Business Relationship Manager - Sales & Marketing at Astron Energy (Pty) Ltd.

Job Summary 

The Sales & Marketing BRM is a strategic partner with the Sales leadership teams, as well as the internal and external sales support groups and partners, and drives thought-leadership to bring innovation and value to these departments.

They manage the end-to-end IT portfolio of applications and ensure spend is aligned to strategy, value office and follows governance and procurement processes.

This role partners closely with key business stakeholders to ensure IT demand is captured, prioritised and planned effectively giving visibility to both business and IT on IT demand and supply and provides alignment with the overall IT Strategy and roadmap.

This role will also ensure that all commitments to business can be achieved and prioritised effectively but also partner with business to proactively offer and support in any technology efficiency / improvements. This role forms part of the IT leadership team.

Roles & Responsibility (but not limited to):

• Lead a team of IT professionals to deliver support and value to the BU in order for it to meet its strategic objectives.
• Direct and manage the provisioning of IT services to the sales operations of the business.
• They will act as a point of escalation for the IT build and run teams within this business tower and also be a key point of contact for business stakeholders for IT demand.
• Maintain demand process for new proposals with overall responsibility for steering these proposals through the early phases of approval
• Develop and enhance relationships with key business stakeholders, actively manage their expectations & monitor satisfaction levels
• Address sales and marketing demand by capturing high level technology requirements
• Ensure high level technology impact analysis is provided to business for faster decision making and demand planning
• Develop training, maintenance, implementation, upgrade, enhancements, safety procedures, protocol, and documentation where required
• Work with the senior management team to develop business plans, budgets, IT strategy, and other key targets for the IT department
• Provide leadership, direction, and coordination for IT activities between sales and marketing support business departments
• Develop expense and capital budgets, gain approval, analyse monthly variances, and lost opportunities and operate the IT department within budget parameters.
• 24/7 availability in order to resolve critical issues
• Provide overall oversight and management guidance for all vendors to ensure compliance to agreed SLAs
• Assure prompt and effective action is taken to resolve technical problems and minimise repetitive discrepancies through continuous improvement efforts
• Manage and provide oversight for end-to-end service delivery from Sales and Marketing IT team (including ecosystem partners and third parties) to business
• Contract Management - Evaluates a potential service provider’s reputation, resources and expertise
• Carry-out all required contract negotiations for new and existing contracts with third parties
• Regular presentations and updates at leadership forums e.g. Sales LT’s, Franchise Advisory Councils, Exco’s, Partner forums, etc.
• Responsible for driving and ensuring IT compliance and security standards are maintained at all times.

Professional Qualification and Certifications:

• Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science, Information Systems or other related field, or equivalent work experience.
• SAP certification and/or experience preferred, especially SAP SD and Hybris/Commerce Cloud
• CRM certification or experience preferred

Work Experience: 

• 10 or more years IT experience, preferably in a Retail environment
• 5+ years management experience, preferably in a business facing / client facing role

Knowledge and skills:

• Strong strategic partnering skills with IT and business stakeholders
• Strong leadership skills
• Ability to work under pressure, with tight deadlines and a ‘can-do’ attitude
• Thought-leader and change agent to drive innovation and change at a strategic level that delivers maximum business value
• Extensive knowledge of IT systems and application architectures – highly skilled and experienced in development and operational support of IT systems
• Deep understanding of the retail technology stack to include OS, DB, middleware, POS, Loyalty, Card processing, IoT, application layer, virtualisation, and cloud technologies
• Strong verbal and written communication skills