and work with business and IT management to translate implications of the new trends into recommendations for an effective technology vision and strategy, within an agreed ICT architecture. Generate ideas for new/improved business and technology functions/initiatives. Contribute to continuous improvement by leveraging quality improvement methodologies (BPMN, P3O, PRINCE2, etc.). Provide expert knowledge to enforce ICTM role as ICT “Intelligent Customer” in its relationship with the NCIA and any other provider.
Stakeholder Management
Lead the section that shall act as business partner to the IS services to address their needs and requirements in terms of ICT applications. Conduct regular meetings with key stakeholders to review/discuss overall technology performance for the specific functional areas under responsibility, in a service oriented approach while ensuring that customizations are limited to the minimum necessary. Participate in and support cross-technology process improvement initiatives. Manage the vendor relationship at the business level. Manage/update Service Level Agreements (SLA’s) and other related service agreements. Work with clients and other members of the International Staff (IS).
Expertise Development
Develop relevant expertise and attend training as appropriate. Share expertise when possible and advice others on best practices. Attend seminars and other appropriate technical demonstrations and recommend technologies of interest for further feasibility studies.
Knowledge Management
Promote the use of knowledge management processes and tools. Share/leverage successful products, processes and best practices across technology. Drive initiatives to proactively support knowledge sharing within the technology, business and organization-wide leadership teams. Build up knowledge of how the IS Divisions function and of their technology needs.
Information Management
Identify ways to share resources across business services to promote information sharing and processes optimization. Identify and develop technical support resources to provide production support, resolve issues, develop systems software and staff relevant projects. Refine and enhance tactical methodologies and/or standards. Develop guidelines, standards, policies and procedures and disseminate to technology teams. Ensure that business analyses are conducted within budget. Participate in vendor contract negotiations as needed together with the other ICTM sections/teams during project implementation.
Financial Management
Supervise the coordination and timely preparation, execution and reporting of the ICTM annual budget as well as of the procurement activities of the Directorate, in compliance with the NATO Financial Regulations and Financial Rules and Procedures.
Perform any other related duty as assigned.
4. INTERRELATIONSHIPS
The incumbent reports to the Director ICTM. They work closely with all section Heads in ICTM and with the Communications and Information Systems (CIS) Support Unit (CSU) Brussels Section of NCIA. They will deal with NATO International staff at all levels as well as with external experts, suppliers and vendors.
Direct reports: 4
Indirect reports: 1
5. COMPETENCIES
The incumbent must demonstrate:
- Achievement: Creates own measures of excellence and improves performance;
- Analytical Thinking: Sees multiple relationships;
- Clarity and Accuracy: Monitors others’ work for clarity;
- Conceptual Thinking: Applies learned concepts;
- Customer Service Orientation: Makes things better for the customer, addressing underlying customer needs;
- Impact and Influence: Uses indirect influence;
- Initiative: Is decisive in a time-sensitive situation;
- Teamwork: Solicits inputs and encourages others.
7. USEFUL INFORMATION REGARDING APPLICATION AND RECRUITMENT PROCESS
Please note that we can only accept applications from nationals of NATO member countries. Applications must be submitted using e-recruitment system, as applicable:
- For NATO civilian staff members only: please apply via the internal recruitment portal (link);
- For all other applications: www.nato.int/recruitment
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More information about the recruitment process and conditions of employment, can be found at our website (http://www.nato.int/cps/en/natolive/recruit-hq-e.htm)
Appointment will be subject to receipt of a security clearance (provided by the national Authorities of the selected candidate), approval of the candidate’s medical file by the NATO Medical Adviser, verification of your study(ies) and work experience, and the successful completion of the accreditation and notification process by the relevant authorities.
NATO will not accept any phase of the recruitment and selection prepared, in whole or in part, by means of generative artificial-intelligence (AI) tools, including and without limitation to chatbots, such as Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer (Chat GPT), or other language generating tools. NATO reserves the right to screen applications to identify the use of such tools. All applications prepared, in whole or in part, by means of such generative or creative AI applications may be rejected without further consideration at NATO’s sole discretion, and NATO reserves the right to take further steps in such cases as appropriate.
