Manager Business Relationship

Position Summary:

The Business Relationship Manager (BRM) is an IT business partner who blends technology leadership with strong business understanding to share ownership for business strategy alignment and measurable business value results. BRMs sit within the IT organization and are assigned to support specific business units and/or enterprise functions (e.g., Commercial, Operations, Finance, IT). The BRM serves as a single point of focus to align enabling capabilities and delivery partners around business priorities.

This is achieved by stimulating, surfacing, and shaping demand for business capabilities and technology-enabled solutions, and by ensuring that the potential value from those investments is captured, optimized, and recognized. The role improves stakeholder outcomes by running a consistent operating model: shaping demand, preparing decision-ready governance inputs (including business cases and requirements), creating clear communications, and enabling measurable outcome/value reporting. The BRM Manager also collaborates closely with (and may lead, as assigned) Business Systems Analysts to ensure consistent analysis quality and demand readiness.

Major Duties and Responsibilities:

• Strategic interface & demand shaping for assigned scope: Build trusted relationships within the assigned business unit/function and serve as the primary IT engagement point for that scope. Stimulate, surface, and shape demand into decision-ready items (problem statement, outcomes, scope assumptions, dependencies, risks, benefit hypothesis). Support prioritization readiness by clarifying tradeoffs and sequencing recommendations; escalate decisions through established governance.
• Communications & transparency: Run a predictable communications cadence for the assigned scope (monthly/quarterly updates aligned to governance). Own the portfolio narrative, communicate priorities, tradeoffs, progress, risks, and value outcomes in a way that enables timely decisions and stakeholder confidence. Produce concise stakeholder-ready updates: what’s in flight, what’s next, what’s blocked, and decisions needed. Ensure messages translate delivery status into business impact language; provide inputs to IT-level summaries / Quarterly Business Reviews (QBRs) as requested.
• Initiative progress & delivery partnership (PMO/delivery coordination): Partner with PMO and delivery leads to track progress, risks/issues, dependencies, and readiness for key initiatives within the scope. Drive early identification of cross-IT impacts; bring the right teams to the table to reduce blind spots and improve outcomes.
• Value realization & stakeholder experience: Coordinate outcome and value reporting with initiative owners (adoption, benefits realized, stakeholder feedback). Capture and communicate meaningful wins; ensure follow-through on agreed actions and decisions. Run stakeholder feedback loops and contribute improvement ideas that strengthen trust and predictability.
• Operating model adherence & continuous improvement (contribute): Execute the BRM operating model consistently (intake → shaping → governance readiness → communications → follow-through). Ensure intake data quality and correct categorization/taxonomy usage (e.g., capability/process tags) for transparency and reporting. Contribute suggested improvements to templates, playbook guidance, and metrics definitions through the BRM community. Support implementation readiness (requirements quality, test/UAT support, cutover/adoption readiness), including ERP/platform initiatives as applicable.

Education and Experience:

• BS / BA in applicable field (CS, Engineering, Supply Chain, Finance, etc.), or 7+ years related field experience.
• Business Relationship Management Professional (BRMP®) or similar certification preferred.
• 5+ years of functional experience in the supported business function.
• 4+ years of experience facilitating the development and implementation of business initiatives and projects, based on management objectives.
• Strong experience with diverse business applications, especially SaaS-based and ERP systems and functionality.
• Experience contributing to implementation of business solutions (e.g., ERP and related platforms) through requirements, process documentation, testing support, training/adoption support, and stabilization.
• Experience partnering with internal governance teams (e.g., PMO, Architecture, Security, Data) as needed.

Knowledge and Skills:

• Ability to listen, build rapport, and establish credibility as an IT partner with business unit leaders and functional teams.
• Working knowledge of the supported business area’s key processes and how technology enables outcomes; ability to learn quickly and ask the right questions.
• Working knowledge of ERP/SaaS-based systems 
• enablement and how technology supports process and performance improvement.
• Strong verbal and written communication skills; able to create concise status updates, decision briefs, and stakeholder-ready narratives.
• Must work effectively with cross-functional teams; able to coordinate across IT and business partners to drive clarity and follow-through.
• Strategic thinking capability with ability to translate priorities into practical next steps, decision-ready inputs, and measurable outcomes.
• Strong analytical abilities to identify issues, evaluate options/tradeoffs, and initiate improvement actions.
• Able to understand complex issues and clearly articulate complex ideas to both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Excellent organization, attention to detail, follow-up, and basic project/program coordination skills.
• Demonstrated ability to champion change, influence without authority, and drive results in a complex organization.
• Energy, focus, assertiveness, and diplomacy—knowing when to push an agenda and when to let a situation develop, rest, or advance.