Business Relationship Manager

We have two full-time opportunities available: one permanent post and one fixed-term post for 10 months from the start date. The fixed-term post has been created through time-limited funding and provides an excellent opportunity for the successful candidate to demonstrate the impact and value that enhanced business relationship management can bring to the organisation.

There is potential for the fixed-term post to be extended or become permanent in the future, making this an exciting opportunity for an individual who can quickly build relationships, drive meaningful improvements and demonstrate measurable organisational benefits.

The successful candidates will need strong organisational skills, with the ability to manage a complex workload, work collaboratively across a wide range of service areas, and support the development and delivery of strategic roadmaps that align technology with business priorities.

This is an exciting opportunity to shape digital priorities, influence strategic decision-making, and ensure technology delivers real value for our organisation and communities. Effective business relationship management is critical to delivering a responsive and strategically focused ICT & Digital service, ensuring we understand and respond to the challenges, opportunities and ambitions of our service areas.

You will work closely with senior stakeholders across a diverse range of services to understand business needs, identify opportunities for improvement, and translate service ambitions into innovative digital solutions. You will help develop technology roadmaps, manage demand for ICT services, and ensure digital initiatives align with organisational priorities and the Council's wider strategic objectives.

What you'll do

• Build and maintain strong relationships with business stakeholders.
• Act as the strategic interface between service areas and ICT, understanding service priorities and developing technology roadmaps that support both service and corporate objectives.
• Align service strategies with corporate priorities and the strategies of partners, suppliers and other key stakeholders.
• Identify opportunities for digital innovation and service improvement.
• Support the development of business cases and technology investment plans.
• Monitor, manage and continuously improve Service Level Agreements, ensuring high levels of performance, customer satisfaction and effective intervention where required.

About you

• Proven experience in stakeholder and relationship management.
• Strong understanding of ICT services and digital transformation.
• Excellent communication, influencing and negotiation skills.
• Ability to manage a complex workload across multiple service areas.
• Ability to translate business requirements into practical technology solutions.
• Experience of working with senior managers and multidisciplinary teams.
• Strong analytical, planning and problem-solving abilities.
• Good knowledge of current and emerging digital technologies.

These vacancies offer an excellent opportunity to help drive forward the Council's ambitious digital agenda, using technology and innovation to improve outcomes for the people of Hull. If you are a proactive, relationship-focused professional with excellent interpersonal and communication skills and are looking for your next challenge, we would love to hear from you.

ROLE AND PURPOSE

Act as the primary contact for ICT with senior stakeholders within Hull City Council and its partners. Manage and continuously improve the relationship between ICT and all the business/functional areas across Hull City Council and its partners. Manage demand and feed into forward pipeline of work and projects. Provide effective communication between ICT and the business areas/partners, raising awareness of ICT activities and managing expectations and issues.

PRINCIPAL ACCOUNTABILITIES:

1. Strategy – Ensure actions/improvements are owned and delivered by the ICT lead team and business relationships are successfully managed across the Council and partners. Ensure services strategies and plans are understood and fed into the ICT pipeline of activity where necessary. Ensure that the ICT strategy is aligned with business strategies and is effectively communicated with service areas.
2. Customer Focus - Accountable for ensuring that significant project and operational issues are managed and resolved to customer satisfaction and within appropriate timescales. Initiate and follow procedures to continuously improve service relationships with customers and use feedback to improve the ICT service. Effectively manage customers’ expectations and provide a 2 way communication interface between the business and ICT.
3. Performance Management – Measure and improve relationships with business stakeholders and ensure service levels are being achieved. Analyse and solve specific and recurring feedback from customers. Maintain a portfolio of available ICT services, identify and advise relevant managers of any potential opportunities for increasing the services offered by Corporate ICT Services.
4. Leadership - Manage communications and relationships to proactively work to actively position and promote ICT well within the business. Challenge and ensure alignment of new ideas and existing portfolio plans with business area goals and ICT strategic direction.
5. Statutory Obligations – Work with services to ensure they are able to use ICT systems meet their statutory obligations.
6. Be the point of escalation and co-ordination for service and change issues where line escalation/resolution has not occurred to customer satisfaction.
7. Be the point of contact for business areas and partners. Manage, develop, create and monitor Service Level Agreements including charges, reviews and sign off.
8. Accountable for Business ICT Roadmaps for respective services areas/partners and joining up complementary activities to drive better business outcomes. Responsible for getting business acceptance of the Roadmaps in conjunction with other ICT Teams so they can create the Technology Roadmap, ensuring the business and ICT are aligned and fit for purpose.
9. Understand corporate and business area strategies, check and challenge alignment between these and ICT strategy and principles. Ensure that service areas are aware of the ICT strategy and that The Project Pipeline and ICT activities align with the ICT Strategy.
10. Support the development of ICT business case providing high level planning and costs for Directorate customers/officers.
11. Contribute, as required and as appropriate, in the event of a Major ICT Incident, Disaster Recovery or Cyber Incident.

Compensation Grades: GRADES 10.

Pay Ranges: £45,091.00 - £48,226.00

Benefits of Working of Hull City Council:

• A competitive salary
• An excellent pension through the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS)
• Initially 23 days annual leave depending on length of service. You will also get eight public holidays per year, and three additional days off, one in May/August and one during the Christmas/New year period
• Career development and learning experiences from a range of training courses and learning methods
• Supportive and forward-thinking culture
• Great career development opportunities

Please ensure that you complete and submit your application by midnight prior to the closing date. Please ensure that your application demonstrates how you meet the essential criteria against the person specification as listed in the job description. We are committed to increasing the diversity, equality, and inclusion within our workforce to represent the people we serve and build an environment in which everyone can feel like they belong. We encourage people from all backgrounds to apply.

The Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults and expects all employees and volunteers to share this commitment.