Business Relationship Manager – Management Department
WFP seeks candidates of the highest integrity and professionalism who share our humanitarian principles
Selection of staff is made on a competitive basis, and we are committed to promoting diversity and gender balance
Job Title: Business Relationship Manager – Management Department
Type of Contract: Regular Consultant (CST) Level II
Division: TECE
Duty Station: Rome/HQ
Duration: 11 months
ORGANIZATIONAL CONTEXT:
The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is the world's largest humanitarian agency, fighting hunger worldwide. WFP Technology Division (TEC, formerly known as IT) is the digital business engine of the World Food Programme, providing the business with multi-pronged and resilient technical capabilities able to respond with the agility required in humanitarian operations, be they manmade or in a natural disaster setting.
Technology and connectivity are rapidly reaching some of the most vulnerable people and places affected by crisis, but they are also increasingly expanding to the services responding to those same crises. As one of the main humanitarian actors, WFP has the opportunity and the obligation to leverage data and technology to better know and serve those in need by digitally transforming the way it works. Such ambition led to a plan aimed at establishing, integrating, and mainstreaming – in the next two years – the core elements of an end-to- end digital business process.
Within TEC, the Business Relationship Management (BRM) team plays a key role in the digital transformation of WFP by partnering with all parts of the organization in order to identify gaps, set priorities, improve user experience, and scale up digital approaches that enhance business efficiency and operational impact. Within this context, the Consultant will work within the TEC Business Relationship Management (BRM) team, supporting a thematic group of WFP business teams to strategically plan and invest in technology, manage and leverage those investments, while working with other TEC teams to ensure a coordinated approach.
The BRM Consultant will manage the engagement with the Management Department (MD), shaping the demand for technology of its divisions: Corporate Planning and Performance Division (CPP), Risk Management Division (RMD), Corporate Finance Division (FIN), Management Services Division (MSD), and Technology Division (TEC).
The BRM Consultant, while having a good understanding of finance, budget, reporting and performance management structure and business processes, owns a deep understanding of the evolving business and technological needs across these areas, so to ensure that essential projects are:
- defined as per the divisions’ value proposition
- prioritized within the division and across portfolios to ensure complementarities
- coordinated with the different branches within TEC
The Consultant will work under the general supervision and guidance of the Senior Management Department Business Relationship Manager, in close collaboration with all the other BRMs at Headquarters and Regional Bureaux level.
ACCOUNTABILITIES/RESPONSIBILITIES:
Act as a Relationship Manager:
- Build strong, collaborative relationships with the counterparts of the respective divisions under the Management Department and TEC service owners
- Focus on and understand the value the Business partners are aiming to achieve based on their divisional business strategy and the WFP Strategic Plan
- Track Business partners’ satisfaction with services provided and continuously improve, based on feedback provided
Advocate for Your Business Partners:
- Understand the strategies and plans of the business partners and help transpose them, developing a Digital Business roadmap that maps to business strategies
- Help business partners understand project governance processes
- Help business partners to develop project documents and advance them through the project intake and assessment process
Communicate With Business Stakeholders:
- Work with the Project Management Office (PMO) to ensure that effective communication occurs related to service delivery and project delivery (e.g. planned downtime, changes, open tickets)
- Manage expectations of multiple Business stakeholders
- Be the point of contact within TEC for business partners from the Management Department
Analyse and Shape Demand:
- Establish proactive conversations and understand business needs, challenges & opportunities behind demands and their expected value add
- Support the Business Partners in defining business problem statements that the Business and TEC are aligned on and that are linked to strategic plans
- Advocate for a cross-functional and field inclusive perspective whenever relevant
Service Delivery:
- Understand WFP technology and services landscape in use
- Work with the divisions under the Management Department to make sure they understand the relevance and impact of enterprise architecture and IT changes to their operations
- Act as an escalation point for major issues with any aspect of service delivery
- Work with TEC service owners to develop and monitor service improvement plans and to conduct quarterly review meetings to understand customer satisfaction of products and services provided, in order to capture business value delivered.
- Work with project managers to ensure project requirements are well understood, documented and approved by all stakeholders.
Influence Business and TEC Stakeholders:
- Influence Business and TEC stakeholders at multiple levels of the organization in order to help Business partners achieve their objectives
- Leverage existing relationships to convince decision makers to move forward with business and IT initiatives that will benefit the division and the organization as a whole
- Understand the industry – trends and future direction
- Understand and solve issues and overcome challenges such as differing agendas, political considerations, and resistance to change
- Perform other duties as required.
DELIVERABLES:
- Digital Business roadmaps and portfolio health-checks are updated, relevant and agreed with the respective divisions and TEC
- Strategic alignment with divisions’ digital ambitions, organization priorities and WFP user centricity established
- Value proposition defined and aligned to the divisions’ digital strategy
- The relevant business division meet with TEC senior leadership on a half yearly basis and recognise TEC as a trusted partner Updated list of current systems updated in Glass
- Plan for Management Department data in place and implementation started
- Alignment between TEC and the divisions under the Management Department on TEC governance processes
- Legitimate demand scheduled for development
- Support to field Business Engagement activities
- Client satisfaction of TEC services monitored
- Management Department and teams get increased value from the usage of digital solutions.
QUALIFICATIONS & EXPERIENCE REQUIRED:
Education:
- University Degree in one of the following disciplines: Supply Chain, Business Administration, Engineering, Economics, International Development, or related field
Experience:
- 5+ years of relevant finance, budget, reporting or performance management experience, working in a business-facing IT organization with demonstrated experience in partnering with business stakeholders.
Technical Skills & Knowledge:
- Ability to interact with senior stakeholders to influence the status quo;
- Offer constructive suggestions and acts as a trusted advisor to the business;
- Strong business analysis skills; Highly motivated and self-directed;
- Able to effectively prioritize and execute while under pressure; Strong customer service orientation;
- Experience working in a team-oriented, collaborative environment; Empathetic and with strong interpersonal skills;
- Able to negotiate and resolve conflict; Proven ability to communicate and explain complex issues in clear, concise, persuasive language both verbally and in writing;
- Facilitate and influence end-to-end engagement to achieve desired business outcomes
- Core concepts and lifecycle of IT lines of service (e.g. hardware, software, security, project management);
- Significant experience working in a large, complex, and customer-focused service delivery environment, in support of business strategy;
- Excellent understanding of one or more business areas;
- Comprehensive knowledge of the IT function.
Language:
- Fluency (level C) in English language. Intermediate knowledge (level B) of a second official UN language: Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian, Spanish, and/or WFP’s working language, Portuguese is desirable.
TERMS AND CONDITIONS:
WFP offers a competitive compensation package, which will be determined by the contract type and selected candidate’s qualifications and experience.
Please visit the following websites for detailed information on working with WFP.
http://www.wfp.org Click on: "Our Work" and "Countries" to learn more about WFP's operations.
Deadline for applications: 4 January 2023 at 11:59pm Rome time (CET/CEST)
Qualified female applicants and qualified applicants from developing countries are especially encouraged to apply.
WFP has zero tolerance for discrimination and does not discriminate on the basis of HIV/AIDS status.
No appointment under any kind of contract will be offered to members of the UN Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ), International Civil Service Commission (ICSC), FAO Finance Committee, WFP External Auditor, WFP Audit Committee, Joint Inspection Unit (JIU) and other similar bodies within the United Nations system with oversight responsibilities over WFP, both during their service and within three years of ceasing that service.
Saving lives, changing lives
